FBI investigators concluded that Fort Detrick probably was the source of the anthrax spores used in the deadly mailings of 2001.Posted on 06/18/2009 10:15:18 AM PDT by BGHater
Laboratory Says Security Is Tighter, but Earlier Count Missed Dangerous Vials
An inventory of potentially deadly pathogens at Fort Detrick's infectious disease laboratory found more than 9,000 vials that had not been accounted for, Army officials said yesterday, raising concerns that officials wouldn't know whether dangerous toxins were missing.
After four months of searching about 335 freezers and refrigerators at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, investigators found 9,220 samples that hadn't been included in a database of about 66,000 items listed as of February, said Col. Mark Kortepeter, the institute's deputy commander.
The vials contained some dangerous pathogens, among them the Ebola virus, anthrax bacteria and botulinum toxin, and less lethal agents such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the bacterium that causes tularemia. Most of them, forgotten inside freezer drawers, hadn't been used in years or even decades. Officials said some serum samples from hemorrhagic fever patients dated to the Korean War.
Kortepeter likened the inventory to cleaning out the attic and said he knew of no plans for an investigation into how the vials had been left out of the database. "The vast majority of these samples were working stock that were accumulated over decades," he said, left there by scientists who had retired or left the institute.
"I can't say that nothing did [leave the lab], but I can say that we think it's extremely unlikely," Kortepeter said.
FBI investigators concluded that Fort Detrick probably was the source of the anthrax spores used in the deadly mailings of 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well, thank goodness they do a better job of tracking their nuke warheads.
Right?
Whoever's at the top of this organization needs to be fired - then repeat and repeat and repeat until the place shapes up.
What’s more frightening - the fact that they found, and now have control over 9,000 plus vials of pathogens they didn’t know they had, or a database showing 9,000 plus vials that can no longer be located?
Let’s put the government in charge of healthcare.
Glass tubes can breed in the dark and at sub-zero temperatures? Who knew?
Wait till the government has control over all of our digital health records. You think a breach of a bunch of credit card account numbers is bad?
We should hire Niger to watch our stuff. According to former Ambassador to Gabon Joe Wilson, the Nigeriens can’t misplace uranium or lose it to theft or sell it without anyone noticing because their security is too good.
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