Here is a possible concise summary:
The text is about various incidents of lab leaks of deadly diseases such as smallpox, Ebola, and anthrax. It tells the stories of some of the victims and the cover-ups by the authorities. It also explains the symptoms and fatality rates of these diseases and the risks of biological warfare. It ends with a question about the possibility of current governments hiding the truth about lab leaks.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. A woman named Janet Parker died from smallpox in 1978 in England, the last person to die from the disease in the world.
2. She contracted the virus from a lab leak at the University of Birmingham Medical School, where she worked as a medical photographer.
3. About 500 people who had been in contact with her were quarantined and vaccinated, and her mother also got infected but survived.
4. Smallpox is an ancient and deadly disease that was eradicated in 1980 by the WHO, but it was still used for research and biological weapons.
5. Another smallpox lab leak happened in 1971 in the Soviet Union, on an island in the Aral Sea, where many other biological experiments were conducted.
6. The island became known as "Anthrax island" because of the large amounts of anthrax that were dumped there, and the mysterious deaths of animals and people nearby.
7. Ebola is another deadly virus that has leaked from labs several times, such as in Hamburg in 2009 and in Taiwan in 2004.
8. Anthrax is a bacterium that can cause severe infections and death, and it also leaked from a lab in Sverdlovsk in 1979, killing 66 people.
9. The Soviet authorities tried to cover up the anthrax leak by blaming it on contaminated meat, but the truth came out later.
10. Lab leaks of dangerous pathogens can pose a serious threat to public health and security, especially if they are not reported or investigated properly.
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