BMS 533

Biorisk Management

Assignment: Case study COVID-19 Factors Contributing and

Consequence
Subject code: BMS 533
Student’s name: Ahmad Nur Aqmal Bin Hairi
Student’s id: 2019871572
Group: AS2443B
Lecturer name: Dr Tengku Elida Binti Tengku Zainal Mulok
Date of submission: 24/6/2020
Task 1 (Contributing Factors)

Factors why China is accused of causing the spread of COVID-19 and try to cover-up.

1. Staff entering caves to take swabs from bats carrying coronaviruses – with the
scientists wearing minimal protective equipment

2. Noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and
investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory.

3. Inside the institute showing a broken seal on the door of one of the refrigerators
holding 1,500 different strains of virus.

4. The virologist has also revealed Chinese researcher Shi Zhengli that leading a major
Chinese project to sample more viruses in bat caves has denied claims circulating on
social media that she has defected to Europe with a secret dossier about the outbreak.

5. New intelligence document shows China lied about the human-to-human transmission
of coronavirus and refused to help nations develop a vaccine based on leaked
intelligence dossier reveals.

6. Beijing was downplaying the outbreak on the world stage while secretly scrambling to
bury all traces of the disease involving on destroying laboratory samples, bleaching
wet market stalls, censoring the growing evidence of 'silent carriers' of the virus and
stonewalling sample requests from other countries.

7. China's National Health Commission reportedly ordered virus samples be destroyed

and issued a 'no-publication order' about the virus which are ordered samples of the
virus to be destroyed in laboratories while wet market was bleached to extinguish
remnants of the disease.
8. One of China's leading experts on biosafety has admitted there are widespread
deficiencies in security and maintenance at his nation's most secretive laboratories
working with lethal diseases.

9. Professor Yuan, the most senior Communist Party official in the Wuhan laboratory,
stated that the maintenance cost is generally neglected.

10. The second laboratory in the city at the centre of the pandemic's outbreak late last
year – the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control – is also thought to have carried out
experiments on animals such as bats to examine transmission of coronaviruses,
although it only has level 2 status.
Task 2 (Consequences)

Explain why this factor can contribute to unintentional release of virus to the community.

1. Staff must wear appropriate and maximum Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
when the handling a high risk of pathogenic microorganism especially viruses. The
staff also must have a knowledge on the type of biological agents before handling it.
If the staff wearing the minimal protective equipment, they were exposed with the
pathogenic microbes and they can be infected easily. When they have been exposed
and infected by the pathogen, then can spread it to other for example other staff and
their parent because they do not even know they already been infected by the
microbes. Next, the family members will spread the pathogen to other neighbour and
will get infected too which it contributes to spread of pathogen to the community.

2. The experience trained technicians are very critical when handling the pathogenic
microbes. The lack of trained technicians can contribute to many risks in the
laboratory. The technicians that lack of experience when handling the lab session can
lead to many errors in lab safety operation and skills on handling the high risks
pathogenic microbes. The lab technicians or researches should be certificated in order
to proceed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of laboratory and good work
practice. If the lab technicians are inexperienced for example not wearing an
appropriate PPE when handling the sample, it can lead to the high-risk contamination.
Even the laboratory provided with high-containment security, there is still a risk of
exposure to the outside of the lab if the lab staff not handling the pathogen in a proper
way. The careless of lab staff can contributed the any pathogen or virus to spread to
other and then spread to the person that outside the lab.

3. The evaluation of lab equipment also one of important in SOP. Every sample,
equipment, apparatus and machine that are used in lab must be evaluated frequently to
make sure all the experiment can be run smoothly without an error. The storage of the
sample is one of the essential equipment to make sure the sample that has a high-risk
pathogen microbe can be stored safely for example refrigerators. Refrigerators
commonly used to store the sample because it can be stored in large quantities of
 samples. If one of the refrigerators seals is broken, it has a high chance spreading of
the sample to the staff. This is very dangerous because the refrigerators may contain
over 1,000 of sample of viruses which is dangerous to human especially staff that
using the refrigerator without knowing the damage of the seals. The virus may spread
when the staff that has touch the virus is touching the doorknob of the refrigerators
which then the doorknob were open by the other staff or the sample is spreading by
the air-borne particle from the damaged seals.

