* USAMRIID shuts down research; needs to “keep track” of anthrax

Nelson Hernandez wrote in the Washington Post (2/10/09) …

• The U.S. Army’s Frederick-based laboratory for studying some of the world’s deadliest diseases has suspended most research activities as it tries to find errors in an inventory of its biological materials, a spokeswoman for the institute said yesterday. 
• Col. John P. Skvorak, the head of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, ordered most lab work to stop last Friday. 
• He said the order was required to meet the Army and Defense Department’s standards for keeping track of “biological select agents and toxins,” known as BSAT, such as anthrax bacteria and the Ebola virus. 
• The lab has been under heavy pressure to tighten security since the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17 others. FBI investigators think the anthrax strain used in the attacks originated at the Army lab, and its prime suspect in the investigation, Bruce E. Ivins, researched anthrax there. Ivins committed suicide last year.

LMW COMMENT … Perhaps my speculations last summer, when I was writing CASE CLOSED, that inventory and physical controls at Fort Detrick were not what they should be, was right on target. I think as more facts become known, the fictional scenario I outlined, while certainly not a total match to what really happened, may be close enough to make us all very uncomfortable.

read the entire article at … http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/09/AR2009020903511.html

* preparing for an anthrax attack

Jessica Driscoll writes in the Gloucester County Times (4/25/09) …

•  On Friday, the Gloucester County Department of Health and the Gloucester County Office of Emergency Management conducted a full-scale emergency response exercise based on a simulated exposure of residents to the potentially deadly anthrax bacteria.
• The event, mandated for all counties by the state, tested the county’s ability to receive, break down and distribute antibiotics in a public health emergency.
• Early Friday morning, staff received the “antibiotics,” sorted them and delivered them to first responders in 13 municipalities.

LMW COMMENT … Nobody has ever clearly understood the motivation for the 2001 anthrax attacks, the FBI’s blundering investigation having never, in my view, found the actual perpetrators. Even if it was Dr. Ivins, the fact that the FBI did not protect an obviously very disturbed individual (disturbed in large part by the FBI’s harassment) means we will never know his motivation either. 

read the entire article at … http://www.nj.com/gloucester/index.ssf?/base/news-12/124064433288160.xml&coll=8