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Pandora's Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk
This fearless, deeply reported book about laboratory accidents asks the haunting question some elite scientists don’t want the public to Did the COVID-19 pandemic start with a lab leak in Wuhan, China?
This is an obvious question. Yet there’s been an extraordinary effort by government officials in China, as well as leading scientific experts in the United States and around the world, to shut down any investigation or discussion of the lab leak theory. In private, however, some of the world’s elite scientists have seen a lab accident as a very real and horrifying possibility. They know what the public doesn’t. Lab accidents happen with shocking frequency. Even at the world’s best-run labs.
That’s among the revelations from Alison Young, the award-winning investigative reporter who has spent nearly 15 years uncovering shocking safety breaches at prestigious U.S. laboratories for USA Today and other respected news outlets.
In Pandora’s Gamble, Young goes deep into the troubling history -- and enormous risks -- of leaks and accidents at scientific labs. She takes readers on a riveting journey around the world to some of the worst lab mishaps in history, including the largely unknown stories of the lab workers at the U.S. Army’s Camp Detrick who suffered devastating infections at alarming rates during World War II. And her groundbreaking reporting exposes for the first time disturbing new details about recent accidents at prestigious laboratories – and the alarming gaps in government oversight that put all of us at risk.
Sourced through meticulous reporting and exclusive interviews with key players including Dr. Anthony Fauci, former CDC Director Tom Frieden and others, Young’s examination reveals that the only thing rare about lab accidents is the public rarely finds out about them. Because when accidents happen, powerful people and institutions often work hard to keep the information secret.
This is an obvious question. Yet there’s been an extraordinary effort by government officials in China, as well as leading scientific experts in the United States and around the world, to shut down any investigation or discussion of the lab leak theory. In private, however, some of the world’s elite scientists have seen a lab accident as a very real and horrifying possibility. They know what the public doesn’t. Lab accidents happen with shocking frequency. Even at the world’s best-run labs.
That’s among the revelations from Alison Young, the award-winning investigative reporter who has spent nearly 15 years uncovering shocking safety breaches at prestigious U.S. laboratories for USA Today and other respected news outlets.
In Pandora’s Gamble, Young goes deep into the troubling history -- and enormous risks -- of leaks and accidents at scientific labs. She takes readers on a riveting journey around the world to some of the worst lab mishaps in history, including the largely unknown stories of the lab workers at the U.S. Army’s Camp Detrick who suffered devastating infections at alarming rates during World War II. And her groundbreaking reporting exposes for the first time disturbing new details about recent accidents at prestigious laboratories – and the alarming gaps in government oversight that put all of us at risk.
Sourced through meticulous reporting and exclusive interviews with key players including Dr. Anthony Fauci, former CDC Director Tom Frieden and others, Young’s examination reveals that the only thing rare about lab accidents is the public rarely finds out about them. Because when accidents happen, powerful people and institutions often work hard to keep the information secret.
464 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2023
29 people are currently reading
2079 people want to read
About the author
Alison Young
1 book13 followersAlison Young is a veteran journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor for national and regional news organizations, including USA Today, the Detroit Free Press and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While in Atlanta, Young covered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her work has revealed safety lapses at biological research labs, food manufacturers and nursing homes; hazards in municipal water systems and near forgotten lead factories; and the role of substandard hospital care in maternal deaths.
Young’s investigative reporting on science and health issues has received dozens of journalism awards, including three National Press Club Awards, three Scripps Howard Awards, three Gerald Loeb Awards, the Hillman Prize, a Sigma Delta Chi Award, and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. Her work has also been honored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Young is a past president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, an international journalism training organization. In 2019, she joined the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she helps train the next generation of journalists in the school’s Washington, D.C. program.
Young’s investigative reporting on science and health issues has received dozens of journalism awards, including three National Press Club Awards, three Scripps Howard Awards, three Gerald Loeb Awards, the Hillman Prize, a Sigma Delta Chi Award, and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. Her work has also been honored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Young is a past president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, an international journalism training organization. In 2019, she joined the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she helps train the next generation of journalists in the school’s Washington, D.C. program.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 23, 2023
I thought it was just a coincidence that there was a laboratory called the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the same place where the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Now, after reading this book, I'm not so sure. Laboratory leaks happen quite often all over the world, and we've been lucky so far (except for the Covid-19 pandemic).
June 27, 2023
This is a must-read if you're interested in where the Covid-19 pandemic may have originated and where our next pandemic may get its start. We need a body like the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency to keep a close eye on what happens in labs working with dangerous pathogens. The current system of the researchers policing themselves will not prevent a catastrophic lab leak from happening.
May 23, 2023
How should we treat a problem whose likelihood is remote, yet whose occurance could be utterly catastrophic? Young's story is compelling and sobering. COVID 19's emergence has a long and troubling history.
