Posted on 12/04/2001 5:52:12 AM PST by areafiftyone
Two vials seized from the refrigerator of a University of Connecticut graduate student have tested positive for anthrax.
Michael J. Wolf, who heads FBI operations in Connecticut, said that additional tests on the bacteria will be performed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases Laboratories at Fort Dietrich, Md.
Wolf said the purpose of those tests will be to determine if the samples match the deadly anthrax spores being sent through the mail. That strain is being referred to as the "Ames strain."
Ames is the strain responsible for the five deaths including that of Ottilie Lundgren, the 94-year-old Oxford woman who died Nov. 21 at Derby's Griffin Hospital of inhalation anthrax.
The UConn vials were seized by the FBI from the personal refrigerator of Tomas Foral, a graduate student at the school's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Foral was ordered by the school to destroy the vials found in a rusty, silver can but kept at least two of what may have been as many as seven vials.
Delcie Thibault, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, said prosecutors are still reviewing whether to charge Foral with any wrongdoing.
The anthrax was taken from a cow that had died of the disease some four decades ago.
Wolf said the samples themselves did not pose a direct safety threat because they had to be processed. The bacteria was contained in a blood medium and had not been processed into a powder form.
Tests of the area near the refrigerator came up negative for anthrax.
Since the finding, every college and university in Connecticut has been asked to document what biological agents they have in their laboratories.
I feel sorry for this poor graduate student - who is probably completely unrelated to the present anthrax attacks. As a grad student I often used to keep extremely dangerous chemicals squirreled away in places, just in case I needed them in the future. That's the way grad students work - and that's the attitude that breeds innovation.Oh, hey, me too, man. I'm ABD toward a PhD in English rhetoric, and I keep petri dishes with active bubonic plague cultures in my desk on campus; my desk, which is in my office, where I also maintain my crystal meth lab. It is precisely this attitude that breeds innovation. Well, that and plague bacilli. Damned meddling FBI are ruining it for everyone! YOU ARE NOT FREE TO THE DEGREE THAT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PRODUCE AND STOCKPILE BIOLOGICAL AGENTS. Remember, weapons-grade anthrax spores don't kill people! People kill people! ... wait a minute ... does that analogy hold? ... OH WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN ...
Oh, hey, me too, man. I'm ABD toward a PhD in English rhetoric, and I keep petri dishes with active bubonic plague cultures in my desk on campus; my desk, which is in my office, where I also maintain my crystal meth lab. It is precisely this attitude that breeds innovation. Well, that and plague bacilli. Damned meddling FBI are ruining it for everyone! YOU ARE NOT FREE TO THE DEGREE THAT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PRODUCE AND STOCKPILE BIOLOGICAL AGENTS. Remember, weapons-grade anthrax spores don't kill people! People kill people! ... wait a minute ... does that analogy hold? ... OH WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN ...Please don't showcase your ignorance. If you have no biological training or understanding, you really are no better than most of our TV personalities, newsmedia included.
Please don't showcase your ignorance. If you have no biological training or understanding, you really are no better than most of our TV personalities, newsmedia included. -yevgenieOh, please forgive me, little one. I had no intention of offending your delicate sensibilities. Now be a dear and specify for me--point for point and in grim detail--where I "showcased my ignorance." Remember, wee one, details are our friends.
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