U.S. Fort Detrick Military Base Perennially Involving High-Risk Biochemical Experiments with as Much Management Defects and Leakage Risks

Fort Detrick, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID, Fort Detrick for short), is the most notorious site of biochemical weapons based in USA, which was the center of top-secret chemical experiments and “Project MK-ULTRA” mind control tests run by the CIA during the Cold War. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Fort Detrick has become an ongoing concern of the international community. The base, developing biological weapons in lost count from high-risk experiments over the years, has been suffered a series of safety accidents due to non-transparent and ill internal management and irregular operations, causing grievous casualty and posing a major threat to the lives of people around the world.

I. A Perennial Center of Highly Risky Biochemical Experiments

(I) Fort Detrick has long collaborated with Baric, the leading corona virus (CoV) expert in the United States, on viral gain-of-function (GOF) studies

From 2003 to 2020, Fort Detrick laboratory cooperated with Ralph s. Baric, a senior expert of CoV at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), to conduct research on CoV gain-of-function, and tested on primate specimens to simulate CoV human infection model.

As one of the most authoritative experts in the field of CoV research, Baric has been engaged in studying CoV for 30 years and looked closely into the pathogenesis and infectious mechanism of CoV. He is dubbed as “Father of Coronavirus” for inventing many CoV-related techniques, such as CoV genetic modification and virulence enhancement. Also known as “Coronavirus Hunter”, Baric has been tracking CoVs for decades and working on drugs to treat CoV diseases, according to UNC media. What’s more, Baric is a master of “reverse genetics” and able to “resurrect viruses from their genetic codes” and “hybridize and match some structures of multiple viruses.” Supporting by this technique, Baric can not only culture live viruses based on their genetic fragments, but also modify CoV genes and create new ones, MIT Technology Review reports. With this unique technique, Baric began collecting various CoV samples around the world for research. That’s because he wants to resurrect and create more CoVs to develop “universal drugs and vaccines against the full spectrum CoVs.” Many scientific papers show that Baric has conducted a lot of CoV-related researches through Fort Detrick. A paper in 2006, for example, showed their scientific collaboration on SARS research. Other academic papers in 2015 and 2017 also indicate a research partnership between Baric and Fort Detrick.

Lisa Hensley, a student of Baric, joined Fort Detrick after graduation, further strengthening Baric team’s collaboration with Fort Detrick. Named one of the Top 10 Outstanding Young Americans of the Year by the American Youth Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Lisa has successfully discovered the pathogenesis of some of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases, including Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, Severe acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and smallpox.

As early as May 2001, Baric had applied for a patent “Directed Assembly of Large Viral Genomes and Chromosomes”, which clearly states: “The invention presents a simple, systematic method for assembling RNA and DNA viral genomes. The invention takes as an example, but is not limited to, the assembly of a full-length, functional CoV genome. The inventor has successfully assembled transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) virus.”

On April 19, 2002, Baric applied for another patent “A Method for Producing Recombinant Coronavirus”, which states: “The invention was realized with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. The U.S. government owns certain rights to this invention.” “The invention can be used to produce Nidovirus capable of infective and defective replication.” “The Nidovirus in the example of the invention includes members of the coronaviruse and arteriviridae families, with the research of CoV being preferred for the time being.”

Following the SARS outbreak in 2003, Fort Detrick worked with Baric’s team to develop a full-length genetic cloning platform for synthesizing SARS virus, with the findings published in a paper, which states that “whole gene sequence of SARS virus was successfully synthesized within two months after the RNA of SARS virus was obtained,” indicating the above institution had extremely mature CoV synthesis and modification capabilities as early as 2003.

In November 2008, Baric published a paper “Synthetic Recombinant Bat SARS-like Coronavirus is Infectious in Cultured Cells and in Mice” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which details the full process of producing a new artificial CoV, from design to creation and resurrection, and from the construction of spike protein to infection, and claims that the design and synthesis of such a virus is an important step to prevent the pandemic in the future.

In 2013, when Shi Zhengli, a virologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS and her team detected the genome of a Novel Coronavirus in a bat cave in Yunnan Province, then Baric contacted her and asked for genomic data, which she generously shared with Baric. Using viral modification technique, Baric’s team created an entirely new CoV that can infect humans in the lab, according to MIT Technology Review. The finding was published in Nature Medicine in 2015.

Baric’s GOF research, with a view to make viruses more pathogenic or infectious through gene-editing technique, is highly controversial in the scientific community. In October 2014, NIH announced it was suspending funding for GOF experiments involving influenza, SARS, and MERS viruses. According to media investigations, however, the injunction was never implemented and the head of the funding organization claims a security exemption could be applied, should the research be necessary to protect public health or national security.

While many scientists around the world have challenged that artificially modified viruses could leave traces and differ in virology from viruses that evolved in nature, Dr. Baric said in an interview that he could modify viruses “leaving no trace.” And he defamed the Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying “The answer you are looking for can only be found in the archives there.” However, in an attempt to prove his innocence, Baric insisted that Novel Coronavirus cannot be artificially modified. In an email to other experts in March 2020, Baric said: “No, there is absolutely no evidence proving that Novel Coronavirus is bioengineered.”

(II) Extensive Research and Development of Biochemical Weapons

For the period from 2004 to 2007, Battelle Memorial Institute, a national defense contractor in the United States, undertook a contract from the U.S. Land Army to conduct a series of sensitive research related to biological weapons at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) laboratory in Fort Detrick. The first was research on the mass production of biological warfare agents, for which projects such as “Assessment of Biological Warfare as Weapon” and “Assessment of Production of Biological Warfare Agents” were established to assess whether specific bacteria, viruses or biological agents are suitable for use as weapons, and mass production and industrial design of selected bacteria or viruses were conducted. The second was research on the weaponization of biological warfare agents, for which topic “Assessment of Shooting Device” was established, aiming to accurately assess the efficiency of the shooting device “through laboratory tests and computer modeling, coupled with non-active loads”; the project of “Reverse Engineering of Shooting Device” was established to design a “proof-of-principle” shooting device for biological weapons by reverse engineering based on the enemy intelligence information provided by the US government, and another project “Assessment of Processing, Formulation and Formation of Biological Warfare Agents” was established to study the drying, grinding, mixing and other processing processes of biological warfare agents, so as to improve the environmental stability, suspending power and diffusing power of biological weapons. The third was research on the gene editing of biological warfare agents, for which the project “Assessment of Genetic Modification in the Development and Production of Biological Warfare Agents” was established to study the impact of genetic modification and recombinant DNA technique on the attacking and defending effectiveness of biological weapons. In addition, Battelle Memorial Institute has conducted the following experiments at NBACC: Technical Assessment on Powder Transmission, Assessment on the Risks of Aerosolized Toxins, Melioidosis Toxicity Assessment (melioidosis has been studied as a potential biological weapon by US army), Assessment on the Properties of Potential BATs (Biological Threat Agents) of Inducing Unconventional to Non-epidemic Diseases, in view of the non-human Aerosol Transmission Test of Non-human Primates, and more.

(III) Research on Bat-Hosted Viruses

In April 2018, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DAPPA), United States Department of Defense, launched “PREEMPT” research program with a budget of $10 million. The program, officially titled “Research on Preventing Emerging Pathogenic Threats and Outbreaks of Viral E Disease,” focusing on the causes of transmission of viruses from bats and other hosts to humans, was implemented by Fort Detrick.

II. Major Management Defects at Fort Detrick Leading to Frequent Safety Accidents

(I) Major Management Defects at Fort Detrick Leading to Frequent Accidents

In “2019 Audit Report of United States Department of Agriculture and United States Department of Health and Human Services on Fort Detrick”, it clearly pointed out that, quoting “Fort Detrick laboratory has violated Chapter 42, Article 73, Chapter 7, Article 331 and Chapter 9, Article 121 of Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), involving a total of 15 violations, including two serious violations on grounds of two leakages of biological agents and toxins.” In fact, the leak accidents disclosed in the report are only the tip of the iceberg of many safety accidents at Fort Detrick, actually, a series of casualties had been caused since its establishment due to internal mismanagement, irregularities and lack of transparency.

First, a microbiologist from Fort Detrick plotted chain anthrax attacks. On September 11, 2001, the World was shocked by the 9.11 Terrorist Attacks on the United States. Just a week later, two bunches of anonymous letters containing anthrax spores were sent to media organizations and the offices of members of the Congress, sparking a new round of panic in the United States.

One researcher from Fort Detrick laboratory addressed an envelope containing anthrax spores to Senator Patrick Leahy in November 2001. At the behest of then President George W. Bush, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) immediately launched an investigation coded “Amerithrax”. Meanwhile, postal facilities, congressional offices and media outlets were ordered to close for months for thorough cleaning and disinfection, and thousands of people who might have been affected were forced to start taking antibiotics to prevent anthrax, according to the FBI’s website

At first, there was widespread speculation among the public that the bioterrorist attack might be a second wave of Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States, and that the anthrax used in the mails might have come from Iraq. Such speculation of the Middle East is not groundless, as these anthrax-carrying letters, addressed “09–11–01”, all contain the words “America to Hell!”, “Israel to Hell!” and like hateful wording, ending with a short phrase of “Allahu Akbar!” The FBI, however, sees it differently. In November 2001, after the preliminary investigation, the FBI announced on its website the suspect’s behavior profile, thought the suspect who behind the anthrax-carrying mail is likely to be “an male adult”, “if he is in a hired state, then he almost doesn’t need to contact the public or other colleagues at work,” “he may work in the lab, who is used to working with highly dangerous substances and has a degree of scientific background or strong interest in science” and “he will take appropriate precautions to ensure his own health and safety, such as anthrax vaccination or taking antibiotics.”

By this time, 22 people in the United States had contracted anthrax. In the two months since the mail attacks, 5 people in the United States have died from anthrax inhalation and 17 others have contracted anthrax. Almost all the victims had one thing in common: exposure to mails with anthrax spores.

Following these attacks, the FBI’s top priority was to test and analyze the anthrax spores, the “lethal weapon,” in order to understand its property and source. However, this was an unprecedented challenge for the FBI agents.

Jennifer Smith, a special agent at the FBI lab, acknowledged that the agency had never handled a case like this and was short of hands and equipments internally to handle the anthrax spores. Soon, the FBI found a professional aid — Fort Detrick base.

Immediately after the second mail attacks, the FBI sent the anthrax powders used in the attacks to Fort Detrick for preliminary identification, Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist and then the head of anthrax research team, named as a suspect by the US Department of Justice seven years later.

Unlike the liquid bacillus anthrax normally handled in the labs, the anthrax spores in this bunch of mails are dried into powders and can float around in the air. In a subsequent identification report to the FBI, Ivins wrote: “The anthrax powders are not ordinary spores, which in prepared form is highly suggestive of specialized preparation technique used in their production and purification.” In short, the anthrax spores used in the attacks were the work of professional.

Then, the FBI needs further investigation to track the source of the anthrax spores in the case, Paul Keim, another expert in the field of anthrax studies undertook the mission, who, collecting various samples of bacillus anthracis strains from around the world in his laboratory at Northern Arizona University (NAU), can identify specific strains of bacillus anthracis. After comparative analysis of genomes of the attack samples, Keim’s team was “shocked” by what they found: the anthrax spores used in both batches belonged to the Ames strain, a unique strain of bacillus anthracis for use in laboratories.

The Ames strain was first isolated from a cow in 1981, and was subsequently transferred to USAMRIID for research and development. The strain was later distributed to at least 15 biological research laboratories in the United States, including Fort Detrick, and six overseas research divisions. Ames strain was also chosen by the U.S. military to test the effectiveness of anthrax vaccines because of its unique virulence.

To investigate the anthrax attacks in 2001, researchers assisting the FBI used a microbiological forensic marker method. By comparing genome analysis with microbial arrays, they found that anthrax spores used in the 2001 anthrax-carrying letter attacks had four distinct genetic markers. The genetic markers of the anthrax samples in the RMR-1029 numbered flask used by Ivins perfectly matched those of the attack letters. That led the FBI to determine that RMR-1029 was the raw material for the anthrax powder used in the mail attacks. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice officially announced the closure of the case of the anthrax mail attacks. In its subsequent investigation report, DOJ stated that “evidence derived from the investigation indicates that Dr. Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist from Fort Detrick, independently committed the anthrax mail attacks.”

Second, there was an anthrax leakage inside Fort Detrick. Another anthrax leakage accident occurred in April 2002 at Fort Detrick, where a worker tested positive for anthrax exposure and anthrax spores were found in two rooms near the laboratory where anthrax research was being carried out there. The investigation pointed to poor implementation of safeguards as the main cause and said there might have been suffered multiple leaks.