4. Staff responsibility is the major component when handling the lab sessions. Every lab
session must have its own risks of likehood and consequences of hazard. The staff or
supervisors of the lab must take a responsible if there is an incident happens during
the lab session for example and expose of virus in a lab. They must take an action to
handle the incident or problem in appropriate ways. They also must follow the SOP
and good working practise to settle the situations. Then, they must documentation in
incident report and inform the responsible party about the incident. If the staff is not
responsible when there is incident happen in the lab, it can contribute to the spreading
of the virus to other staff. This situation can become worse if the supervisors is not
informing and documenting the incident to the responsible party. The staff that
involves in the that lab incident session can be infected by the virus.

5. Every detailed of the virus must be documenting with a true facts and evidence. It is
responsible for the writer to documentation about the virus honestly without a bias to
others. This is important because when there is incident happens that involving the
specific virus, it can refer easily in order to trace and know the cause of virus
spreading and how it spread to others. This documentation also must include the
knowledge of the virus with an important information and the way of transmitted. If
the documents were not written with honestly and there were a lot of facts that are
errors, this can be a challenge for other researchers in order to develops a vaccine.
The documentation that is bias also can leading to risk of virus spreading because the
writer was refused to share the true information of the virus which can contribute to
the large spreading of virus because of the late development of vaccines.

6. The outbreak of the virus must not be downplaying because it can be spreads to the
whole world. This is because this virus is highly risk which it can be easily spread to
 other people and it can kill someone that has been infected with this virus. All the
incident of this virus also must not be kept secretly to other country because it must be
an important information on how to reduce the outbreak of the virus. When the
country that keep the information of virus secretly, they can contribute to the
spreading of the virus the whole country in the whole. This is because the news about
the virus has been removed from the others. This also increase the risk of security to
others country when they do not have enough information about the virus which lead
the virus spreading to their countries.

7. The removal of evidence is one of violence action when there is an outbreak of virus.
Every sample of virus that cause the outbreak should not be destroyed because this
sample can help on trace from where the virus is founded and started. Destroying the
virus that cause the outbreak can categorized as violence to whole world. This
because when the country that has found the cause of the virus and destroyed the virus
sample, it was a violence to every country that struggling on handling this virus.
When the sample has been destroyed, it will take longer times for the scientist to find
out the virus causes and producing the vaccine.

8. The lack of biosecurity of laboratory is also the major of spreading of the virus to
others. The biosecurity is important in order to protect the potential toxins and
microbes to spread to others. The microbe may be used in biological materials for a
benefit uses and it can also be used for unethical purposes. If the dangerous microbe
was escaped to the irresponsible party, it can lead to high consequences to other
people. They can used it for unethical purpose for example used for a threat, harm
people and society.

9. The neglection of maintenance also can lead of virus spreading to outside of the lab.
The maintenance of laboratory must be done routinely to ensure the performance for
every lab session in continuously. If there is a problem on equipment, apparatus and
machine in the lab, it can disturb the performance and the result of the lab. For
example when handling the virus in clean room, suddenly the Biological Safety
Cabinet (BSC) and the ventilation air conditioning was shutdown, the virus can no be
filtered with a clean air which then can be spread to the staff that handling the virus
 sample. Then, the staff and room were not disinfected after the lab session then can
spread the virus to other staff and their family.

10. Before starting the experiment, it is important for the staff to evaluate the level of the
risk and also the level of biosafety. The level of the biosafety level depending on the
level of the risk of microbes. If the risk of the microbe high, the level of the biosafety
was also high. The coronavirus COVID-19 can be classified as Biosafety level 3
(BSL-3) because it can be transmitted by aerosols via inhalation and cause severe
disease. It is inappropriate action to do lab with lower than BSL-3 for this virus. If a
lab was still proceed based on for example at Biosafety level 2 (BSL-2), it can lead to
a spreading of the virus to other staff. This is because the BSL-3 consist of two barrier
which is primary barrier and secondary barrier while BSL-2 only have a primary
barrier. This meant that the risk of the spreading of the virus to the staff was very high
even there were primary barrier in that lab session.
Contributing Factors and Consequences

