Vaccinations

Background: Vaccine controversies have occurred since almost 80 years before the terms vaccine and vaccination were introduced, and continue to this day. Despite scientific consensus that recommended vaccines are safe and effective, unsubstantiated scares regarding their safety still occur, resulting in outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. [Reproduced from Wikipedia/Vaccines.gov]

Code; Vaccines in agriculture are not infrequently added to water supplies. The government at the municipality, state, or federal level could surreptitiously add vaccines to public water supplies.

Norms; Social media and advertising campaigns could across various platforms to stigmatize “anti-vaxxers” and promote vaccinations

Market/Law; The government could provide tax credits or breaks to parents who ensure that their children are up to date on all vaccinations in addition to the tax benefits already provided through the Child Tax Credit. Alternatively, the government might even stipulate that in order to receive the Child Tax Credit, a parent/guardian would have to provide vaccination records.

Invasive Population Management

Background: In 2016 the New Zealand government introduced Predator Free 2050, a project to eliminate all non-native predators (such as rats, possums and stoats) by 2050. Non-native predators have been harmful to native flora and fauna of New Zealand, especially conserved bird species.

Code; One approach to solving invasive populations is to introduce heritable genetic elements that would suppress or eliminate the capacity of non-native predators to reproduce.

Norms/Market; There could be a prize, administrated by the government, for the number of non-native predator carcasses recovered by hunters in a given season. This would support a culture of identifying and hunting non-native predators. This prize could also work as an adjustable tax credit, which would incentivize, monetarily, folks into hunting down non-native predators.

Law; The government could mandate that if animal control found non-native predators were living on private property, they could issue a fee or order community service. Such a law would serve as a scare tactic to get Kiwis to rid their property of non-native predators

DIY Highly Virulent Pathogens

Background: As the tools and methods of biology become more readily available, the Do-it-yourself (DIY) biology community has come under scrutiny as a potential breeding ground for nefarious uses of biotechnology.

Code; The companies that provide gene synthesis could screen all orders for genetic sequences that match or are similar to those for known pathogens.

Norms; DIYBio spaces could have more internal vetting processes for the projects that they run in their spaces

Market; Companies that provide gene synthesis could drastically hike up the price of their services to non-institutionally affiliated consumers. This could drastically limit the kinds of projects that could be done in DIYBiology spaces.

Law; The government could mandate that people who wish to do biology must pre-register their experiments and obtain licenses prior to using gene synthesis services.