Pandora's Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk

We may never know for sure whether the COVID-19 pandemic started in a lab in Wuhan, China. But investigative journalist Alison Young reveals how the proliferation of high-containment labs worldwide is increasing the risk of future catastrophic accidents. In Pandora's Gamble, Alison Young details the shocking safety failures at government, academic, and private labs all across the United States and the world, exposing the lax system of oversight that allows dangerous lab practices to put us all at risk. Using gripping narrative, Young warns us that the consequences could be devastating as researchers try to anticipate what might cause the next pandemic: What if mishaps occur at one of the growing number of labs that are purposely engineering viruses to be deadlier and easier to spread than what's found in nature? That's why all of us have a stake in what is happening in these labs. In Pandora's Gamble, Young provides a blueprint for how to fix the system and arm the public and policymakers - in the U.S. and around the world -- with critical information and authority to hold scientists, lab operators and regulators accountable.