I think this view is overly rosy. If we scientists are not forced to confront the issues of laboratory safety and risky research in a serious and sustained manner, history suggests that we will not do so. In 2012, controversy erupted when it transpired that two sets of researchers — at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands — were altering highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses to enhance their transmissibility among mammals (to understand their potential to cause a pandemic). The subsequent debate led to a three-year moratorium on the funding of experiments designed to enhance the transmissibility or disease-causing capabilities of influenza viruses or coronaviruses.
Office of Strategic Communication