Mishaps Reported at U. S. Labs working with Deadly Viruses and Toxins

From time to time these deadly little killers make the news but did you know that in America, labs that work with these monstrous microbes have been having problems? I didn’t either until an Associated Press story told the tale of ineptness and failures, and unreported accidents across the country at labs that work with micro creatures that are just itching to kill us if given a chance.

There was a hearing this past week by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Department and hopefully someone on the board has read Stephen King’s The Stand in which a killer virus broke quarantine and effectively wiped out the world’s population.

The reason for the hearing was because American labs have not only been having accidents but also have misplaced shipments of deadly viruses, had employees bitten by germ laden animals and have been accused of not reporting or under reporting problems in order to not have to suffer through federal inspections.

Incredibly, the federal government requires a lab working with something as treacherous as say the Ebola virus to only be inspected once every three years. Joe’s Taco Stand currently faces more inspections than a lab toying around with the Black Plague and this is no exaggeration.

In a classic moment of understatement, a federal official noted there have been problems but no real emergencies. We know that of course. An emergency in one of these labs would have meant a catastrophe that could ring up a huge death toll.

What is also troubling is that several of the labs are associated with major universities. To be kind I will leave the research of whose college campus plays tag with Bubonic Plague for all you internet sleuths to determine. What troubles me is that the government believes that we shouldn’t make it public knowledge where our germ factories are. Such news would make it easier for terrorists or just plain nut cases to get their hands on deadly germs or toxins. I can agree with this stance. I must question however if parents and their wards don’t have a right to know the school they are choosing has a deadly lab on campus. Of course the universities want the money such research brings them but they certainly won’t hang a sign at the edge of campus saying “Welcome to State Tech University, home of the Black Plague". They also, it appears, don’t want it known that a shipment went missing but then was found months later in Belgium. I’m sorry.  I’m not making that last sentence up.

Currently there are 400 labs across the country working with deadly germs and viruses. This number has doubled since President Bush took office and I will leave the interpretation of what that means for all of you to decide for yourselves. My question is why so many labs? Why has tooling around with the deadliest of things on this planet become a cottage industry for universities and private firms? Shouldn’t research to find better, reliable cures for such microbes be best done at one location; one location with the highest possible guidance and supervision?

I am sorry but I can’t find my copy of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds" so I will have to paraphrase the last sentence in his novel. For those not familiar with the story, the Martians who were on the verge of destroying humanity fell prey to our common viruses and died. The quote goes something like “And so it came to be that the Martians were destroyed by the tiniest creatures God in his infinite wisdom had placed on this earth."

Perhaps the President and Congress need to spend some time in the field of literature. It isn’t a stretch to replace the word Martians with Earthlings. Not when you misplace shipments of the Black Plague.