How can you call sending out a virus that killed MILLIONS a mistake?

MryRose · Apr 17, 2005

The article stated the facility that found the 1957 flu strain didn't get it from the kit that was sent out........ I'd like to know where that sample came from too.

It's amazing the potentially dangerous and infectious agents that are hanging out in a lab just waiting for a mistake to be made. There should be tighter control as bioagents can reach millions of people before we are even aware there is a problem.

Sigh.... where is that sale on gas masks when you need one.... okay not funny.

Hugs!

MaryRose

redwinggirlie · Apr 17, 2005

The CDC is the one to ask...... shame on them.

Roland · Apr 17, 2005

The CDC is the one to ask...... shame on them.

What makes this so troubling and worse than even something like Anthrax or Marburg is that we are talking about influenza. Not only are we talking about influenza, but we are talking about a specific strain that has proven itself to be both deadly and easily spread (and to which little natural or vaccine mediated immunity exists in the population). All it takes if for one lab tech to not wear a mask, or wash their hands and that bird is out of the bag and not coming back.

Also, I talked to a buddy I have who works for the CDC and he essentially said the following:

We now know that the actual origin of all of this 1957 flu virus is a US firm in Virginia called American Type Culture Collection which has been the one that originated packages that are then sent out all over the place through these various intermediaries. Well get this between 1985 and 1989, American Type Culture Collection sent Iraq up to 70 shipments of various bio-war agents including 21 strains of anthrax. He said that the Pentagon did an investigation of these shipments and found no violations of law, but that the researcher who headed up the investigation for the Pentagon was a man named Joshua Letterberg who had previously been a director for American Type Culture.

- This seems to be the route that the virus traveled from American Type Culture to labs everywhere it went from American Type Culture Collection in Virginia to the Meridian Company in Cincinnati then it was sent via Fed Ex from Cincinnati down to the Texas / Mexico border to a subsidiary of Meridian - and finally it was sent out to all the labs. So it was crisscrossing the country before it got started towards its final destinations to the labs.

Here is the link to the company from where all of this virus came from: http://www.atcc.org/ and a link to a description of what it is that they do http://www.biotechfind.com/companies/company-1964.htm .

By the way if you want to join their mailing list you can do so here Sign up!

"Join our mailing list to request a copy of our cell biology printed catalog. You can also receive our ATCC Connection newsletter and product announcements."

PicklesRN, RN · Apr 17, 2005

You must have some high quality news stations!! Our news stations seem to focus on fall clothing fashions and college students eating cereal (seriously, this was on our local news).
I rarely see any real news on international affairs, specifically Africa and South America or well, specifically anywhere. Our mass media needs some improvement before we can even consider it a joke.

Do you know what is absolutely fascinating? Go outside the US to read news about the US. UK is a great example, you want to know the real scoop going on in the US read the UK news. They focus on what is important, our news will focus on total crap. If they do report something you only get the reporter's slant on the subject.

Perhaps a UK poster could point us in the direction of a great UK news source?

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Apr 17, 2005

philadelphia inquirer: posted on thu, apr. 14, 2005

after dangerous flu strain is sent to labs, u.s. acting to avert a repeat

by kevin freking

associated press

..."the samples were sent, beginning in september, as part of a testing process that measures a laboratory's proficiency in detecting various strains of influenza. the college of american pathologists directs the testing and contracted with meridian bioscience, a company based in cincinnati, to distribute the test kits.

a canadian lab alerted the who last month that the kit included the 1957 strain.

gerberding said it was not clear why such a dangerous strain of influenza was included in the test kits.

jared schwartz, an officer with the pathologists organization, said meridian thought it had sent an ordinary flu strain.

gerberding said the cdc would move quickly to update guidelines for how influenza strains were tested. that would mean limiting the handling of dangerous flu strains to labs that have extra protections in place for workers.

she said the cdc and the national institutes of health had recommended that deadly flu viruses be handled by level-3 labs, which require special hoods and clothing to ensure that workers do not inhale a specimen. currently, the strain can be handled by level-2 facilities, which do not require as stringent precautions... http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/11387721.htm

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Apr 17, 2005

I go back to my favorite of all of author Stephen King's works: The Stand, an apocryphal tale of good vs. evil that starts out with a flu virus---called Captain Trips---that gets loose in an Army lab, kills everyone on the base but one guard, who gets through the gate just before it closes and goes on to pass the infection on to the rest of the country and, presumably, the world. The strain is so virulent that it kills 99.9% of the population, leaving the few survivors to deal with massive problems brought on by the presence of millions of unburied corpses coupled with summer heat and NO electricity or running water.

