by Paul Thacker
The FBI launched an investigation last week into security violations at the NIH’s Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick following several dangerous incidents in which a contractor cut holes in an employee’s biocontainment suit designed to protect against infection from pathogens such as Ebola, according to interviews and documents viewed by The DisInformation Chronicle.
Violations of safety protocol at the research facility were uncovered by Jeffrey Taubenberger on his first day as Acting Director of the NIAID, the NIH Institute formerly run by Anthony Fauci. Fort Detrick houses multiple government germ labs, including the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The Army’s lab was shut down in 2009 and again in 2019, both times due to safety concerns.
“Many issues have been known for months if not years and previous NIAID leadership did nothing about it,” explained an NIH official, detailing problems at the facility which was described as having a “poor culture of safety.”
Incidents in November and March occurred under the watch of NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo, who was let go last month during a round of federal cuts. The NIH also uncovered poor documentation of select agents, with logs not matching inventory, although all missing vials have apparently been accounted for.
An NIH employee leaked an incomplete email to Wired Magazine last week which ran a story that downplayed safety breaches and accused Secretary Robert F. Kennedy of shutting the lab down as part of “the latest disruption to federal science agencies.” The article quoted Johns Hopkins researcher Gigi Gronvall complaining that the lab shut down would harm research and cost taxpayer money.
“The sacrifice to research is immense,” Gigi Gronvall told Wired. “If things are unused for a period of time, it will cost more money to get them ready to be used again.”
Wired’s science editor, Tim Marchman, did not respond to questions asking why Wired’s story downplayed security violations and culture of poor safety, nor did he explain whether the magazine plans to correct or update their reporting. Gronvall has been an ardent supporter of dangerous gain-of-function virus research, much of which was ended yesterday with an executive order signed by President Trump.
Gronvall did not respond to questions asking if she felt a lab that studies deadly infectious diseases such as SARS-COV-2, the Ebola virus, Lassa Fever and Eastern equine encephalitis should be shut down following dangerous safety breaches.
Over the weekend, Fox News reported that the lab shut down stemmed from a lover's spat between researchers in March. One of the individuals retaliated by poking holes in the other person’s personal protective equipment (PPE), and was then fired. Leadership at the facility have been put on leave and the NIH expects the FBI to brief officials after finishing their investigation.
Animals present in the NIH facility are said to be uninfected and under veterinary care. An NIH official stated that no research with pathogens will move forward until a full evaluation and restructuring of the program is completed.
Wired Magazine’s misleading report led to a panic among researchers on Bluesky, who seemed less worried about lab safety than plowing forward with studies. A selection of those posts below
