FORT DETRICK
Inventory Uncovers 9,200 More Pathogens
Laboratory Says Security Is Tighter, but Earlier Count Missed Dangerous Vials
By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 18, 2009
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.
Still, the overstock and the previous inaccuracy of the database raised the possibility that someone could have taken a sample outside the lab with no way for officials to know something was missing.
"Nine thousand, two hundred undocumented samples is an extraordinarily serious breach," said Richard H. Ebright, a professor at Rutgers University who follows biosecurity. "A small number would be a concern; 9,200 . . . at an institution that has been the focus of intense scrutiny on this issue, that's deeply worrisome. Unacceptable."
The institute has been under pressure to tighten security in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17. FBI investigators say they think the anthrax strain used in the attacks originated at the Army lab, and its prime suspect, Bruce E. Ivins, researched anthrax there. Ivins committed suicide last year during an investigation into his activities.
Kortepeter noted that since 2001 the lab has imposed multiple layers of security to check people entering and leaving, that there are now cameras in the labs, and that employees are subjected to a reliability program and random inspections.
"The bottom line is, we have a lot of buffers to prevent anybody who shouldn't be getting into the laboratory," Kortepeter said.
Sam Edwin, the institute's inventory control officer, said most of the samples found were vials with tiny amounts of pathogens that would thaw quickly and die once they were taken out of a freezer, making smuggling something off the base difficult.
The probe began in February, when a problem accounting for Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus triggered the suspension of most research at the lab. A spot check in January found 20 samples of the virus in a box of vials instead of the 16 listed in the institute's database. Most work was stopped until the institute could take a thorough inventory of its stock of viruses and bacteria.
Edwin said about 50 percent of the samples that had been found were destroyed. The rest were added to the catalog. Because the lab will now conduct an inventory every year, "it's really less likely that we will be in a situation like this again," he said.
Procedures have changed, too. Scientists who have worked at the lab said that in the past, departing scientists turned over their logbooks to their successors, but records were sometimes incomplete or complex. As generations of scientists passed through, the knowledge of what was in the freezers was lost. With a comprehensive database, every sample is now tracked until it is destroyed or transferred.
But some scientists are skeptical. Unlike uranium or chemical weapons, pathogens are living materials that can replicate and die. A small amount can easily be turned into a large amount. They said the strict inventories slow their work without guaranteeing security.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2...
"Gary Matsumoto documents this entire, tragic saga in his seminal book,
“Vaccine-A”.
www.vaccine-a.com.
Understanding these historical facts is very important for this reason: Those that ignore
history are doomed to repeat it. This is doubly true when it comes to blindly accepting a
“novel” mass vaccination for a weaponized, “reverse engineered” virus.
The historical record is very clear – attenuated, live viruses in vaccines SPREAD the
disease very effectively. When combined with SQUALENE ADJUVANT – the virus
becomes many times more potent and lethal. When given to CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS,
millions of “typhoid Matts and Marys” will be spreading the disease exponentially.
Chillingly, the Novartis patent for the “novel pandemic flu” declares that “African green
monkey kidney cells” will be used for the “viral growth substrate” – i.e. the carrier
medium. (Page 3, paragraph 0037) We also see that “oil-in-water” squalene-based
adjuvants will also be included (page 8 – 0098) but most incredible of all, because this is
a “recombinant” and “novel” split vaccine, it is deemed necessary to include fragments of
attenuated viruses (i.e. live pathogens) in the vaccine medium.
On July 13, 2009, the W.H.O. sanctioned this lunacy by declaring: “In view of the
anticipated limited vaccine availability at global level and the potential need to protect
against "drifted" strains of virus, it is recommended that promoting production and use of
vaccines such as those that are formulated with oil-in-water adjuvants and live attenuated
influenza vaccines is important.”
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/notes/h1n1_vaccine_20090713/en/index.html
In conclusion and summation, it should be evident that the “2009 Swine Flu” could just
as easily be called the “Bird Flu” – because it is as much H5N1 (bird flu) as H1N1 (pig
flu.) Novartis knew this in 2005 when it received hundreds of millions of dollars from
Mike Leavitt’s HHS to develop and patent the “bird flu” vaccine. I publicly charge that
Novartis had advance knowledge of this “combination” because they had been in
consultation with Jeffrey Taubenberger for years.
It is further evident that Novartis’ patent provides for “influenza vaccine kits” to be
provided to other pharmaceutical manufacturers as well. These “kits” are the basic raw
ingredients needed for the other companies to build their own vaccines under their own
label.
In 2005, this “jobbing” of separate ingredients by multiple companies would never have
been allowed because of the legal liability issues involved. However, in 2009, all
liabilities for death and disability from faulty or contaminated vaccines have been
stripped away. Any wrongful death or disability lawsuits against Novartis or any other
company will today be summarily dismissed. Novartis today has carte blanche blanket
immunity for their actions – and any large pharmaceutical company who so desires, can
join them at the feeding troughs just by paying millions for their “kits”.
If this isn’t the pinnacle of criminality, then I don’t know what is.
Novartis, if this “novel split vaccine” is so wonderful and safe, why do you require such
blanket protection from litigation?"
http://www.pandemicfluonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/STARTLI...
"They hate us for our freedoms" W was true..
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