OUR PICKSStrategic Chip Autonomy | Mass Surveillance on a Budget | The Most Dangerous Pathogens, and more

Published 9 September 2022

·Bioweapons Disinformation Monitor Launched

·Chemical Weapons Allegations and Russia’s Invasion in Ukraine

·Continuing to Track the Labs that Handle the Most Dangerous Pathogens

·Infodemics and Health Misinformation: A Systematic Review of Reviews

·Israeli General Readies to Lead the Charge Against Hezbollah

·Social Media Firms to Testify at U.S. Senate Homeland Security Hearing

·Europe’s Approach to Strategic Chip Autonomy

·OIG: DHS Screening and Vetting Deficiencies Allowed Admittance of Afghans Who May Have Posed Security Risk

·Tech Tool Offers Police Mass Surveillance on a Budget

Bioweapons Disinformation Monitor Launched  (King’s College London)
A team of experts at King’s College London has launched the Bioweapons Disinformation Monitor, a site that both tracks instances of disinformation pertaining to biological weapons and offers resources and education on how to identify and combat this kind of disinformation. While their site is still under construction, it already has several policy backgrounders, video explanations, and multi-media strategies up to view.

Chemical Weapons Allegations and Russia’s Invasion in Ukraine (CBWNet.org)
In the course of its war of aggression against Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv of planning to stage “false flag” operations involving chemical weapons. The Kremlin alleges that Ukraine is doing this in order to put the blame for a chemical weapons use on Moscow. In a newspaper article from mid-July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov placed the current chemical weapons allegations within a narrative that portrays a conspiracy by Western and other states against Russia. This narrative is so diffuse and all-encompassing that it hardly seems refutable in its entirety. This makes it all the more important to analyze and evaluate its central building blocks that are important from a disarmament perspective, such as the accusations that Ukraine is preparing to use chemical weapons.

Continuing to Track the Labs that Handle the Most Dangerous Pathogens  (Gregory Koblentz, Schar ? GMU)
There are now 67 Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories under construction, in operation, or in the planning phase in the world, a significant increase from May 2021, when the Schar School’s Biodefense Graduate Program Director Gregory Koblentz and Filippa Lentzos of King’s College London began tracking them.
Their team maintains an interactive map—GlobalBioLabs.org—that allows users to learn details of BSL-4 labs, including their home nation’s safety and security policies. The work is crucial: BSL-4 is the maximum level of security for biomedical studies of pathogens, equipped with elaborate safety systems to keep the pathogens contained.

Infodemics and Health Misinformation: A Systematic Review of Reviews  (Israel Júnior Borges do Nascimento et al., NIH / National Library of Medicine)
Available evidence suggests that infodemics during health emergencies have an adverse effect on society. Multisectoral actions to counteract infodemics and health misinformation are needed, including developing legal policies, creating and promoting awareness campaigns, improving health-related content in mass media and increasing people’s digital and health literacy.