What's truly frightening about this nightmare scenario is that it's all too possible, given what we DON'T know about the killer germs in labs and who's watching over them (not to mention who's watching the watchers). I wouldn't be at all surprised to see something like it---maybe on a smaller scale but deadly to hundreds of millions around the world---in my lifetime. This 'mistake' is a warning.........I hope those who are responsible for it are much more cautious in the future. :nono:

rach_nc_03 · Apr 18, 2005

Do you know what is absolutely fascinating? Go outside the US to read news about the US. UK is a great example, you want to know the real scoop going on in the US read the UK news. They focus on what is important, our news will focus on total crap. If they do report something you only get the reporter's slant on the subject.
Perhaps a UK poster could point us in the direction of a great UK news source?

well, I live in north carolina, but i always listen to BBC World Service on NPR. It's shocking sometimes...I'll have CNN on at home, then get in the car and hear BBC...I'm thinking, 'when was CNN gonna mention THAT??'

my love is stationed in asia right now, and only has access to non-US media. when he came home to visit me after 7 months, he couldn't believe the difference between internal and external views on US issues.

Lanceman · Apr 18, 2005

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see something like it---maybe on a smaller scale but deadly to hundreds of millions around the world---in my lifetime.

I wouldn't want to see massive numbers of people dying all over the world, but would it be an entirely bad thing? That is the way nature works, when you over populate it has to make a natural correction. You see it in other species and humans are not immune from it happening either. Loss of loved ones and emotions aside the planet would benefit if say half the population perished. Less natural resources consumed, less pollution, more food resources, oil reserves would last longer, etc. We are up to over 6.4 Billion people now, double the population in 1965. It's only a matter of time before Mother Nature takes a swipe at us for crowding her rock. I would hate to see that line in the ER :barf01: It is scary to think what the US or Russia have locked away in freezers or about half the other countries in the world for that matter.

Roland · Apr 18, 2005

I wouldn't want to see massive numbers of people dying all over the world, but would it be an entirely bad thing? That is the way nature works, when you over populate it has to make a natural correction. You see it in other species and humans are not immune from it happening either. Loss of loved ones and emotions aside the planet would benefit if say half the population perished. Less natural resources consumed, less pollution, more food resources, oil reserves would last longer, etc. We are up to over 6.4 Billion people now, double the population in 1965. It's only a matter of time before Mother Nature takes a swipe at us for crowding her rock. I would hate to see that line in the ER :barf01: It is scary to think what the US or Russia have locked away in freezers or about half the other countries in the world for that matter.

Your attitude Lanceman has become rather common in the last 20 or so years. What scares me is that those in power (and in a position to act upon such inclinations) may also believe much the same thing. Most experts believe that human population will level off at around nine billion people. Furthermore, in virtually all of Europe, Japan and other advanced industrialized nations the birth rate is already less than what is required just to maintain the population.

Personally, I believe that the planet is here to serve people not the other way around. Of course that doesn't mean that we should engage in wanton destruction, and or waste of precious resources, but it is a fundamental distinction.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Apr 18, 2005

Your attitude Lanceman has become rather common in the last 20 or so years. What scares me is that those in power (and in a position to act upon such inclinations) may also believe much the same thing. Most experts believe that human population will level off at around nine billion people. Furthermore, in virtually all of Europe, Japan and other advanced industrialized nations the birth rate is already less than what is required just to maintain the population.
Personally, I believe that the planet is here to serve people not the other way around. Of course that doesn't mean that we should engage in wanton destruction, and or waste of precious resources, but it is a fundamental distinction.

Excellent post, Roland. :)