On December 19, 2017 the U.S. National Institute of Health lifted the moratorium on funding for research that involves altering viruses to make them more lethal and transmissible. It was easy to miss this story, breaking during the week before Christmas.
The surprise announcement by NIH head Dr. Francis Collins said that the research will be approved provided a scientific panel determines that the benefits of that research outweighs any risks involved.
The US Just Ended Its Own Ban on Engineering Deadly Viruses in The Lab
Anyone else a little worried? It's not like the government has ever unleashed a dangerous substance or material into the world accidentally on an unsuspecting public... Well, besides the 2001 Anthrax case. And they certainly wouldn't experiment on the population... Well, besides the Nevada nuclear tests in the 1950s which ended up causing severe birth defects and killing thousands of Americans in the Midwest and East Coast states. There's also this, this, this, this and this.
So it's long been established that the American public are mere helpless guinea pigs, lying in wait for the all-knowing government lab coats to test their newfangled weapons and theories. Our history demonstrates that it doesn't matter how high-security a government laboratory is, if a malevolent actor, a secret group or nation state want to break in, it's always been a possibility that they would find a way.
