Table of Contents
Highest priority
Pandemics have affected humanity throughout the ages and history has shown how devastating they can be. The Spanish flu killed 50-100 million people between the years 1918 and 1920. Technological development and research on pathogens increase the likelihood that in the coming decades we will be confronted with a pandemic that is significantly worse in terms of infectivity and mortality than the coronavirus. Such a situation could, for example, arise if dangerous infectious agents accidentally leak from research labs, or are deliberately produced and spread by malicious actors.
Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (GCBR) is a term for events that threaten humanity’s future prosperity, which roughly means that they could kill more than 10 percent of the world’s population. The work that takes place around biohazards today is rarely focused on the very biggest potential disasters, which is why GCBR seems to be an overlooked area. There is still a lot of uncertainty about what the risk landscape looks like and what solutions are effective, but it seems possible to make progress. This is probably one of the most important challenges facing humanity and work to reduce catastrophic biohazards would be very valuable.