So we have been lucky so far. Just like with the smallpox fond in the back if a closet. So much for our sophisticated specimen handling
It seems that those of us with a science/research background are having more difficulty believing this will be ‘OK’.
It’s the ‘only takes one time’ that we’ve actually seen happen at least one time in our jobs/research that causes to doubt. Lab accidents happen all the time. Usually the victim is the only victim. One of my friends in school lost part of her hand in a ‘only takes one time’ miscalculation.
>> Just like with the smallpox found in the back if a closet. <<
That incident was a terrible and unacceptably careless mistake. Absolutely.
On the other hand, if the germs in question had somehow “escaped” into the public and had caused an outbreak, we’d be very unlikely to see a pandemic because our modern means of monitoring and control would probably have confined the outbreak before it could grow to monster proportions.
(Not to mention the fact that a lot of us still have some degree of residual immunity to smallpox, thanks to vaccinations received years ago.)