Things that make you go hmmmmm.
Science Magazine is reporting (subscription only)
The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) has suspended
research involving select agents and toxins after a spot inspection of the Frederick, Maryland, facility found four vials of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) that weren’t in its electronic database. Some 350 researchers and technicians are affected by the stoppage, which began on 6 February and could last 3 months or longer as officials open up every freezer and refrigerator to take stock of all hazardous biomaterials at the institute.
more on the flip
A little reminder of their recent history surrounding the anthrax attacks and the governments position that it was perpetrated by lone wolf biodefense scientist Bruce Ivins who worked in this lab.
The lab, the largest U.S. defense facility for work on deadly pathogens, has been under intense scrutiny since the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) named former USAMRIID researcher Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks (Science, 8 August 2008, p. 754). Ivins committed suicide on 29 July 2008, but FBI officials have argued that the evidence against him is beyond doubt and that he carried out the mailings using anthrax stolen from a flask at USAMRIID. A special task force has spent the past few months considering what new measures are needed to improve security at USAMRIID and other Army biodefense labs.
You would think this type of facility would have the highest security and documentation possible given the extreme potential danger associated with some of the materials contained at the facility.
Kortepeter says officials expect to find materials in addition to those listed in the database because of human errors made when the lab switched from a paper to a computerized system in 2005. He says the four vials of VEE were part of a set of 20 and that 16 had been entered into the system. “It was simply an oversight,” he says.
Ar you kidding me? We only started computerized tracking of hazardous biomaterials at our major biodefense research facility in 2005? Those anthrax attacks happened in 2001. I personally have been using computers since 1978. This is insane.
Well at least we can be assured they will be on top of things now, right....
Kortepeter says there are no plans for USAMRIID to investigate the possible loss or theft of previously undocumented materials. Other security measures at the institute would have detected any such incident, he says, even with an incomplete inventory
sigh/cry