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Behind the Deadly Secrets at Fort Detrick

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Behind the Deadly Secrets at Fort Detrick CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Monday, July 12, 2021 | 11 WORLD Behind the deadly secrets at Fort Detrick One of the US’ biological laboratories raises serious questions about safety By ZHAO RUINAN seasons, starting from October 2019 [email protected] to March 2020, which the CDC said had led to 39 million illnesses and Despite numerous accidents more than 24,000 deaths. relating to viruses in biological Speculation about the laboratory research laboratories in the Unit- being the origin of the COVID-19 ed States over the years, most seem pandemic have also emerged to gain scant media or public online. attention. Robert Redfield, then director of More than 1,100 laboratory inci- the CDC, admitted in March last dents involving bacteria, viruses year that some COVID-19 deaths in and toxins that pose significant or the US had been diagnosed as flu-re- bioterrorism risks to people and lated. Redfield served as the director agriculture were reported to US fed- of the CDC from March 2018 to Jan- eral regulators between 2008 and uary this year. 2012, USA Today reported, citing US In March last year a petition in government reports it said it had which the signatories sought more obtained. information on Fort Detrick was An article last August by ProPub- posted on the White House website. lica, an independent newsroom that US politicians have dismissed the does investigative journalism, said concerns about the center as disin- that between January 2015 and June formation and conspiracy theories, 2020 the University of North Caroli- and at the same time pushed their na at Chapel Hill reported to safety own claims about the supposed ori- officials at the National Institutes of gins of COVID-19. Health 28 laboratory incidents In fact Fort Detrick is an army involving genetically engineered base about 80 kilometers northwest organisms. of Washington that was established “More than 200 incidents of loss during World War II and became or release of bioweapons agents the hub of the US Army’s biological from US laboratories are reported weapons research. Bacteria studied Personnel at work in the biosafety level-4 laboratory at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in each year,” USA Today quoted Rich- in the laboratories there included 2002. OLIVIER DOULIERY / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ard Ebright, a biosafety expert, as the highly infectious and deadly saying. “This works out to more agent anthrax. than four per week.” During World War II the US gov- In addition to the bioterrorism ernment ordered 1 million anthrax laboratory mishaps — details of bombs from the base, according to most of them being cloaked in secre- NPR. cy ostensibly because of federal bio- terrorism laws — questions have Notorious ties been raised since COVID-19 sur- Fort Detrick has also had close faced of the biological research done ties with the notorious Unit 731, a at Fort Detrick in Maryland. biological warfare organ of the In July 2019, just months before Imperial Japanese Army, which the US reported its first COVID-19 conducted horrific human experi- case, Fort Detrick was temporarily ments on prisoners of war and civil- shut by the United States Centers for ians in Northeast China during Disease Control and Prevention, or World War II. CDC, for what were called “national Richard Drayton, a Cambridge security reasons”. By the end of the University history lecturer, has said following March it had reopened. the US invited Shiro Ishii, head of The closure followed an inspec- Unit 731’s human experiments, to tion by the CDC of the laboratories be a biological weapons adviser at Military personnel stand guard outside the US Army Medical Workers perform tests using the Eight Ball, a 1-million-liter steel that was said to have found leaks Fort Detrick. Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in 2002. sphere built at Fort Detrick in 1952 to measure the virulence of and mechanical problems with a A New York Times report in 1995 OLIVIER DOULIERY / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE anthrax spores and other airborne bacteria. ASSOCIATED PRESS new chemical system it had installed said the US wanted the Japanese to decontaminate wastewater. research data of biological agents The institute was also working for its own possible military use. time to time are part of a long cata- According to media reports, with Ebola and agents known to In an article in the journal Critical Timeline log of failures in handling the dan- some of the laboratories have had cause the plague. Asian Studies in 1980 titled “Japan’s gerous pathogens stored there. large-scale outbreaks of measles Just one month before the shut- germ warfare: The US cover-up of a Though the closure beginning and other dangerous infectious dis- down, a mysterious respiratory ill- war crime”, the US journalist John Early 1940s: The US builds a 1992-2011: There are 2,247 last year was unusual, it was not eases, which