Unreported lab infections hide risk

Lab workers are often infected without a remembered accident, tests can appear negative, and institutions frequently fail to publish or standardize incident reports — producing an invisible baseline of biosafety risk. That gap makes it hard for regulators, communities, and global health bodies to assess how often dangerous exposures happen or to learn from near‑misses. — If unreported or opaque lab infections are common, policymakers need mandatory reporting, independent audits, and public mechanisms to assess biosafety risk before a localized incident becomes a public‑health emergency.