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City Council rejects bid to try to block BU biolab work

By adamg on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 8:35pm

Mass Live reports on an 8-5 vote against a proposal to fight research on the world's deadliest microorganisms at BU's South End research facility.

Neighborhoods: 
South End
Free tagging: 
Boston University
City Council
biolab


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Comments

By bibliotequetress on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 8:52pm.

Any school other than BU would be more trusted.

By Lanny Budd on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 9:38pm.

There is no "infectious disease" laboratory in that building. The whole thing is a sham, a cover for the massive project designed to reanimate the corpse of John Silber and implant his brain into an unstoppable cyborg.

By anon on Thu, 05/15/2014 - 3:03pm.

I wonder if they will use their hastag #ThatsSoBU to report the first accident?

By anon on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 9:02pm.

So who voted for? Against? Why don't journalists report the basic, pertinent facts in a story anymore? I don't mean you, Adam. I mean Mass Live, the BG, etc. So frustrating!

By adamg on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 10:39pm.

For fighting BU: Flaherty, Jackson, Pressley, Yancey, Wu.
Against fighting BU: Linehan, Murphy, Zakim, Ciommo, McCarthy, O'Malley, LaMattina, Baker.

Via Wu's recap of today's meeting.

By Will LaTulippe on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 10:59pm.

You don't say.

By anon on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 9:34pm.

why anyone thought this was *ever* a good idea to begin with. Yes, top scientists don't want to work in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, I get that, but putting the world's deadliest germs in the middle of a dense city with a high volume interstate bus/train staion and an international airport is just foolishness.

By A_W on Thu, 05/15/2014 - 11:59am.

I have worked and lived near buildings with these facilities in different parts of the world and as a scientist, would trust living near a facility like this over a standard lab as the protocols for moving things in and out are 100x more rigorous.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_level#List_of_BSL-4_facilities

By kitty on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 10:05pm.

One of the positions Mayor Walsh took in the election is that he opposed the Level 4 bio Lab.
So lets hope he prevents it from happening. Its now up to our mayor to protect us not only from BU, but also from the city councilors who voted to put our lives at risk by approving the Level 4 bio lab in the middle of our residential neighborhoods.

By Kaz on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 10:36pm.

The irony is that when their research is successful, the Level 4 Biolab will be the only thing protecting you from some of the worst diseases in the world.

By anon on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 10:51pm.

Citations please.

I hope that you have enough self awareness to realize just how much you sound like those "how dare you question my authority" weaponized cops do.

By Anonymous on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 11:20pm.

the people who live and drive in the neighborhood have nothing to worry about.

By KSquared on Thu, 05/15/2014 - 8:51am.

Let's play a little logic game:

-Treatments and cures for illnesses usually come through scientific research
-There are no treatments or cures for the BSL-4 illnesses
Therefore, we need scientific research on these specific illnesses.

And the whole point around these labs is that it's very, very, VERY unlikely that any "whoops" situation occurs that puts the general public at risk. Essentially none, because the people who do this work know what they are doing.

By JohnAKeith on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 10:23pm.

This must be some other "South End" than the one I live in because I've never heard a peep from anyone about fears the Biolab could unleash a deadly disease on us all.

By Wiffleball on Thu, 05/15/2014 - 6:36am.

I was on a neighborhood committee near the South End and there was a whole meeting about this thing before construction began.

I can't even imagine why this is an issue now. I wouldn't have broken ground unless I already had a contract with the city to continue with level 4--those labs aren't cheap.

By anon on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 10:24pm.

I cant find it anywhere and I'd like to know who voted for what.

By theszak on Thu, 05/15/2014 - 4:30am.

Another use for the Stenograph Record of the last Public Meeting of Boston City Council. Check out Stenograph Record of the Public Meeting of Boston City Council, ask for it at
http://www.cityofboston.gov/contact/?id=138

By adamg on Thu, 05/15/2014 - 5:49am.

You could just scroll up a bit on this page to find the answer.

By Waquiot on Thu, 05/15/2014 - 11:53am.

Now, what Wu does would be okay via the law, not because she is using a format unthought of in 1947, but because she summarizing the meeting, not providing a verbatim transcript of the session.

Have you talked to your state rep about this yet. All you have to do is draft a law repealing Chapter 447 of the Acts of 1947 and you're all set.