Friday, March 1, 2013

Bio-Terror Research Insanity

 

Laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been repeatedly cited in private government audits for failing to properly secure bioterror agents. Feb 26, 2013 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/25/cdc-bioterror-labs-cited-for-security-failures-in-audits/1945933/

[Excerpted] Laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been repeatedly cited in private government audits for failing to properly secure potential bioterror agents such as anthrax and plague, and not training employees who work with them, according to "restricted" government watchdog reports obtained by USA TODAY.

"These weaknesses could have compromised [CDC's] ability to safeguard select agents from accidental or intentional loss and to ensure the safety of individuals," according to a 2010 report by the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general. 


Majia here: Securing bioterror research has been an ongoing problem. Consider this headline from 2008:

'Report Sounds Alarm Over Bioterror: Bipartisan Study Finds Insufficient Laboratory Safeguards, Loose Regulation' By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 30, 2008; A03

[Excerpted] The number of such "high-containment" labs in the United States has tripled since 2001, yet U.S. officials have not implemented adequate safeguards to prevent deadly germs from being stolen or accidentally released, it says. "The rapid growth in the number of such labs in recent years has created new safety and security risks which must be managed," the draft report states. [end]

Majia here: An editorial in the The New York Times in 2008 warned of the dangers of expanding bioterror research:

August 12, 2008 Op-Ed Contributor The Killers in the Lab by ELISA D. HARRIS 
[Excerpted] An unprecedented expansion of research facilities is also under way. Once these laboratories are completed, we will have 10 times as much lab space as we had in 2001 for working on the most dangerous agents — Ebola and Marburg viruses, for example — and 13 new regional labs for working on moderate and high-risk agents like tularemia and plague. Thousands of scientists are now working with bioweapons agents, many for the first time. More than 14,000 scientists have been approved to work with so-called select agents like anthrax that usually pose little threat to public health unless they are used as bioweapons. 

Experienced anthrax researchers now speak of a community that has grown so large, so rapidly — more than 7,200 researchers are now approved to work with this deadly agent — they no longer know everyone else in the field.... 

Majia here: That was in 2008. Can you imagine how much bio-terror research is going on now at private and university labs across the country as agencies try and access bio-terror research dollars?

We have to hope that the people working in these labs are incredibly conscientious.

Do bio-terror weapons make up safer? Absolutely NOT.












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