America suffers a ‘staggeringly high’ number of laboratory leak incidents at its top virus labs each year, data shows – amid calls for centers to cut the number of experiments carried out on diseases that can trigger pandemics.
Official data reveals more than 600 releases of ‘controlled’ pathogens – which could include anthrax, tuberculosis and Ebola – were recorded in the US over the eight years to 2022, equivalent to 70 to 100 releases each year.
At least two US workers were infected after the ‘release events’ over the past eight years – including the crippling mosquito-borne virus Chikungunya and the bacterial infection Q fever – although no deaths were reported.
Many of the incidents were caused by researchers spilling the contents of test tubes, not wearing safety equipment properly, and being bitten and scratched by infected animals.
The graph above shows the number of lab leak incidents recorded in the US each year where a disease was released outside of its primary containment
The above map shows the location of BSL4 (blue dots) and BSL3 (red dots) laboratories in the United States. Many are located in city centers
All ran the risk of diseases being accidentally released into society, where the pathogens could start the next pandemic.
In some cases, diseases were released from laboratories due to equipment failure or via bad practices, such as draining blood from infected monkeys into puncture holes.
Experts said the numbers in question, which were collected by the Federal Select Agents Program (FSAP), were a warning about the dangers of experimenting with these viruses.
It comes amid growing suspicion that the Covid pandemic was the result of a lab leak incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was known to be experimenting with the coronavirus at the time.
Dr. Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said the data showed the ‘staggeringly high rate’ of laboratory accidents in the US.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘It also shows the inadequacy of the US government’s oversight of biosecurity and the lack of public transparency.
‘Will be eye-opening for anyone not in the field.’
Among labs that have recorded a lab leak incident over the past eight years was Fort Detrick in Maryland, where anthrax may have escaped from the boiler rooms
There are concerns that deadly pathogens could escape from laboratories and trigger a new pandemic
The top microbiologist also cautioned that those numbers were likely an underestimate because labs testing for other diseases — such as chickenpox — were not required to report any accidents at their facilities.
A spokeswoman for the Government Accountability Office in Washington DC, which has campaigned on the issue for years, warned that safety in laboratories “continued to pose a serious threat to people”.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘We reported and testified before Congress in 2018 that security breaches continue to occur in US laboratories conducting research into dangerous pathogens – such as the Ebola virus and the bacteria that cause anthrax.
“These pose a serious risk to human, animal and plant health.”
A release event is defined as when a pathogen—such as a virus—may have escaped outside its primary containment area, such as a test tube or special ventilated unit where testing was performed.
Few details were available about individual accidents, such as the pathogen released, how the release occurred, and where it occurred.
Officials are not releasing this information because of alleged “national security risks” to the United States.
One of the incidents occurred in September 2016, when a student at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, walked the community for four days after accidentally piercing safety equipment and his finger with a needle coated with the chikungunya virus , before alerting her supervisor. .
The student came down with a fever, body aches and chills – and was later admitted to hospital, where she tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease.
In another case in May 2018, it was revealed that anthrax may have been accidentally released from the boiler room at Fort Detrick, Maryland, into a nearby river where people were planting lily pads after the room was flooded in a storm.
Concerns were also raised in 2015 in Louisiana that a laboratory had accidentally released a disease called ‘Vietnamese time bomb fever’ into the local environment after monkeys in a colony near the laboratory began testing positive for the disease.
Even more lapses were revealed in 2014 when vials of viable smallpox virus were found in a cold room at an FDA laboratory instead of within appropriate security areas.
There are at least seven Biosafety Level Four (BSL4) laboratories in the United States, licensed to store and experiment with the most dangerous pathogens known to man.
The United States also has dozens of Biosafety Level Three (BSL3) laboratories, which are also allowed to hold and experiment with dangerous pathogens.
Researchers in laboratories have previously described regulations for these laboratories as ‘patchwork’ at best, and that they are unsure of which authority they must report to.
In September 2022, the GAO suggested that a single agency be created to oversee the labs, similar to the nuclear industry—although this recommendation was rejected by the White House.
A hearing on the regulation of the laboratories in October 2023 by the select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic also revealed gaps in the supervision of these centers.
They concluded: “Both members and witnesses noted the lack of clear standards for the design, construction and operation of high containment laboratories.
‘(This) increases the risk of research-related accidents.’
They urged the United States to standardize its regulation of laboratories to prevent further accidents that could potentially start another pandemic.
There are 59 BSL4 laboratories globally, data shows, with almost half located in Europe.
The largest in the world was WIV, which had 3,000 meters of laboratory space, but last June a larger facility was opened in Manhattan, Kansas.
As in the United States, there are also a number of laboratory leaks that have occurred abroad.
Among the most notable incidents was in Russia, when at least 68 people died in Sverdlovsk near Yekaterinburg in central Russia after anthrax was accidentally released from a laboratory.
Witnesses described a ‘big pink cloud’ floating in the air above the laboratory after the accident.
A release from a laboratory is also believed by some scientists to have triggered the 1977 flu pandemic, which started in the old USSR before spreading around the world.
Younger adults were infected by a strain of influenza that had not been seen in the wild for decades, leading to theories of a laboratory leak.