No. Contributing Factors Consequences

1 Staff entering caves to take swabs
from bats carrying coronaviruses –
with the scientists wearing minimal
protective equipment
Staff must wear appropriate and maximum
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
when the handling a high risk of
pathogenic microorganism especially
viruses. The staff also must have a
knowledge on the type of biological agents
before handling it. If the staff wearing the
minimal protective equipment, they were
exposed with the pathogenic microbes and
they can be infected easily. When they
have been exposed and infected by the
pathogen, then can spread it to other for
example other staff and their parent
because they do not even know they
already been infected by the microbes.
Next, the family members will spread the
pathogen to other neighbour and will get
infected too which it contributes to spread
of pathogen to the community.

2 Noted the new lab has a serious The experience trained technicians are
shortage of appropriately trained very critical when handling the pathogenic
technicians and investigators needed microbes. The lack of trained technicians
to safely operate this high- can contribute to many risks in the
containment laboratory. laboratory. The technicians that lack of
experience when handling the lab session
can lead to many errors in lab safety
operation and skills on handling the high
risks pathogenic microbes. The lab

3 Inside the institute showing a broken
seal on the door of one of the
refrigerators holding 1,500 different
strains of virus.
technicians or researches should be
certificated in order to proceed the
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of
laboratory and good work practice. If the
lab technicians are inexperienced for
example not wearing an appropriate PPE
when handling the sample, it can lead to
the high-risk contamination. Even the
laboratory provided with high-containment
security, there is still a risk of exposure to
the outside of the lab if the lab staff not
handling the pathogen in a proper way.
The careless of lab staff can contributed
the any pathogen or virus to spread to
other and then spread to the person that
outside the lab.
The evaluation of lab equipment also one
of important in SOP. Every sample,
equipment, apparatus and machine that are
used in lab must be evaluated frequently to
make sure all the experiment can be run
smoothly without an error. The storage of
the sample is one of the essential
equipment to make sure the sample that
has a high-risk pathogen microbe can be
stored safely for example refrigerators.
Refrigerators commonly used to store the
sample because it can be stored in large
quantities of samples. If one of the
refrigerators seals is broken, it has a high
chance spreading of the sample to the staff.
This is very dangerous because the

4 The virologist has also revealed
Chinese researcher Shi Zhengli that
leading a major Chinese project to
sample more viruses in bat caves has
denied claims circulating on social
media that she has defected to Europe
with a secret dossier about the
outbreak.
refrigerators may contain over 1,000 of
sample of viruses which is dangerous to
human especially staff that using the
refrigerator without knowing the damage
of the seals. The virus may spread when
the staff that has touch the virus is
touching the doorknob of the refrigerators
which then the doorknob were open by the
other staff or the sample is spreading by
the air-borne particle from the damaged
seals.
Staff responsibility is the major component
when handling the lab sessions. Every lab
session must have its own risks of
likehood and consequences of hazard. The
staff or supervisors of the lab must take a
responsible if there is an incident happens
during the lab session for example and
expose of virus in a lab. They must take an
action to handle the incident or problem in
appropriate ways. They also must follow
the SOP and good working practise to
settle the situations. Then, they must
documentation in incident report and
inform the responsible party about the
incident. If the staff is not responsible
when there is incident happen in the lab, it
can contribute to the spreading of the virus
to other staff. This situation can become
worse if the supervisors is not informing
and documenting the incident to the
responsible party. The staff that involves
 in the that lab incident session can be
infected by the virus.

5 New intelligence document shows Every detailed of the virus must be

China lied about the human-to-human documenting with a true facts and
transmission of coronavirus and evidence. It is responsible for the writer to
refused to help nations develop a documentation about the virus honestly
vaccine based on leaked intelligence without a bias to others. This is important
dossier reveals. because when there is incident happens
that involving the specific virus, it can
refer easily in order to trace and know the
cause of virus spreading and how it spread
to others. This documentation also must
include the knowledge of the virus with an
important information and the way of
transmitted. If the documents were not
written with honestly and there were a lot
of facts that are errors, this can be a
challenge for other researchers in order to
develops a vaccine. The documentation
that is bias also can leading to risk of virus
spreading because the writer was refused
to share the true information of the virus
which can contribute to the large spreading
of virus because of the late development of
vaccines.