has drawn widespread ness broke out on June 30, 2019, at a W. Powell noted the similarities biological weapons laboratory named recorded cancer cases from the Fort unprecedented. In 2009 research at concern. community one hour’s drive from between biological weapons devel- Camp Detrick in Maryland. Detrick area, and more than 5,600 Fort Detrick was suspended when it Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair- Fort Detrick. oped by the US and those developed World War II: It becomes the cen- people sign a petition calling for an became known that it was storing man of the Russian Security Coun- The Greenspring Retirement by Japan. ter of intensive bioweapons research investigation. pathogens not listed in its database. cil, said the US research activities in Community in Fairfax County, Vir- “Infecting feathers with spore using various deadly pathogens. July 2019: The institute is shut biological laboratories in countries ginia, had had 63 cases of the dis- diseases was one of Ishii’s ideas, and 1956: The base is designated a over security concerns, but the exact Unsolved cases that belong to the Commonwealth ease and three deaths by July 15, feather bombs later became a stan- permanent installation for biologi- reasons are not made public. In the autumn of 2001 five peo- of Independent States have caused 2019, local health authorities said. dard weapon in America’s (biologi- cal research and is renamed Fort March 2020: The Centers for ple died and 17 others became ill grave concern. Many expressed their concerns cal weapons) arsenal,” Powell Detrick. Disease Control clears the facility to during anthrax attacks in the US, The US not only sets up biological over Fort Detrick. Carol Krimm of wrote. 2001: Deadly anthrax attacks; Fort be reopened. after letters laced with the agent laboratories in these countries but the Maryland House of Delegates From 1946 to 1949 dozens of Detrick researcher later suspected of were posted to the newsrooms of also tries to do so in other countries was among those who raised ques- interviews and studies relating to involvement. CHINA DAILY several media outlets and govern- as well, Medvedev said. The labora- tions about the shutdown and asked Unit 731 were conducted in Fort ment figures. tories’ research lacks transparency for more transparency over any Detrick, according to a CGTN com- The FBI’s chief suspect in the 2001 and runs counter to the rules of the health and safety risks the center mentary by Yuan Sha, an assistant Under the cloak of “national secu- Research Institute of Infectious case, Bruce Edwards Ivins, was a international community and inter- posed. research fellow at the Department rity” military scientists freely tested Diseases. senior biological weapons research- national organizations, he said. In addition, four doctors from the of American Studies of China Insti- cruel and illegal procedures on Although the US officially aban- er at Fort Detrick. He killed himself USA Today reported that since local advisory committee wrote an tute of International Studies, cit- human subjects while searching for doned its biological weapons pro- seven years later, shortly before the 2003 hundreds of incidents involv- open letter to condemn the US ing the US National Archives a so-called truth serum, to make gram in 1969, Fort Detrick has FBI was planning to charge him ing accidental contact with deadly army’s lack of transparency, CGTN database. prisoners reveal secrets, Yuan said. continued defensive research into over the attacks. pathogens have occurred in US lab- reported. Experts warned irrespon- When the Cold War began, the The project ended in failure and was deadly pathogens on the list of “select The US has more than 200 biolog- oratories doing biological research sible actions by the army make these CIA used Fort Detrick to conduct shut down by the US government in agents”, including the Ebola virus, ical laboratories in 25 countries and at home and abroad. This may high-containment laboratories high secret mind-control experiments on the 1970s. anthrax, smallpox and the SARS-as- regions. More than 170 of these labo- cause the direct contacts to be risk to local residents. humans that often involved unwit- In the 1960s the base became a sociated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). ratories continue to operate in the infected, who can then spread the At the same time, the US was ting US citizens and prisoners, Yuan site for high-end research facilities, The laboratory accidents that shadows in unknown locations virus to communities and start an going through one of its worst flu said. including the US Army Medical have happened at Fort Detrick from around the world. epidemic. Making the virus a political tool is bad for everyone and must end, say experts By ZHAO RUINAN repeatedly criticized the US for president and president-in-charge claims of a laboratory leak are easy turning the tracing of the origin of of Panama’s Center for Asian Strate- to make and understand and cater It is critical that the hunt for the COVID-19 into a political issue, say- gic Studies, as saying.
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