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Scientific communications are important for addressing technical issues that can impact the COVID19 pandemic. To this end, Frontiers developed a Research Topic entitled “Biosafety and Biosecurity Approaches to Counter SARS-CoV-2: From Detection to Best Practices and Risk Assessment.” Thirty-four manuscripts from 14 countries were originally submitted for this Research Topic. Of these, 18 (53%) were accepted. The 18 accepted papers that comprise this Research Topic were originally submitted to three Frontiers journals: Bioengineering and Biotechnology (N 9), Medicine (N 6), and Public Health (N 3). The types of papers consist of original research articles (N 7), brief research reports (N 4), methods articles (N 1), opinions (N 2), and review articles (N 4). The ten countries from which the accepted manuscripts were submitted truly represents the scope of the pandemic: United States (N 5), China (N 4), and 1 each from France, Lebanon, Panama, Russia, Mexico, Bahrain, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. When this Research Topic began, there were many unanswered questions including the origin of the novel SARS-CoV-2, its pathogenicity, transmissibility, efficacy of existing medical countermeasures and supportive therapies, and its survival in the environment. An et al. reviewed recent progress in the field of synthetic biology and the laws and regulations governing its use to avoid potential risks associated with this technology. As with other infectious agents, the environment can play an important role in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In an innovative online forum, Morrow et al. reviewed the challenges that industries from around the globe experienced in reducing the transmission of this virus in an indoor environment. Based on the results, the authors called for significant investments in research to understand virus persistence and transport in the built environment. Buhr et al. used the enveloped RNA bacteriophage φ6 as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 virus to study its inactivation in an aircraft environment. The surrogate was dried on wiring insulation, aircraft performance coating, polypropylene and nylon at >8log10 PFU/test coupon. Modeling showed that a 1-h treatment of a C-130 aircraft with hot (≥63°C) humid (90% RH) air had a 90% probability of inactivating the virus by >7 log10. The extent of the pandemic has exacerbated the availability of critical supplies such as PPE. Two papers proposed strategies to overcome the shortage of PPE. Bernard et al. described a proof-ofconcept study to address the shortage of surgical masks and N95 filtering face-piece (FFP) two respirators. They demonstrated that treating used surgical masks and FFP2 respirators in a chamber Edited and reviewed by: Alan Raybould, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom