The Banality of Evil

The reactions of Boston University, NIAID and other academics to the new chimera strain

I posted yesterday about the study that’s been exploding across social media over the last days, and what I thought about it can be read here.

As I said in my earlier post, I don’t think this particular study was meant to be nefarious, just criminally stupid. Just young faculty members using their startup money and inappropriately using the NIAID’s R01 grant to get another publication under their belt to build towards their tenure while unable to use even the slightest amount of common sense. That (at least) both of them should be fired from their positions, grants rescinded, and anyone associated with making these decisions fired or censured depending on their knowledge of it.

Well, the institutional reactions tell so much, and it is not good. The NIAID, for its part, seems embarrassed by only learning of the use of its grant funds for such a purpose without being asked permission due to the nature of the research. NIAID’s reaction was described in a STAT News article. They say they will ‘look into it’, but I’m not sure much will happen, unfortunately. R01 grants are top level, and rescinding such a grant would leave quite the egg on their faces.

The bigger problem is with Boston University’s reaction. It exemplifies just how arrogant and detached from reality these major academic institutions are. Boston University, instead of looking into what went wrong, instead is vigorously defending the research, in sometimes comically juvenile ways. For instance, this gem from their online statement:

So, Boston University is claiming that although the omicron strain killed 0 out of 10 mice, the chimeric strain only killed 8 of the 10 mice, which is fewer than the 10 out of 10 mice that the original WA state strain killed. The only measure is against the original strain that is no longer in existence in the world. That they enhanced the virulence of the extant, highly transmissible omicron virus to near the level of the original is of absolutely no consequence.

It’s a child’s argument.

BU also kept complaining that the media was fixating on the 80% number and ‘sensationalizing’ it and misrepresenting the purpose of the study.

How dare that mean ol’ media not understand what they meant to do. Instead calling into question the potential consequences of their actions. Again, just how old are these administrators? Since when does ‘but I meant something else!’ matter in the real world where there are real world consequences?

They tried to bring in the classic ‘but everybody else is doing it!’ argument as well, saying that their research results were in line with what had been discovered by others. What they don’t say is whether those other researchers came to the same conclusion by creating a potentially pandemic-causing new strain. I’m guessing the others probably managed to answer the question without potentially restarting global mayhem.

And finally, they touted just how well-vetted this research was:

So this research was vetted by multiple ‘experts’ inside and outside of the University. And no one blinked? No one asked ‘Hey, is there a better way to ask this question without creating an infectious virus that is highly transmissible, can escape vaccine-derived immunity and is much more virulent than the currently circulating strain?’

No one???

Truly, this situation really exposes just how we got to the level of societal destruction we have reached by following the ‘experts’. And yet none of those at Boston University or Boston Public Health seem to see anything wrong with what happened and will just keep going at this level of irresponsibility.

This whole system needs torn out by its roots. When there is no morality or accountability left, it’s just plain evil.