6 Beijing was downplaying the outbreak The outbreak of the virus must not be
on the world stage while secretly downplaying because it can be spreads to the
scrambling to bury all traces of the whole world. This is because this virus is
disease involving on destroying highly risk which it can be easily spread to
laboratory samples, bleaching wet other people and it can kill someone that has
market stalls, censoring the growing been infected with this virus. All the incident
 evidence of 'silent carriers' of the virus of this virus also must not be kept secretly to
and stonewalling sample requests other country because it must be an important
from other countries.
7 China's National Health Commission
reportedly ordered virus samples be
destroyed and issued a 'no-publication
order' about the virus which are
ordered samples of the virus to be
destroyed in laboratories while wet
market was bleached to extinguish
remnants of the disease.
8 One of China's leading experts on
biosafety has admitted there are
widespread deficiencies in security
information on how to reduce the outbreak of
the virus. When the country that keep the
information of virus secretly, they can
contribute to the spreading of the virus the
whole country in the whole. This is because
the news about the virus has been removed
from the others. This also increase the risk of
security to others country when they do not
have enough information about the virus
which lead the virus spreading to their
countries.
The removal of evidence is one of violence
action when there is an outbreak of virus.
Every sample of virus that cause the
outbreak should not be destroyed because
this sample can help on trace from where
the virus is founded and started.
Destroying the virus that cause the
outbreak can categorized as violence to
whole world. This because when the
country that has found the cause of the
virus and destroyed the virus sample, it
was a violence to every country that
struggling on handling this virus. When
the sample has been destroyed, it will take
longer times for the scientist to find out the
virus causes and producing the vaccine.
The lack of biosecurity of laboratory is
also the major of spreading of the virus to
others. The biosecurity is important in
 and maintenance at his nation's most
secretive laboratories working with
lethal diseases.
9 Professor Yuan, the most senior
Communist Party official in the
Wuhan laboratory, stated that the
maintenance cost is generally
neglected.
10 The second laboratory in the city at
the centre of the pandemic's outbreak
late last year – the Wuhan Centre for
order to protect the potential toxins and
microbes to spread to others. The microbe
may be used in biological materials for a
benefit uses and it can also be used for
unethical purposes. If the dangerous
microbe was escaped to the irresponsible
party, it can lead to high consequences to
other people. They can used it for
unethical purpose for example used for a
threat, harm people and society.
The neglection of maintenance also can
lead of virus spreading to outside of the
lab. The maintenance of laboratory must
be done routinely to ensure the
performance for every lab session in
continuously. If there is a problem on
equipment, apparatus and machine in the
lab, it can disturb the performance and the
result of the lab. For example when
handling the virus in clean room, suddenly
the Biological Safety Cabinet (BSC) and
the ventilation air conditioning was
shutdown, the virus cannot be filtered with
a clean air which then can be spread to the
staff that handling the virus sample. Then,
the staff and room were not disinfected
after the lab session then can spread the
virus to other staff and their family.
Before starting the experiment, it is
important for the staff to evaluate the level
of the risk and also the level of biosafety.
Disease Control – is also thought to
have carried out experiments on
animals such as bats to examine
transmission of coronaviruses,
although it only has level 2 status.
The level of the biosafety level depending
on the level of the risk of microbes. If the
risk of the microbe high, the level of the
biosafety was also high. The coronavirus
COVID-19 can be classified as Biosafety
level 3 (BSL-3) because it can be
transmitted by aerosols via inhalation and
cause severe disease. It is inappropriate
action to do lab with lower than BSL-3 for
this virus. If a lab was still proceed based
on for example at Biosafety level 2 (BSL-
2), it can lead to a spreading of the virus to
other staff. This is because the BSL-3
consist of two barrier which is primary
barrier and secondary barrier while BSL-2
only have a primary barrier. This meant
that the risk of the spreading of the virus to
the staff was very high even there were
primary barrier in that lab session.