4 Pentagon Labs Face Inquiry on Handling of Deadly Germs
4 Pentagon Labs Face Inquiry on Handling of Deadly Germs Saturday September 12 th , 2015 at 9:12 AM 1 Share The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating four Defense Department labs for mishandling deadly germs used in bioterrorism research, a spokesman said Friday. The mistakes involve anthrax , plague and viruses that cause encephalitis , which are studied by the military to defend against their potential use as biological weapons. There is no evidence that anyone has been harmed by the errors or that there is any risk to the public, officials say. But bioterrorism experts say that there should be zero tolerance because the organisms are so dangerous, and that even seemingly small mistakes, like flaws in record-keeping, could have calamitous results. Because of the C.D.C. findings, the secretary of the Army on Sept. 2 ordered the four labs to suspend their work with certain dangerous microbes classified as “select ag