Why read Lab 257?

Book cover of Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory

Book description

Nestled near the Hamptons, the fashionable summer playground of America's rich and famous, and in the shadow of New York City, lies an unimposing 840-acre island unidentified on most maps. On the few on which it can be found, Plum Island is marked red or yellow, and stamped U.S. government—restricted…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Lab 257 as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alan H.B. Wu

Author

I read this book a few years before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is about how the US Government established a research lab on Plum Island, near the eastern end of Long Island, New York.

It describes the mistakes made regarding scientific and medical studies conducted on some of the important infectious diseases of the day, Lyme and West Nile. There were safety violations that could have led to an outbreak.

When I originally read it, I thought that there was no real global impact on these miscues and thought much of this was fear porn. We know…

From Alan's list on learning how clinical labs really work and why this is important to you and your family.