September 27, 2023
Alison Young hits it out of the park with her tale of the trials and tribulations of microbiology, experimental labs, and the regulations - enforced and NOT enforced. From the early history of microbiological experimentation and its... errors, both in execution and judgment, to the recent pandemic that affected us all, Young tells a story based on her keen investigative skills and observations, her research, and the stories of others. Well worth the read! A story so amazingly told, even my mother's cat loved it!
(See other reviews at this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1546002936?...)
(See other reviews at this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1546002936?...)
March 14, 2024
Timely Read
In full honesty - I picked up this book in human interest, as there was recent news that shed some light into the lab leaks of COVID-19 and coincidently, around the same time, I heard about this author speaking about it (on The Jordan Harbinger Show Podcast).
I found this book incredibly insightful, well-written, and also downright scary at times!
Young is an excellent author, who really was able to pack a ton of information into this big book!
I learned a lot, and it really helped me stay informed with the recent news. I am glad I picked it up.
Check it out, but beware, you will be scared!
4.8/5
In full honesty - I picked up this book in human interest, as there was recent news that shed some light into the lab leaks of COVID-19 and coincidently, around the same time, I heard about this author speaking about it (on The Jordan Harbinger Show Podcast).
I found this book incredibly insightful, well-written, and also downright scary at times!
Young is an excellent author, who really was able to pack a ton of information into this big book!
I learned a lot, and it really helped me stay informed with the recent news. I am glad I picked it up.
Check it out, but beware, you will be scared!
4.8/5
March 7, 2024
Pandora’s Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, And A World At Risk (2024) by Alison Young is a very interesting book that examines biological lab leaks in the United States. Young is a journalist who covered the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and started to cover the numerous lab leaks that occurred there. Pandora’s Gamble also talks about Covid 19 and the possibility that it was a lab leak.
The book starts in the 1950s at Fort Detrick with US Army research into biology that could be weaponised. There there were numerous leaks and staff who worked there became ill on numerous occasions and indeed some deaths. Remarkably, getting sick was seen as being part of the work of scientists in the area.
The director of the lab, Arnold Wedum, saw this as a problem and started meeting with others to begin to formulate what would become the biosafety levels. The levels range from Biosafety Level 1 (BS1) to BSL4 where dangerous pathogens are worked on by people in suits in sealed areas. But even at the US Army Laboratories which became United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) there were still leaks. Surprisingly the book doesn’t mention the ‘Eight Ball’ which was used to conduct research on live specimens, including humans.
The book then goes into a spill in 2018 at USAMRIID where waste from experiments that should have been properly treated was allowed to escape. It shows just how hard it is to carefully keep high levels of biosecurity. Viruses are survival machines that exist because they are so hard to eliminate.
The second part of the book starts by describing failures in biosecurity at the CDC itself. There is further discussion of various other lab leaks that have occurred in the US. Finally there is a chilling chapter of a death caused by insufficient biosecurity.
The third part of the book ‘When Germs Escape’ goes into various other lab leaks including SAR-CoV-1, smallpox, anthrax deaths in the USSR and events at the Tulane Primate Research Center. It’s quite a collection. There are even more lab leaks on Wikipedia’s page on lab leaks.
The fourth part of the book is called Pandora’s Gamble. There engineered microbes and chimeras discussed and the actions of various labs described. This the ‘gain of function’ research where viruses are made more dangerous in order to come up with ways to stop dangerous viruses. The idea makes some sense, but scarily so does the possibility that these experiments go wrong. Finally the remarkable process by which some senior scientists in the US decided that Covid-19 could not be a lab leak is detailed. Various scientists sudden change of mind about the possibility is very strange.
Pandora’s Gamble paints a worrying picture. The book shows how common lab leaks are even in well funded places in the US. It further raises the possibility that Covid-19 was a lab leak and also the possibility that it was the result of gain of function research. There is clearly a lot more that can and will be written about the topic. Pandora’s Gamble is an excellent book that is very much worth reading.
The book starts in the 1950s at Fort Detrick with US Army research into biology that could be weaponised. There there were numerous leaks and staff who worked there became ill on numerous occasions and indeed some deaths. Remarkably, getting sick was seen as being part of the work of scientists in the area.
The director of the lab, Arnold Wedum, saw this as a problem and started meeting with others to begin to formulate what would become the biosafety levels. The levels range from Biosafety Level 1 (BS1) to BSL4 where dangerous pathogens are worked on by people in suits in sealed areas. But even at the US Army Laboratories which became United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) there were still leaks. Surprisingly the book doesn’t mention the ‘Eight Ball’ which was used to conduct research on live specimens, including humans.
