State Department says COVID demonstrates the importance of labs.
QUICK FACTS:
- The United States Department of state issued a statement about international biolabs, saying they have “nothing to do with weapons.”
- The official memo was released by the Governments of the United States, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Ukraine.
- The department’s comments on the issue included their assertion that COVID-19’s worldwide prevalence “underscored the importance of strong national capacities for infectious disease.”
- The joint statement was, reportedly, part of the state department’s attempt to take part in a “cooperative threat reduction partnership” as part of “global health security.”
EXCERPTS FROM THE STATEMENT:
- “Our governments have partnered openly and transparently through the Biological Threat Reduction Program, which is a part of the US Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction Program,” the statement read. “These partnerships are devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes; they have nothing to do with weapons.”
- “These partnerships protect the health of humans and animals in our countries, including in the prevention, detection, and control of infectious disease outbreaks, and in enhancing laboratory biosafety and biosecurity. As partners in this program, we each have firsthand knowledge of its relevance to our shared goal of cooperating to strengthen global health security and reduce the impacts of infectious diseases on our societies. Our governments strongly affirm the common view that such cooperation should not be undermined, but rather promoted and reinforced,” the message went on.
- The statement ended by saying, “Pursuant to Article X, we encourage all Biological Weapons Convention States Parties to work together, including at the forthcoming Review Conference, in support of this goal.”
BACKGROUND:
- Questions about international biolabs have circulated since the start of the COVID pandemic.
- Biolabs in Ukraine have been of particular interest since the start of the country’s conflict with Russia early this year, eventually leading to the state department admitting to the existence of 46 such labs.
- Former congresswoman and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) called out the United States’ involvement with biolabs overseas, saying that the nation is conducting “dangerous” research, which in turn garnered her castigation from Republicans like Mitt Romney.
