REPORTS REVEAL MISHAPS WITH DEADLY GERMS
CDC lost contagious specimens, violated safety protocols, USA TODAY investigation finds
The CDC blacked out from its records many details, including the types of viruses and bacteria involved.
Federal scientists in charge of guarding the nation against infectious diseases apparently lost a box of deadly and highly regulated influenza specimens. And safety equipment failed multiple times in recent years during work with some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens.
In one case, a scientist wearing full-body gear had a purified air hose suddenly disconnect — “again” — in one the world’s most advanced biosafety level 4 labs. Such suits are used to protect against lethal viruses.
These incidents and others occurred at labs operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and Fort Collins, Colo., over about a two-year period, according to reports obtained by USA TO- DAY under the Freedom of Information Act.
The reports, released nearly two years after they were first requested, reveal ongoing safety lapses shrouded in secrecy at one of the world’s premier public health labs of the type revealed in USA TODAY’s “Biolabs in Your Backyard” investigation published in 2015. That investigation exposed hundreds of safety incidents at research facilities nationwide.
The full scope and danger posed by the CDC’s recent lab incidents is unclear because the agency keeps secret large swaths of information.
The CDC blacked out from its records many details, including the types of viruses and bacteria involved in the mishaps and often the entire description of what happened.
In several cases, clues about the seriousness of incidents
were revealed because CDC staff failed to consistently black out words repeated throughout a string of emails.
The CDC, which has faced congressional hearings and secret government sanctions over its sloppy lab safety practices, would not answer USA TODAY’s questions about specific incidents, which occurred during 2013 through early 2015.
“None of the incidents described in these documents resulted in reported illness among CDC staff or the public,” the CDC said in a brief emailed statement. When incidents involved “inventory discrepancies,” the agency said, generally the problems were addressed without posing a risk. The CDC said reports cover a time period before the agency created a lab-safety office in the wake of three high-profile incidents during 2014 with anthrax, Ebola and a deadly strain of bird flu.
The 503 pages of records the CDC released to USA TODAY look in many cases like Swiss cheese when an incident involves any pathogen that is on a federal list of potential bioterror pathogens, called “select agents.” The list includes pathogens such as those that cause anthrax, Ebola, plague or certain avian or reconstructed flu virus strains. The CDC cites a 2002 bioterrorism law to justify its redactions.
In several reports, the CDC redacted every word.
In an email from August 2014 with a subject line of “Lab Incident,” the CDC blacked out the writer’s name and title. The author started the note “When I came in this morning.” Then the agency blacked out about 10 lines of text, citing the bioterrorism law. The agency did disclose the writer’s final sentence: “Please let me know if you have any questions.”
The CDC redacted every word in a lab accident report from December 2013 that apparently involved a dangerous strain of influenza virus. Several CDC staff copied on the email were involved in the agency’s controversial work in 2005 using reverse genetics to reconstruct the flu pandemic virus of 1918, which killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.
Some records contain more clues than others.
The air hose connector on my suit came off while I was working in (redacted) again,” a CDC scientist wrote in an email in May 2013 to other agency staff, who other records show have a history of being part of the agency’s special pathogens branch, which works with deadly viruses such as Ebola. The scientist wrote that a colleague helped the person “get out safely, reattaching my hose as best he could … I live to work another day!”
The CDC sought to conceal that the incident occurred in a biosafety level 4 lab, blacking out a checkbox. It failed to redact the same information in other reports.
In a string of emails from February 2015 that involves multiple members of the CDC’s influenza division, the agency cited the bioterrorism law in blacking out the entire subject line. In one email, the first word in the subject line remained. It says “Missing ” and is followed by a short redaction that is probably the name of a pathogen.
The emails discuss whether a report needs to be filed with federal select agent lab regulators and says, “I will need a detailed summary of the search for this box from everyone involved in the search.” The only types of influenza viruses that would require reporting to select agent regulators are deadly strains of avian influenza and specimens of the resurrected 1918 flu virus.
There was a “possible biological exposure” at a CDC lab in Fort Collins, Colo., in May 2013, according to a report. The CDC blacked out all words contained in the “Long Description (What Happened),” citing the bioterrorism law. According to limited information on the form, the primary source of the injury was “Insects arachnids (spiders, ticks, scorpions etc.),” and the secondary source was “Select Agent.”