The Trump administration appears to give up in the war against germs. A new report from WIRED reveals that the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services (HHS) closed a federal laboratory dedicated to studying some of the world’s most bloody infectious diseases.
According to the WIRED report, Published On Wednesday, Frederick’s integrated research facility was ordered to completely stop her experimental research by April 29. The facility has long discussed the treatment of “highly resulting” infectious diseases, including Ebola and Massa fever. The fate of the final facility is not certain at this time.
the Integrated research facility It works under the umbrella of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). It hosts one of dozens of research laboratories in North America allowed to deal with germs that meet the standards of level 4 of vital safety, which is the highest level of containment; It is also one of the few places in the entire world where scientists can perform medical photography on affected animals BSL-4. BSL-4 pathogens usually cause severe or fatal disease, and may be able to spread easily in preparing the laboratory, and it has treatments or vaccines available. These diseases include viruses that cause Ebola and LCA, as well as the built influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic.
Watch WIRED Email Message sent by Michael Holbroook, assistant director of high containment in an integrated research facility, which detailed to the closure of the facility. According to Holbroook, the employees told the facility that the facility will explicitly finish its studies on Lhasa, SARS -Coffee -2, and eastern encephalitis (EEE), a The mosquito virus is rare, but it is often fatal It was found in the United States in the northeast. However, the animals used in these studies will not be eliminated. He added that officials from the Ministry of Internal Security will lead to the lock of the freezers used in BSL-4 research.
“The sacrifice of tremendous research,” said Gigi Kwick Gunfal, the great researcher at the Johns Hopkins Health Security Center. “If things are unused for a period of time, it will cost more money to prepare for use again.”
The HHS closure of the integrated search facility should not be a complete surprise. After President Donald Trump’s victory in the November elections, Robert F. returned. Kennedy Junior – who has become president since then, will try this Close infectious diseases research At the National Health Institutes, once Trump took office. During confirmation sessions, Kennedy as well (Error) claimed This federal funding of infectious diseases exceeds the money that is spent on studying chronic diseases.
When contacting him by WIRE, a spokesman for the National Institutes of Health described the closure of the facility as a “search stop” and it seems to blame employees for closing, although without any other details. It is worth noting that the director of the facility, Kony North, was also placed on an administrative vacation.
“This decision follows the identification and documentation of employee issues that involve the contract employees that were exposed to the risk of safety culture in the facility, which prompted this research in this research,” said Bradley Moss, Director of Communications at the Research Services Office at the National Institutes of Health.
However, the government’s logical basis for the government to temporarily stop at the integrated research facility may deserve some doubts, given the extent to which the supposed “RFK JR JR. We see that we are still tasteful outside the worst pandemic viewed for more than a century, which is likely to be a temporary stoppage in infectious diseases research bad news.
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