Talk:Biological hazard

Expert verification

Hi. I'm an expert, and I verify this article. 67.249.232.42 (talk) 23:36, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

If you really were anything like an expert you would have an account and use it instead of posting anonymously. Thnidu (talk) 15:26, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

Removed misinformation about COVID-19

As of 17:56, 14 April 2020, Pbsouthwood added COVID-19 to the list of "Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist" in §Levels of biohazard. This was not supported by the cited CDC reference: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) > Lab Biosafety Guidelines,Updated March 31, 2020.

I removed the mention and reference.

--Thnidu (talk) 23:21, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Symbol graphic with dimensions

I've moved the orange symbol graphic with dimensions from the lede paragraph, where it is redundant with the main graphic and its level of detail is excessive, to the Symbol section.

--Thnidu (talk) 15:43, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

SARS-COV-2 and caption: BRD

SARS-CoV-2 usually causes mild illness in humans, but is capable of causing severe illness that can result in death, particularly among the elderly, pregnant women and those with a weakened immune system or certain medical conditions.

With this diff, Captain Cornwall made a bold edit by adding the image and caption at the right. The caption not an accurate summary of the SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19 articles, and frankly reads to me as wp:advocacy for the view that the efffect of COVID-19 is overstated for the large majority of people. The image has the additional problem that an isolated virus does not come with a biohazard warning, such as might be found on bags of clinical waste: it really is not a relevant image for this article.

Rather than revert it straight away per wp:Bold, Revert, Discuss, I tried to tone down the POV-pushing caption to read "SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19". The wp:Short description at SARS-Cov-2 reads "Virus strain that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)"

Captain Cornwall reverted this compromise, saying that [this short description] "is debatable", insisting on their version. Consequently I am now reverting the original change per WP:BRD and WP:STATUSQUO. An argument must be made (a) whether or not this image is useful in this article, recalling that "images are to inform, not to decorate" and (b) [if it is] what caption is appropriate, recalling WP:FORK. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 15:02, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Conciseness

"A biological hazard, or biohazard, is a biological substance that poses a threat (or is a hazard) to the health of living organisms, primarily humans. This could include a sample of a microorganism, virus or toxin that can adversely affect human health. A biohazard could also be a substance harmful to other living beings."

Could the first paragraph in the article above not be rewritten as this to make it more concise and get rid of the bias toward human health since it says directly after that it affects other living organisms too?:

"A biological hazard, or biohazard, is a biological substance that poses a threat (or is a hazard) to the health of living organisms. This could include a sample of a microorganism, virus or toxin that adversely affects the health of organisms."

Tanman21 (talk) 19:58, 1 February 2026 (UTC)