The book then goes into a spill in 2018 at USAMRIID where waste from experiments that should have been properly treated was allowed to escape. It shows just how hard it is to carefully keep high levels of biosecurity. Viruses are survival machines that exist because they are so hard to eliminate.
The second part of the book starts by describing failures in biosecurity at the CDC itself. There is further discussion of various other lab leaks that have occurred in the US. Finally there is a chilling chapter of a death caused by insufficient biosecurity.
The third part of the book ‘When Germs Escape’ goes into various other lab leaks including SAR-CoV-1, smallpox, anthrax deaths in the USSR and events at the Tulane Primate Research Center. It’s quite a collection. There are even more lab leaks on Wikipedia’s page on lab leaks.
The fourth part of the book is called Pandora’s Gamble. There engineered microbes and chimeras discussed and the actions of various labs described. This the ‘gain of function’ research where viruses are made more dangerous in order to come up with ways to stop dangerous viruses. The idea makes some sense, but scarily so does the possibility that these experiments go wrong. Finally the remarkable process by which some senior scientists in the US decided that Covid-19 could not be a lab leak is detailed. Various scientists sudden change of mind about the possibility is very strange.
Pandora’s Gamble paints a worrying picture. The book shows how common lab leaks are even in well funded places in the US. It further raises the possibility that Covid-19 was a lab leak and also the possibility that it was the result of gain of function research. There is clearly a lot more that can and will be written about the topic. Pandora’s Gamble is an excellent book that is very much worth reading.
December 10, 2023
Well, well, well.. that was an interesting and slightly worrisome read and boy was I dragged in - this is a subject that I am hugely interested in and I was very happy and invested.
I lost count of the amount of times I gasped out loud, said omg and wtf, while reading this. I rang my mum multiple times to discuss things and talked the ear off of my partner, as I shared facts as I was reading.
What an incredible Journalist, Alison is - I could read her sharing of facts and stories and investigations all day long.
The shared information on Lab Leaks that have occurred in the world, resulting in illnesses and even deaths occurring was quite shocking, as well of that in regards to the lax use of PPE and lack of training in labs that are used for the science and reasearch into Virus’s.
I was also shocked at the fact that there is no mandatory system for reporting laboratory accidents and lab-associated infections, nor is there any system to analyze mishaps and share lessons learned.. like, what? Seriously… 😳🤯
The last few chapters in this book, centre heavily around Covid-19 and many scientists theories, which honestly I wasn’t very interested in - I’m not for conspiracy theories, I stand by science and I truly believe the data and investigations will lead us to the true origin one day, whether that be in a few months, or in 20 years, the truth will come out eventually.
If you are looking for a book, that will keep your mind reeling and create discussions or you just have an interest like me into scientific research, labs and virus’s like me - then pick this book up.
I lost count of the amount of times I gasped out loud, said omg and wtf, while reading this. I rang my mum multiple times to discuss things and talked the ear off of my partner, as I shared facts as I was reading.
What an incredible Journalist, Alison is - I could read her sharing of facts and stories and investigations all day long.
The shared information on Lab Leaks that have occurred in the world, resulting in illnesses and even deaths occurring was quite shocking, as well of that in regards to the lax use of PPE and lack of training in labs that are used for the science and reasearch into Virus’s.
I was also shocked at the fact that there is no mandatory system for reporting laboratory accidents and lab-associated infections, nor is there any system to analyze mishaps and share lessons learned.. like, what? Seriously… 😳🤯
The last few chapters in this book, centre heavily around Covid-19 and many scientists theories, which honestly I wasn’t very interested in - I’m not for conspiracy theories, I stand by science and I truly believe the data and investigations will lead us to the true origin one day, whether that be in a few months, or in 20 years, the truth will come out eventually.
If you are looking for a book, that will keep your mind reeling and create discussions or you just have an interest like me into scientific research, labs and virus’s like me - then pick this book up.
December 10, 2023
Reporters and scientists should be skeptical as a default and not have a heuristic of deferring to experts. Be evidence-based, not eminence-based. Kudos to Alison Young.
This author does a good job explaining the conflicts of interest among virologists, and also the whole culture of microbiologist "martyrdom" that is an ongoing rationale for nonchalance about biosafety. Hubris is not a new thing. Chances are someone conducting experiments with lethal viruses is going to say "virus labs are safe." So what? Look at the data, visit the lab, ask why they have duct tape on the doors.
The author meticulously documents decades of lab accidents involving dangerous germs. This is crucial context for understanding the plausibility of a COVID "lab leak."
Most of the mishaps described in the book occurred in the US, but even here the author had to keep filing FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to make basic facts public. And still, many of the crucial revelations have come out only because of whistleblowers. All the people withholdoing information on this topic are not helping to boost public confidence.
