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  • Lax handling of pathogens

    Posted by Matt Dioguardi on October 18th, 2007

    This is so outrageous.

    To stop terrorism, the government is going to start fingerprinting and taking snap shots of every foreigner who comes in Japan but they aren’t going to prevent part timers from handling viruses and bacteria as lethal and dangerous as anthrax.

    If there is anybody out there still left who thinks the fingerprinting program is a good idea, they simply don’t understand how the government operates. The government looks for big splashy solutions that have mass appeal but don’t really do anything that requires real insight or costs political capital.

    According to the Asahi:

    A state laboratory handled hundreds of hazardous pathogens beyond its capabilities, ordered workers to keep the dangers secret, and did not tell part-timers about the potentially lethal risks, The Asahi Shimbun has learned. … As of 2001, IPOD kept about 300 types of pathogens that could damage human health, including some considered as potentially lethal as the anthrax bacteria, according to internal documents obtained by the newspaper and other sources. Part-time workers at the facility were assigned to test and cultivate the pathogens in facilities not well equipped for infection prevention.

    Running a religious cult and looking to destroy the world through disease? Here’s a nice part time job for you.

    What more can I say?

    One Response to “Lax handling of pathogens”

    1. John Says:

      My favorite term for this is ’security theater.’ I think I first read it over at boingboing in a post about TSA prohibiting liquids on airplanes.

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