Forgotten Vials of Ricin, Smallpox and Plague Uncovered in NIH Labs Review

"The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly stored hazardous materials."

"The agency began an intensive investigation of all its facilities after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been stored and forgotten in one lab on the NIH’s campus."

SOURCE

Has anyone seen this? It seems as though someone was finally doing their job and prevented a possible false flag. Anyone have any experience as to the number of security layers to get to the point to find these vials? Scary stuff to leave laying around.

a reply to: MarlinGrace

I'm no Biologist, but I doubt the survival of the viruses in these vials. I have very limited knowledge of the subject, but I'm under the impression that these viruses need to be stored in a special freezer to keep the sample living.

To find them laying around, possibly 50-100 years old? I doubt they would be very dangerous.

But I could be wrong. If someone knows more than me on this subject, please correct me.

Well, as far as Ricin goes, it should be stable at room temp for however long it is there though not real worried about ricin being used for anything massive. The others I believe would have to have been frozen or kept in a holding state for them to still be viable.

I'm sure they didn't toss all of this stuff into the landfill over the years.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Well, as far as Ricin goes, it should be stable at room temp for however long it is there though not real worried about ricin being used for anything massive. The others I believe would have to have been frozen or kept in a holding state for them to still be viable.

Made me wonder considering how long Ebola has been around.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I'm sure they didn't toss all of this stuff into the landfill over the years.

I wonder if they have thrown some out, poor labeling change in employees and proceedures...

I'm actually surprised they let this get out.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I'm sure they didn't toss all of this stuff into the landfill over the years.

You would be surprised Rick!

From personal experience I have seen a couple of dodgy things chucked into the wild about 20 years ago over here in France. I even let the local town/village hall know about it all those years ago but they couldnt give a poo as were more interested in personal matters...

I know where I would not buy a house or have my grandchildren or others raised in the south of France!

Scummy politicians...

Sadly

Rodinus

originally posted by: gatorboi117
a reply to: MarlinGrace

I'm no Biologist, but I doubt the survival of the viruses in these vials. I have very limited knowledge of the subject, but I'm under the impression that these viruses need to be stored in a special freezer to keep the sample living.

To find them laying around, possibly 50-100 years old? I doubt they would be very dangerous.

But I could be wrong. If someone knows more than me on this subject, please correct me.

Kind of yes and no......

For Viruses they do tend to die outside a host. BUT I remember reading about a old book from the mid 1800's found that had smallpox scabs in them that still contained viable viruses.

Things like Anthrax though that can exist as spore also have a very long shelf life.

originally posted by: crazyewok

originally posted by: gatorboi117
a reply to: MarlinGrace

I'm no Biologist, but I doubt the survival of the viruses in these vials. I have very limited knowledge of the subject, but I'm under the impression that these viruses need to be stored in a special freezer to keep the sample living.

To find them laying around, possibly 50-100 years old? I doubt they would be very dangerous.

But I could be wrong. If someone knows more than me on this subject, please correct me.

Kind of yes and no......

For Viruses they do tend to die outside a host. BUT I remember reading about a old book from the mid 1800's found that had smallpox scabs in them that still contained viable viruses.

Things like Anthrax though that can exist as spore also have a very long shelf life.

I knew Anthrax was naturally occuring but the rest I have no idea, but considering the recent and continuing scare of Ebola one has to wonder what the hell these scientist were thinking.

a reply to: MarlinGrace

Thing is back in the 50's health and safety control were not as strict. Its the scientists in the 50's who screwed up and left us with this mess.

For Ebola? Well that wont be coming outside a Cat 4 Lab.

originally posted by: MarlinGrace
"The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly stored hazardous materials."

"The agency began an intensive investigation of all its facilities after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been stored and forgotten in one lab on the NIH’s campus."

SOURCE

Has anyone seen this? It seems as though someone was finally doing their job and prevented a possible false flag. Anyone have any experience as to the number of security layers to get to the point to find these vials? Scary stuff to leave laying around.

It would depend on the floor plan of the building. My college department actually had a "hidden floor". The lecture halls, labs and staff offices were in a 1960's built building with lower and upper floors with high ceilings. All lecture halls and labs actually had store rooms, and each store room had a back door. I'd always assumed they were just cupboards, but one day one of the technicians opened the door, and I saw it led to a staircase. Then I realized that an access door on the middle level of the staircase led to a corridor full of store rooms and staircases. Stuff could easily be filed away, lost and forgotten. There might have been leather bound ledger books to keep track of items booked out, but it would be impossible to locate them.

Victorian buildings are even more diabolical. You have attics, side-staircases, basements, built-in shelves, room cupboards which may or may not actually be access corridors. When researchers are short of space, they'd find just about anywhere to put things. Then things can fall behind cupboards, inside the desk drawer cavities. I once found a 20-year old can of lager in the office drawer unit I inherited

Hope employees are paid well there

Those could fetch a nice bunch of money

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: MarlinGrace
"The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly stored hazardous materials."

"The agency began an intensive investigation of all its facilities after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been stored and forgotten in one lab on the NIH’s campus."

SOURCE

Has anyone seen this? It seems as though someone was finally doing their job and prevented a possible false flag. Anyone have any experience as to the number of security layers to get to the point to find these vials? Scary stuff to leave laying around.

It would depend on the floor plan of the building. My college department actually had a "hidden floor". The lecture halls, labs and staff offices were in a 1960's built building with lower and upper floors with high ceilings. All lecture halls and labs actually had store rooms, and each store room had a back door. I'd always assumed they were just cupboards, but one day one of the technicians opened the door, and I saw it led to a staircase. Then I realized that an access door on the middle level of the staircase led to a corridor full of store rooms and staircases. Stuff could easily be filed away, lost and forgotten. There might have been leather bound ledger books to keep track of items booked out, but it would be impossible to locate them.

Victorian buildings are even more diabolical. You have attics, side-staircases, basements, built-in shelves, room cupboards which may or may not actually be access corridors. When researchers are short of space, they'd find just about anywhere to put things. Then things can fall behind cupboards, inside the desk drawer cavities. I once found a 20-year old can of lager in the office drawer unit I inherited

Why couldn't you just tell me, "yeah they have 20 levels of security, armed guards on every level, combination locks on all doors with electronic computerized tracking, and cameras at every corner and intersection of the building." but nooooo it's the who knows building complete with an old desk with a bottle of booze. Yeah I feel way better now. ... lol

If you knew what was stored in some university medical schools and research facilities you would be surprised.

And the record keeping....fa gid abut it!

And don't forget about private research facilities that loose their funding....

it's a mess....

a reply to: Rodinus

Yeah, they were pretty good at dumping things in Barrels in the lakes back in the pre-60s around here too. Places threw sealed containers into their dumpsters or in dumps thinking they would take thousands of years to deteriorate, some of these things were probably crushed by dump trucks, I wonder how many accidents they had back those days that were just covered up. Blame it on some flu or germs and call it something else other than what it really was. People believed the information more those days, the CDC or whatever agency was running things and covering things up more back then. Think about this, these agencies were created by the Rockefeller foundation. Almost everyone here knows about Rockefeller's take on lowering world population.

a reply to: MarlinGrace

Alive? Still kicking

www.cnn.com...

From above:

CDC Director Tom Frieden said his scientists worked through the night on the samples as soon as they got them. Testing confirmed that there was variola DNA in the vials.

and

Additional test results showed "evidence of growth" in samples from two of the vials, suggesting that the smallpox virus is alive.