This author does a good job explaining the conflicts of interest among virologists, and also the whole culture of microbiologist "martyrdom" that is an ongoing rationale for nonchalance about biosafety. Hubris is not a new thing. Chances are someone conducting experiments with lethal viruses is going to say "virus labs are safe." So what? Look at the data, visit the lab, ask why they have duct tape on the doors.
The author meticulously documents decades of lab accidents involving dangerous germs. This is crucial context for understanding the plausibility of a COVID "lab leak."
Most of the mishaps described in the book occurred in the US, but even here the author had to keep filing FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to make basic facts public. And still, many of the crucial revelations have come out only because of whistleblowers. All the people withholdoing information on this topic are not helping to boost public confidence.
October 25, 2023
Eye-opening, well-researched and disturbing account of incidents and breaches at America's foremost laboratories. Unbeknownst to the majority of Americans, there have been numerous instances of workers being infected with dangerous diseases through the years due mainly to a lack of safety protocols or at least lax control over those protocols. Alison Young, an investigative journalist who writes for newspapers like USA Today and the Detroit Free Press, does a magnificent job of recounting these episodes and, through Freedom of Information Act requests, tracks down what caused them and how they could have been avoided. The chapters dealing with Covid were chilling. Was Covid created in a lab or was it natural and due to poor protective measures leaked? There is convincing evidence that it was gain-of-function research gone awry. Alison leaves no stone unturned and lays the documentation out for the reader to make a judgment. We definitely need more responsibility in these labs or we could eventually see something worse than Covid.
July 18, 2024
I wanted to build an opinion on whether it might be possible that COVID-19 could have originated in a Biolab in Wuhan.
Having read this endless enumeration of lab leak after mishap after incompetence after another leak, it seems entirely possible. Of course, it /might/ even happened the way the Chinese government propaganda tries to sell, with American soldiers bringing it back after an American leak - again: the author writes knowledgeably and in great detail about many such leaks which happened all over the West.
It's just much more plausible that it was a Chinese leak which has been covered up for the obvious reasons: military secrets, embarrassment and fear of reparation demands.
Having read this endless enumeration of lab leak after mishap after incompetence after another leak, it seems entirely possible. Of course, it /might/ even happened the way the Chinese government propaganda tries to sell, with American soldiers bringing it back after an American leak - again: the author writes knowledgeably and in great detail about many such leaks which happened all over the West.
It's just much more plausible that it was a Chinese leak which has been covered up for the obvious reasons: military secrets, embarrassment and fear of reparation demands.
December 21, 2023
Solid summary to an important topic. Sometimes it tries to shock too much, part of the book sounds a bit like settling the debts with the other side in the "origin of covid" argument and without a very clear idea "what should be the next step".
Still a worthy read, even if on the strategic level for most readers/ policy makers the discussion of the same topic in "The Precipice" by Tony Orb would be more than enough. But hey, you get to read about duct taped doors.
Still a worthy read, even if on the strategic level for most readers/ policy makers the discussion of the same topic in "The Precipice" by Tony Orb would be more than enough. But hey, you get to read about duct taped doors.
May 14, 2023
in-depth yet accessible, this is a fantastically reported and carefully balanced look at biosafety failures spanning decades. while packed full of information, the writing kept it from dragging and kept the book engaging to the point where it was hard to put down. (i’m not just saying this because of the researchers mentioned in the acknowledgements 😉)
July 27, 2023
You will never trust the U.S. government run military and university biotech labs again courtesy of the CDC, NIH, FDA, USDA, etc. The operations appear to be undertrained, careless & dangerous, just one step up from the Chinese biotech labs. The U.S. government is endangering the lives of its employees & every American citizen, one biotech lab at a time.
September 9, 2023
Unbelievable, terrifying, revealing, and a brilliant book about the world of research labs, their vulnerabilities, cover ups, and our and world infuriating governmental agencies. I would never recommend anyone live, work in, or get even remotely close to a known lab! Kudos to Alison for such an eye opening book!
June 8, 2023
A little rambly but it was nice to be exposed to so many factoids.
July 3, 2023
This was a really interesting read (I listened to the audiobook; I think reading it would have been less enjoyable just because it’s on the denser side). I think all microbiologist should read it.
May 10, 2024
Timely review of how Biosafety is undermined in modern times. Excellent example of how high risk research is tied to political agendas. Highly informative.
June 22, 2024
3.5 stars
July 28, 2024
Thoroughly researched and compelling, this book reveals important information about the risks to global health from poorly-managed biosafety labs. Very well written and readable.
March 18, 2025
This should be required reading for anyone interested in the origin of COVID 19 and the current lack of safety in labs throughout the world.
September 15, 2023
Just began reading and am enjoying this book a lot, very informative and easy to follow. The main idea that's coming forward so far is, leaks in labs usually happen, whats rare is the public being informed/aware of it happening. Scary
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews