A research installation in the United States National Health Institutes who is responsible for studying Ebola and other fatal infectious diseases have been educated by the Trump administration Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) To stop research activities.
According to an email targeted by Wired, the research center integrated in Frederick, Maryland was invited to stop all experimental work before April 29 at 5 p.m. The installation is part of the National Institute of Infectious Allergies and Diseases (NIAID) and is located at the base of the Fort Detrick American army. He conducts research on the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases which are considered to be a “high consequence” – they pose significant risks to public health. It has 168 employees, including federal workers and entrepreneurs.
The email, sent by Michael Holbrook, associate director for high content in the integrated research installation, says the laboratory puts an end to studies on Lassa fever, the SARS-COV-2 and Equine Equine encephalitis, or EEE, a rare but lethal disease born of Mousquito which has been reported in several northern states of the United States. “We collect as many samples as reasonable to ensure that these studies are useful,” he said in the email. “We were not asked to euthanize the animals so that these animals continue to be managed.” Holbrook did not respond to a Wired investigation.
The email indicates that representatives of the Ministry of Internal Security were padlocking freezers in BSL-4 laboratories, those who have the highest level of biosecurity containment used to study very dangerous microbes. There are only a dozen BSL-4 laboratories in North America. These laboratories work with the viruses that cause Ebola, Lassa fever and Marburg, the types of hemorrhagic fevers. Integrated research installation is one of the few places in the world that is able to perform medical imaging on animals infected with BSL-4 agents.
“The research sacrifice is immense,” explains Gigi Kwik Gronvall, principal researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, on the closure. “If things are not used for a period of time, it will cost more money to prepare them to be used again.”
The director of the installation, Connie Schmaljohn, was also put on administrative leave, according to the e-mail. Previously, Schmaljohn was a principal researcher at the American medical research institute for infectious diseases. She has more than 200 research publications and her work has led to several clinical trials of first -rate vaccine. Schmaljohn also did not respond to a Wired investigation.
In a declaration sent by email to Wired, Bradley Moss, director of communication for the NIH research services office, confirmed the stopping of the research activity. “The NIH has implemented a research break – considered a little security security – in the integrated research installation of Fort Detrick. This decision follows the identification and documentation of personnel problems involving contract staff who compromised the safety culture of the installation, which invites this research research.
Moss did not develop the nature of staff questions and said he did not know how long to last the research break. The staff did not receive a planned reopening date.
The research break is the last disruption of federal scientific agencies after the secretary of the HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Announced at the end of March That 10,000 people from the vast Federal Federal Health Agency will lose their jobs, including those of the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mass layoffs are part of a restructuring plan produced by the so-called called President Donald Trump Government Department (DOGE).
