Posted on 06/20/2014 7:22:31 PM PDT by logi_cal869
U.S. authorities increased to 84 people their count of government workers potentially exposed to live anthrax at three laboratories in Atlanta as they investigated a breach in safety procedures for handling the deadly pathogen.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I recommend reading the linked article. I'd have to post the whole thing to give the story context...ineptitude doesn't quite merit a good word.
Don't worry: Have faith...they'll protect us. /s
Let’s spin the liberal wheel o’ excuses and see where it lands.
Is it a Republican witch hunt? A YouTube video made by a “shadowy character”? Or maybe evil conservative budget cuts that caused this.
They could always blame a hard drive crash.
The son of a friend always wanted to work at the CDC in Atlanta. About 5 years ago after graduating from college, he landed his dream job and moved to Atlanta.
Six or seven months later I saw him in his parent’s yard cutting the grass. I asked him why he was back. His answer, “It was too dangerous; there’s no room for even the smallest mistake; and, if you do make that smallest of mistakes, then you die.”
I wonder how many have ever died because they worked at the CDC?
Since they were founded in 1946, I should ask how many in the last 20 years or so.
Their ‘mistake’ was eerily reminiscent of a recent ‘mistake’ by DOE at LANL recently (recall the DUMB decision to permit a switch to non-inert materials to stabilize the ‘soup’ in the nuclear waste drums...resulting in WIPP being contaminated/shut down).
Had DOE followed even most basic procedure, it never would have happened.
In this case, a ‘new’ procedure for inactivating the Anthrax OBVIOUSLY was never tested, or this would never have happened...
“Three laboratories” affected; imagine if it were a virulent sample with an incubation period...this event spanned a week before the alarm was raised.
Weren’t there several varieties of anthrax, the weaponized kind and a low-infectivity kind?
When I saw this I remembered reading yesterday an ad in Atlanta’s Craigslist for Crisis Actors for the 27-29 of June. I believe it has since been take down. Craigslist in Houston had a similar ad for July 4-6.
Just thought the timing was odd.
Affirmative action in a Level IV lab has consequences. CDC has been hiring according to minority status instead of qualifications.
And then if something bad happens to the people there, won’t they be blasted for endangering black people? No fair, this Calvinball!
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
Not relevant. Linked article has the details.
Can FedGov do anything right?
Ping...
No.
No.
“Weren’t there several varieties of anthrax, the weaponized kind and a low-infectivity kind?”
Yes, the Sterne strain is most commonly used non-infectious derivative of the Ames strain and can be used in BSL2 labs. There are also many others that are available so I dont understand why they feel the need to develop a new one. Sterne is widely used to develop anthrax detection systems because it is so antigenically similar to Ames that the same antibodies work for both.
“Affirmative action in a Level IV lab has consequences. CDC has been hiring according to minority status instead of qualifications.”
I made the same point to my wife when we discussed this incident yesterday. CDC used to be like NASA and could get the best scientists available. Also like NASA they went the AA route and now suddenly find their probes cratering the surface of Mars, or in the case of CDC, sending industrial strength Anthrax to people expecting a killed sample.
You're good... very good.
Every time I turn around, the CDC seems to be behaving in the most responsible fashion possible. As another example: In 2012, the firearms report that Obama illegally commanded, foiled his gun control efforts by showing suicides factored into 'gun violence' numbers and had to be removed, and also noted the large number of legitimate, defensive uses of firearms.
And now the CDC, after screwing up, cedes investigative authority. Can you picture the IRS ceding investigative authority? Can you picture the Department of Justice ceding authority?
The CDC is the most honorable Fed Agency out there. The day they stop being that, is the day I roll out of Atlanta.
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