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🧵 Thread (28 tweets)
Shot."The Georgia lab faced similar allegations to those facing the Ukrainian facilities now, namely that it was a bioweapons research facility and was conducting harmful experiments on the local citizenry."https://t.co/0qbuBhsDj6
Chaser."The pathogens in Ukrainian labs vary by facility, Pope said, but some can be characterized as presenting a concern [...]. As an example, he cited African swine fever virus, [...] and has caused hundreds of outbreaks in Ukraine since 2012." https://t.co/MliPzzxNxA
"say the lab’s primary mission is to detect and tackle disease outbreaks. But the Kremlin refuses to accept that the U.S. government has spent $350 [...] to build a research center on Russia’s doorstep simply to deal with public health hazards." https://t.co/N0gWHhhuLb
This disinformation is evident at least as far back as 2017 on some propaganda websites. I ran into it while researching biolabs. And narratives about it was in RT as far back as 2015 https://t.co/kG1upri2VzNone of this is *new*.
I don't watch RT myself. But it's really funny how their observations on the risk of dual-use applications of gene-drives are the same as my own.https://t.co/EOpK4d3Yy5 https://t.co/es9ug8Q4R2
I can't verify what is in labs. They may very well be benign research initiatives. There are valid reasons to want to research viruses for finding cures. And an adversary would be inclined to frame them in a negative light due to perspective on risk.https://t.co/t0raD8nvYk
But I also think it is folly to ignore dual-use applications of this tech."So there should be some way of having the discussion, and if somebody goes rogue and does it, a way of handling that." — George Churchhttps://t.co/9dgAPV9Vmhhttps://t.co/8t0oVR0AUw https://t.co/fl10NwedGS
Robert S. Pope, the person quoted in that Bulletin article who mentioned the soviet era bioweapons in some Ukraine labs? He has some very scary video interviews. https://t.co/tsO1g32tej
"Foreign governments, they suggested, might also interpret the massive expansion in American research, much of it funded by the Department of Defense, as cover for an offensive bioweapons program, sparking a biodefense arms race." 🙄https://t.co/rlaxnUVMWt
"The history of lab accidents and lab-worker infections is disturbingly long, and the possibility that an incident could spark an outbreak cannot be discounted. [...] the potential that malevolent actors might misuse research coming out of BSL-4 labs." https://t.co/3DoqQ0FXaz
"Only one-quarter of countries with BSL-4 labs score well on best practice indicators for biosafety and biosecurity, [...] Moreover, few have dual-use policies, and none have yet signed up to a new international bio-risk management standard." https://t.co/U6HuumL0rn
From what I can gather, the labs in Ukraine are ~BSL-3, with some certifications to work with some dangerous viruses. But that is stale data from 2012 (from chapter 7 of this book: https://t.co/hz29L1rP4h )
"As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills," https://t.co/dC1digfiz9
Playbook."promoted the AIDS disinformation may have been its attempt to distract international attention away from its own offensive biological warfare program, which [was monitored] for decades" https://t.co/QLwyeDrMDYhttps://t.co/40o0u3Mv6Q
"But the WHO has disputed this, saying it was "deeply concerned by the circulation of an incorrect statement that was made during a press conference"." https://t.co/rlSGT6JvUB
Can't trust anyone. It sucks.https://t.co/uRN5mOIYzI
How many of these stories are actually just put there by agents? https://t.co/GZBJAZzRly
With stuff like this showing up over and over, how can I trust the news?https://t.co/9mm7YMyEwVSo of course I don't trust some disinformation campaign, or people claiming it's a disinformation campaign. Or anything really.https://t.co/85ZoA7M1Js
And just for fun, here's a hit piece against Mr. Greenwald used to sow doubt against a political investigation.https://t.co/GQbCtuQwHU
"Finding a potential drug or potential new toxic molecule is one thing; the next step of synthesis — actually creating a new molecule in the real world — would be another barrier."https://t.co/Jdl3xgVbXj https://t.co/5HTmpQFxPE
"invite to talk about machine learning and how it can be misused in our space. It’s something we never really thought about before. [...]I don’t want to sound very sensationalist about this, but it is fairly easy for someone to replicate what we did."https://t.co/CP7kiPf4Kc
This quote "It's something we never really thought about before." is going to keep me up at night.https://t.co/TJmRIuA9xy
Why bother building your own data set and running the costly ML, when you can just extract someone else's hard work?https://t.co/AQNU0p2MhRThere's an incentive here. It's called corporate espionage. https://t.co/rZS29WIFaj
Anybody wanna estimate how long it will take until we see widespread phone rootkits maliciously lift machine learning models out of memory and upload 'em to three letter agencies?Reverse engineering machine learning models? There's an app for that.https://t.co/urVM85jnlU
"Any attempt to claim that Ukraine's biological facilities are just benign and standard medical labs is negated by Nuland's explicitly grave concern" https://t.co/npi1ml0HQ2https://t.co/jI2vdIbOa4