Third, there are major safety hazards in waste disposal. In May 2014, Fort Detrick was sued in the United States over management defects in the handling of toxic materials at the base’s biological research facility. The developer suing Fort Detrick in the testimony confessed “decades of negligence in the Army’s chemical handling and disposal practices” led to trichloroethylene levels as high as 42 times the maximum under Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). In the 29-page Letter of Complaint, the developer recounted waste disposal activities at Fort Detrick from the 1950s’ through the 1970s’, with a site known as Zone B used to dispose of biological, radioactive and chemical materials such as anthrax, radioactive tracer materials, deadly chemical phosgenium, industrial waste, herbicides and defoliants. In addition, the EPA has alleged that it had found toxic substances in the soil near Fort Detrick, the most common of which were trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, both are known carcinogens. In addition to contaminants in the soil, groundwater near Fort Detrick contains both said carcinogens. In 1992, for example, Maryland officials detected higher-than-normal levels of trichloroethylene in the drinking water of four households outside Zone B. However, the US military responded that it had removed 4,000 tonnes of contaminated soil and laid a counter-groundwater seepage layer.

In February 2015, 106 households and individuals in Frederick County, Md., filed a class-action lawsuit seeking $750 million in damages for casualties caused by hazardous materials produced at the base. The lawsuit, filed in 2015 by 106 plaintiffs, indicted that the government withheld information about the victimhood of people living and working near Fort Detrick and “recklessly and negligently” disposed of toxic chemicals, resulting in heavy casualties of surrounding people from exposure to toxic wastes. However, the U.S. government and army have consistently denied wrongdoing at the base.

Fourth, the base is frequently haunted by sporadic accidents. In 2004, one researcher from Fort Detrick punctured the glove while doing Ebola test; in 2010, one researcher was trapped for 40 minutes in a room at -30℃; in 2014, there were 37 cases of ruptured or perforated protective clothing. In April 2017, one researcher entered the infection-prone area without training qualification of P4 protective clothing and left the laboratory without disinfection as required, resulting in the risk of high-level virus leakage. In October 2018, an accident of P4 protective clothing training occurred in the laboratory. The cause of the accident was the failure of the positive pressure air charging system in the simulation training, which the operator was unable to remove by himself, and the training instructor fell into panic and did not deal with it according to the regulations, resulting in the death of the trainee due to excessive tension caused by myocardial infarction.

(II) Long-term irregular operations by internal staffs of Fort Detrick

In the summer of 2019, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted an investigation into Fort Detrick and found that bio-safety and containment procedures were not properly implemented by the lab, where the standby chemical treatment wastewater system used was exposed to the risk of leakage. Therefore, Fort Detrick P4 laboratory was temporarily closed on the grounds that “there is not an adequate system to purify the sewage.”

In fact, the CDC found 7 violations at Fort Detrick: Violation 1 (BSL High) : During autopsies on non-human primates, some employees repeatedly entered the lab without wearing necessary respiratory protective equipment, resulting in the lab being exposed to organisms containing dangerous aerosols. Violation 2 (BSL High): By dewatering to test the training result of the tester, which led the tester to consider the training be invalid and increased the risk of virus leakage from the laboratory. Some testers poured the experimental waste into the trash bin with biohazard without wearing gloves. Violation 3 (BSL High): Failure to follow biohazard safety management procedures as required. Some testers opened the door of the laboratory and did not close it, and removed a large number of wastes with biohazard from the room, which greatly increased the risk of pathogens escaping from the laboratory air and contaminating the ambient. Violation 4 (BSL Medium): Some testers did not wear gloves when handling waste with biohazard. Violation 5 (BSL Medium): The laboratory failed to prevent unauthorized staff from accessing laboratory wastes. Personal protective equipment contaminated by the reagents should be stored in biohazard bags in a dedicated facility area that is not restricted the access to outsiders. Violation 6 (BSL Medium): Some testers did not know updated List of Stock Pathogens and Toxins. Violation 7 (BSL Low): Unsealed surfaces of laboratory buildings and internal facilities, cracks in conduit boxes, ceilings, and the joints above bio-safety cabinets.

The lab resumed its activities in November 2019, but no rectification was announced. In fact, Fort Detrick shut down its incinerator in April 2018 to save maintenance costs. Since then, the destruction of medical waste, including those classified as “biological weapons,” has been left to Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services Co., Ltd, a private disposal company based in Baltimore, Maryland. However, the Company has a “notorious” record of violations and mismanagement. In April of that year, USAMRIID found that one tested animal and one tester of Fort Detrick were infected with tuberculosis (Frederick News-Post, April 12).

