I think the problem is more one of priorities and allocation of resources than anything else.
The government owns 95% of Nevada, for instance, and half of the land west of the Mississippi. If it wants to build a lab, it has ample space far from the nearest neighbor.
I think the problem is more one of priorities and allocation of resources than anything else.
The government owns 95% of Nevada, for instance, and half of the land west of the Mississippi. If it wants to build a lab, it has ample space far from the nearest neighbor.
Until this outbreak, Ebola had never captured the public attention. I'm not certain why it is such big news this time around. The fact is that obscure diseases that sporadically affect a handful of people on some distant continent are not a research priority, and never will be. The only reason that Ebola, Marburg, and some of the other hemorrhagic viruses are researched at all is because of concern that they might be used as bioweapons.
Influenza season is coming up, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to die from it. Because of the high death rate, influenza is a research priority all over the world. And that is how it should be.
I don't know about putting a lab in the middle of Nevada or any other desolate place. To get people to come work in a lab, it has to be near a place where people want to live. And no one chooses to live in the high desert.