CDC Lab Suspended, Six Secret Enforcement Actions Taken Over Dangerous Germs

CDC Lab Suspended, Six Secret Enforcement Actions Taken Over Dangerous Germsa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory was suspended, and a total of six secret enforcement actions have been taken against others over a little more than a

The newspaper’s findings follow years of allegations of improprieties with security and safety of potentially-deadly toxins.

The agents, which include viruses and bacteria, were not identified in the heavily-redacted documents turned up by the newspaper’s Freedom of Information Act request. Names of the laboratories in question were also redacted from the papers, which were turned over after the newspaper won an appeal in court.

But the agents were potential biowarfare or bioterror germs, the newspaper concluded.

The violations involved sending pathogens to the wrong entities, discovering pathogens in un-registered space in CDC facilities during inspections, and inventory and oversight concerns.

The CDC reportedly confirmed to the newspaper that the suspension involved a scientist at the agency’s complex in Fort Collins, Colo. – and the agent in question was the Japanese encephalitis virus.

The latest documents follow increased scrutiny that followed a 2014 internal investigation revealing that anthrax and Ebola, among other germs, had been mishandled at the federal agency’s laboratories.

A separate investigation by USA Today last year found that more than 100 U.S. labs faced a variety of federal enforcement actions since 2003. Laboratories that had some sanctions leveled at them included The Tulane National Primate Research Center, and facilities run by Kansas State University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Brigham Young University.

However, the CDC has kept the names of nearly all the other laboratories confidential, citing security concerns.