Zuckerberg funds the CZ Biohub which on the website describes itself as:
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub is a nonprofit research center that brings together physicians, scientists, and engineers from Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of California, San Francisco. Working at CZ Biohub are some of the brightest, boldest engineers, data scientists, and biomedical researchers who together with our partner universities seek to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying disease and develop new technologies that will lead to actionable diagnostics and effective therapies.
One of their projects is:
Viral Replication and Transcription
Amy Kistler’s group combines synthetic biology, genetic, biochemical, and computational approaches to dissect and compare the minimal components, host factor requirements, and function of diverse viral replication and transcription complexes.
To me, that sounds like the kind of thing for which you would want mandatory safety reporting.
The Gates Foundation spends a lot of research dollars on infectious disease research as well.
Jim Walton has the Walton Family Foundation which has as its focus areas:
Environment Protecting Rivers, Oceans and the Communities They Support,
K-12 EducationCommunity-Designed, Community-Driven Educational Change and
Home Region Supporting Communities in Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta
People with different interests tend to fund different projects. Tech billionaires are more likely to fund something with biosafety relevance than someone like Jim Walton. Jim Walton could theoretically fund the same things as Zuckerberg and Gates but he doesn’t.
I do think that’s relevant to whether it makes sense to make the point.
I agree that the CZ Biohub’s description of its work sounds as if some of it is the sort of thing that ought to be formally regulated.
I am not convinced that “tech billionaires are more likely to be interested in biology than non-tech billionaires” is sufficient justification for the bogus-looking attempt to link “tech billionaires” with biological lab accidents.
Zuckerberg funds the CZ Biohub which on the website describes itself as:
One of their projects is:
To me, that sounds like the kind of thing for which you would want mandatory safety reporting.
The Gates Foundation spends a lot of research dollars on infectious disease research as well.
Jim Walton has the Walton Family Foundation which has as its focus areas:
People with different interests tend to fund different projects. Tech billionaires are more likely to fund something with biosafety relevance than someone like Jim Walton. Jim Walton could theoretically fund the same things as Zuckerberg and Gates but he doesn’t.
I do think that’s relevant to whether it makes sense to make the point.
I agree that the CZ Biohub’s description of its work sounds as if some of it is the sort of thing that ought to be formally regulated.
I am not convinced that “tech billionaires are more likely to be interested in biology than non-tech billionaires” is sufficient justification for the bogus-looking attempt to link “tech billionaires” with biological lab accidents.