In 2019, COVID-19 became a household name, but as new diseases emerge researchers remain in a biological arms race trying to keep ahead of the next pandemic.

Thanks to a $7.5 million grant, an emerging diseases research facility will be increasing its biodefense research capabilities with updated safety infrastructure.

The National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) on Albany Street is one of only two National Biocontainment Laboratories in the country equipped for biodefense research on maximum containment pathogens, like the Ebola and Nipa viruses.

At the NEIDL annual meeting on November 14, chief safety officer Kevin Tuohey detailed the plans for the approved grant, which remains in the design phase until final approval from the National Institutes of Health.

Funds will be used to modernize the ventilation systems of high containment labs and convert airlocks on maximum containment labs to include full chemical shower decontamination capability.

Money is also planned for containment labs researching vector transmitted diseases like West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), a mosquito transmitted disease that put large areas of Eastern and Central Massachusetts on high alert this summer due to a rising prevalence of infections.

“Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that can carry and transmit diseases like dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever and yellow fever viruses, is typically found in tropical and subtropical climates. But as the climate warms, the mosquito has been found as far north as Canada and has the potential to become a regular nuisance in New England and Canada by 2100,” said a spokesperson for NEIDL in a statement over email.

As the facility is located right off Interstate-93 on the BU Medical Campus, NEIDL works closely with city and state health entities as well as federal, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on safety procedures. NEILD has an impeccable safety record, passing over 20 inspections this year, both announced and unannounced.

During the public comments section of the annual meeting, some attendees expressed concerns that the coming federal administration of President elect Donald Trump could have a negative impact on NEIDL funding and safety standards. Trump’s nomination for health secretary, former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, is a vocal vaccine sceptic and has a history of spreading healthcare misinformation with a potential body count.

Four months before a deadly measles outbreak hit Samoa in 2019, Kennedy and his anti-vax nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, were at the small island nation providing public support for anti-vaccination figures. The year before, an improperly mixed vaccination had killed two infants in an isolated incident for which two nurses received a prison sentence. As a result of the anti-vaccine movement, the nation’s vaccination rate fell from 60% - 70% to just 31%. When the Measles outbreak hit the under-vaccinated population, it killed 83 people, mostly children.

Following the outbreak, Kennedy doubled down in a letter to the Samoan prime minister, saying, “There is also the possibility that children who received the live measles virus during Samoa’s recent vaccination drive may have shed the virus and inadvertently infected vulnerable children... Further boosting with MMR vaccine might only exacerbate the situation and further spread the disease.”

Just this year, NEIDL announced breakthrough progress on a new RNA vaccine that could have longer-lasting immunization effects than current COVID-19 vaccines, but still requires years of research.

In response to concerns, a spokesperson at the NEIDL meeting said, “We will always have the highest safety standards regardless of who is funding us. We are a private entity, and we need to go two steps beyond.” Due to working closely with city and state health entities, NEIDL also reassured that policy changes at the federal level would not impact local safety standards.