Public deserves better oversight of biolabs: Your Say

Hundreds of mistakes, safety violations and other incidents have occurred in biological labs in recent years, according to a Paste BN Network investigation. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

The errors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are potentially catastrophic and will continue until someone actually gets severely punished for screwing up. Will it take a pandemic before the government demands better results?

— Ron McCallister

Paste BN's article "Biolabs in your backyard" states that the CDC doesn't give the names of labs that failed to address safety problems. I can understand the government's need to be secretive with locations and names for crucial reasons. But when the general population might be at risk for severe harm or catastrophic events, more transparency should be mandated.

Additional checks and balances, stricter oversight and more stringent regulations would do the public much more good than harm.

— Alexandria DaCosta-Furtado

While this article is interesting and raises some good questions, it sensationalizes the issue. I am a lab analyst, and there are many safety procedures in place, and all types of training required to even be in the lab to perform our duties. Is there a chance something could happen? Of course there is, and accidents do happen, just like they do in every other profession around the world.

You can't be 100% in everything. Sorry, folks. The amount of overreaction these days to possible scenarios is crazy.

— Katie Theien