STOP THE BU BIOTERRORISM LAB

BU's Train Ads Not On Track for Truth

Boston University has begun an advertising campaign on the MBTA about its proposed bioterrorism lab.  Some of you may have seen the ad.  The lettering is very big. The text is very short. It reads:  "Reason #14: The Biosafety Lab will find cures for infectious diseases." .
 
What do we say about the ad? 

  • BU's advertising campaign continues its practice of providing misleading and incomplete information about the lab.  The lab is too dangerous and the decision about the lab is too important to be decided based on an advertising campaign. 

  • We all favor finding cures for diseases -- but the reason for building a BSL4 lab is to research bioterrorism agents. 

  • We do not need a BSL4 lab to have local researchers look for vaccines and cures for diseases that plague us -- and we don't need a BSL4 lab that is funded through Homeland security funds that requires that the lab must be used for biodefense work for the first 20 years. We don't need to put a BSL4 lab in the South End where they will do dangerous research on bioterrorism agents that will make us less safe, not safer, and that will be a potential target for terrorists looking for bioterrorism agents. 

Of the diseases that BU claims that they will cure, which require BSL4 containment?

  • Not HIV/AIDS.  Not TB.  Not the flu.  Not STDs.  Not asthma.  Not cancer.  Not heart disease.  Not ALS.  Not Alzheimer's.  Not high blood pressure.  Not any genetic-based diseases (such as sickle cell anemia or tay-sachs disease).

If BU is being honest with the community, why does the NIAID request for proposals and applications for funding to build the lab say that: 
  •  "Biocontainment facilities must be used for research and research training, with the specific goal of supporting the NIAID Biodefense Research Agenda and research identified by the NIAID as important to program goals." 
If BU is being honest with the community, why does NIAID's Strategic Plan for Biodefense Research (under which BU will receive construction and research funding for the lab) say that:
  • "The NIAID strategic plan focuses on this concept of bioterrorism.... A number of agents (select agents) are recognized as having bioterrorism potential.... Research focused on these select agents will be strongly emphasized in our initial activities."
If BU is being honest with the community, why does its own letter to NIAID, dated January 28, 2003, say:
  • "We are writing to assure the NIH that should we receive funding to build (the lab), the facility will be devoted exclusively to biodefense research and other NIAID-defined research programs for 20 years...." 
If BU is being honest with the community, why isn't BU mentioning any of this in its ads or public presentations?
 
If BU is being honest with the community, why does BU refuse to release to the public the information about the research it told NIAID it would perform in the lab?
 
If BU is being honest with the community, why does BU refuse to agree in writing not to have classified or secret research performed in the lab and refuse to agree in writing that there will be no secret research in the lab on bioterrorism agents?
 
If BU is being honest with the community, why does BU claim that research on biological weapons is illegal when NIAID and BU documents specifically show that NIAID will be funding and BU will be researching bioweapons agents in the lab -- and they both know that no international, federal, state, or local law bans research on biological weapons agents ?
 

In case you have not seen it, here is a letter that was published in the October 6, 2004, Boston Globe.

Campaign of deceit over biotech lab

October 6, 2004

BOSTON UNIVERSITY'S ads in T trains and buses trumpeting the virtues of its proposed "high-security research lab" is the most recent instance of its campaign of deceit and evasion regarding work that will go on in what is more accurately called a bioweapons research facility.

As your reporter points out, these labs are the "cornerstones" of the Bush administration's bioterrorism initiative. If BU's advertising slogan "Finding Cures, Saving Lives" really reflected the end-products of such labs, why would 160 bioscientists, scholars, and public health professionals in universities and medical schools in Greater Boston sign a letter opposing construction of this laboratory, including several senior faculty in BU's own School of Public Health?

And why would residents in Roxbury and the South End, with allies in nearby towns and cities, engage in an active and growing protest movement focused on the dangers of building such a facility in a densely populated area -- a lab where "scientists would study the deadliest biological agents known to mankind"?

And, why would three Boston city councilors prepare an ordinance to ban such labs? Obviously, biological scientists, community residents, and councilors are all in favor of curing diseases and saving lives. But they know that this aim is being undermined by the Bush administration's policy of switching funds from other public health projects to bioweapons research. As with other deceptive advertising campaigns, the safest response here is "Let the buyer beware."

ELLIOT G. MISHLER
Cambridge 

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