Free Republic

Several vials labeled “smallpox” have been found at a vaccine research facility in Pennsylvania, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. “There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials,” the CDC said in a statement emailed to CNN. “The frozen vials labeled ‘Smallpox’ were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research in Pennsylvania. CDC, its Administration partners, and law enforcement are investigating the matter and the vials’ contents appear intact,” the CDC added. “The laboratory worker who discovered...

The US moratorium on gain-of-function experiments has been rescinded, but scientists are split over the benefits—and risks—of such studies. Talha Burki reports. On Dec 19, 2017, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that they would resume funding gain-of-function experiments involving influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. A moratorium had been in place since October, 2014. At the time, the NIH had stated that the moratorium “will be effective until a robust and broad deliberative process is completed that results in the adoption of a new US Government gain-of-function research policy”. This process...

According to a press release from the FDA, a company, StemImmune Inc. in San Diego, California, has had five vials seized from the by U.S. Marshalls under instruction that contain the Vaccinia Virus Vaccine (Live). According to the FDA, this vaccine “is reserved only for people at high risk for smallpox.” The vaccine apparently has no other uses other than treating people who against smallpox. As per International Law, only small quantities of smallpox virus officially still exist in two research laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Russia. So what on earth are StemImmune doing with the vaccine (remember that...