Brazil is the first country in Latin America to have a BSL4 laboratory to study the world’s most dangerous viruses

Brazil is the first country in Latin America to be equipped with BSL-4. This is a Maximum security biological laboratory The world’s most dangerous viruses will be studied there. in the world, There are only 51 laboratories of this typeIn this 70% are in Canada, Europe and the United States. Brazilian, already renamed OrionUnder construction in Campinas, São Paulo state, near the Energy and Materials Research Center (CNPEM). Works have already started and will be completed in 2025, while its operational entry is planned for 2028. The project also includes BSL-3 and BSL-2 laboratories. The most dangerous, often fatal, airborne pathogens and those for which there is no vaccine are handled within BSL-4.. Hence, the safety protocols are very strict. Inspectors working there have to shower and change their clothes on entering and leaving. Inside, workers must wear special suits connected to a separate ventilation system.

For Brazil, This is a great scientific opportunityBut A major challenge in terms of economic management and security. If a virus escapes from these laboratories, the consequences can be catastrophic, as is suspected to have happened with the coronavirus, which may have escaped from a similar laboratory in Wuhan (China), from which the COVID-19 outbreak originated. Scientists have no doubts about the importance of this laboratory for Brazil. “We’re sitting in a tinderbox on viruses that might appear in Latin America” he announced Fernando SpilkyA veterinary virologist at the Féval University of Novo Hamburgo in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the journal Science Nature. For example, the increasing exploitation of the Amazon increases the risk of contact with animals carrying unknown viruses. Furthermore, having a laboratory with these characteristics would allow Brazil to be more autonomous and faster in the production of vaccines. Five types of hemorrhagic fevers – which cause viruses called arenaviruses and can only be analyzed in a laboratory – have been identified in Latin America, including one in São Paulo.

The Brazilian laboratory is designed to have characteristics that make it unique in the world. In fact, you can use the nearby Sirius synchrotron. It is a particle accelerator that produces powerful radiation that BSL-4 researchers can use to analyze the structures of viruses and understand the dynamics by which they infect cells and tissues. However, here lies one of the first challenges that Brazil must face, namely, How to connect two installations while guaranteeing the necessary insulation conditions For BSL-4. It will be added The problem of specific training As this is an unprecedented exercise in the country, researchers are selected to work there. But the real unknown is security, that is, how to protect this laboratory from external attacks, even from foreign agents. to Tatiana OmettoBrazil, which is responsible for CNPEM’s control measures, has not yet established an oversight mechanism for BSL-4 tests, but a working group has been created with the Ministry of Health precisely to oversee and provide related strategies. Finally, there is an economic problem. In fact, this type of program can cost up to 12 million dollars per year, as demonstrated by the case of the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas, for example. So far, the Brazilian government has pumped one billion reais into the Orion construction project. But when the laboratory becomes operational, will the necessary funding be available to allow it to operate and maintain it each year?

Recent examples in other scientific fields, where so much money has been wasted to bring home almost nothing, should inspire a different approach to this lab for the future. For example, with a big party on March 27, LulaHis wife Rosangala da Silva known as Janjaand the French President, Emmanuel MacronOpened with all honors in Itaguai, Rio de Janeiro Submarine S-42 CooperBuilt with France: “We see the enormity of the Brazilian maritime space at this Itaguá shipyard”, declared President Lula. However, the very next day, the Brazilian Navy underwent an 83% cut in funding. It will be assigned to its strategic submarine development program Prosub. Besides 200 workers were laid offMany of them happily attended the launch of the submarine.

Not to mention Brazil’s nuclear program. Construction of the Angra 3 nuclear power plant in Rio de Janeiro state has continued for nearly 40 years without seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Between 2018 and 2024, construction progressed by only two percent. “Unfortunately, there is no commitment on the part of the federal government to make the Brazilian nuclear program a state project,” he says. Pimentel TavaresEngineer, project in-charge at ElectroNuclear. After the privatization of Eletrobras, which held the majority stake, 65% of Eletronuclear’s capital is private. “Therefore, we face a paradoxical situation where a strategic sector like nuclear energy is in private hands. Brazil does not follow the example of countries with successful nuclear programs such as South Korea, Japan, France, the United States and the United Kingdom,” explains Pimentel.

The latest news about Angra 3 is that with the support of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development, BNDES, Eletronuclear hopes to resume operations. However, a decision will be taken in September if approved by the Council on National Energy Policy (CNPE).

“It costs 20 billion rais (3,645 million dollars) to build Angra 3. But to not build it, at least 14 billion rais (2,552 million dollars) is needed, without any benefit,” said the Elektronuclear chief. Raul LicurgoHe was not even in office for a year. From 2009 to 2023, nearly 12,000 million rais, 2,187 million dollars, have already been invested in the construction of Angra 3.An unfinished project is a worst case scenario as rivers of money are invested without producing anything.“, he said. Former President Michel Temer was also detained for 4 days in 2019 for Angra 3, investigated by Lava Jato anti-corruption judges, and before that, in 2015, the then head of Electronic Nuclear, Othon Luiz PinheiroBetween 2009 and 2014, he was accused of accepting bribes for a nuclear power plant worth 4.5 million rais, 820 thousand dollars.

Also, President Lula recently launched another technical pharaonic project, however, he did not provide details on how he plans to launch it and above all maintain it. At the end of July, he announced a National Artificial Intelligence Project till 2028 with an initial investment of 23,000 million rais ($4,192 million). It is called Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Project (PPIA) and will be prepared by the National Council of Science and Technology at the request of Lula. “We want our artificial intelligence to be intelligent, and we want to create jobs in this country and train millions of young people who are ready for this debate,” the president declared. The aim is to make Brazil a leader in the field and build one of the world’s five largest supercomputers for artificial intelligence. As there are no centers of excellence or training in this regard in Brazil, it is largely unknown how this challenge can be met with exclusively national talent. In fact, Lula has made it very clear that his project is 100% Brazilian, so instead of waiting for the country to have its own artificial intelligence, “China, America, South Korea, Japan … why not? “Can we have our own?” While Google has held meetings with Brazilian academics to collaborate on the issue, Lula has attacked major tech companies that, according to him, have created artificial intelligence systems that are “nothing more than the ability to collect all the data.” We have big tech multinationals who don’t ask for licenses and don’t pay fees, but they charge money and get rich publishing stuff they shouldn’t,” he said.