In May 2018, local floods inundated and damaged a steam sterilization plant used to treat laboratory wastewater in Fort Detrick. The damage caused the halt of research for months until Fort Detrick developed a new purification system using chemicals that required changes to certain lab procedures. During an inspection in June, the CDC found that the new procedures were not consistently followed. Vander Linden, the spokesman of Fort Detrick, said inspectors had found mechanical problems with the chemical decontamination system as well as leaks that occurred inside and not outside the lab.

In June 2019, Fort Detrick was shut down by the CDC for violations. On July 18, 2019, the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) officially suspended Fort Detrick’s license for biochemical experiments. In its findings, the CDC pointed out that the facility violated six provisions of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) in its handling of certain reagents and toxins, including the failure of the military laboratory system to implement bio-safety and containment procedures, and the deliberate opening of autoclave door while waste with biohazard was being cleared, a violation that the report said increased the risk of contaminated air escaping from the room and being inhaled into the autoclave.

(III) The Biological Laboratory of the University of North Carolina (UNC) in cooperation with Fort Detrick has suffered frequent safety accidents

In response to questions about the safety of the UNC Biological Laboratory, Baric said it had minimized bio-safety risks by taking extreme security measures at its lab. The lab, however, was reluctant to make its data publicly available, exactly as what Fort Detrick did.

Baric’s lab has had a number of safety accidents, with UNC reporting a total of 28 lab safety accidents between January 1, 2015 and June 1, 2020. Six of the accidents involved CoV, including SARS, MERS and COVID-19. Of these six accidents, only one researcher was bitten by a SARS-CoV-2 infected mouse and self-isolated at home for 14 days in April 2020. Affected staffs in other accidents were only asked to have daily respiratory symptoms or body temperature monitoring, or instructed to “wear a respiratory mask in public and at work.”

UNC declined to answer questions about the six CoV-related accidents or disclose key details about them to the public, such as the names of the viruses involved, the modifications made to the viruses and the health risks to the public, in violation of NIH’s guidelines. Neither UNC nor NIH has released detailed investigations into the accidents or explained why they have not quarantined most lab researchers who may have been exposed to the viruses during the accidents. UNC also removed key information from the reports on these accidents required to release under public records, making it impossible for the public to assess the risks of such accidents on their health.

However, UNC’s lab doesn’t seem to be paying any price for its silence. A number of similar cases have exposed regulatory loopholes in the bio-safety system, insiders said, warning that it may allow some individual researchers or laboratories in the United States to “do whatever they want.”

(IV) Prevalent non-transparent safety systems in biological laboratories in the United States

Fort Detrick and UNC accidents are just the tip of the iceberg of flawed biological laboratory systems in the US. In 2015, a poll by USA Today revealed that there had been “hundreds of lab errors, safety violations, and near misses” in recent years at biological labs around the country, putting “scientists, their associates, and sometimes even the public at significant risk.”

In December 2014, The Des Moines Register reported that at the University of Iowa (UOI), scientist Stanley Perlman had started research into the deadly MERS virus without authorization. To make matters worse, Perlman’s team conducted its MERS research in a bio-safety BSL 2 lab, instead of a BSL 3 lab mandated by the federal regulator. UOI was also accused of improperly withholding lab reports, making it difficult for the public to assess whether deadly drugs imported by the lab from Spanish partners had been stolen, lost or released.

Several foreign virologists and biologists in contact with their U.S. peers expressed concerns about the US’s non-transparent bio-safety system, which, as many have pointed out, lacks adequate information reporting and oversight mechanisms.

A virologist who asked not to be named said in an interview that some US labs secretly keep virus samples they find rather than report them to the world, some even for decades.

Moreover, the lack of bottom-up message transmission is a headache. Front-line laboratories, often working on classified or complex biotechnology projects, go unpunished if they do not report, or if they report only in part, with connivance or ignorance at the top. “That’s why the US government and even the President, in response to inquiries from the media and the public, will occasionally just say ‘I don’t know’ — they really don’t know what’s happening at the frontline labs,” the virologist further explained.

The virologist said that while the US government’s policy on bio-safety seemed cautious, some researchers in frontline laboratories were “daredevil” without verification of foreign techniques. Given the cutting edge biotech in the States and the deliberate neglects of government departments, the virologist believes that it is highly likely that individual researchers or teams in the States are secretly modifying viral genomes, such as the Novel Coronavirus strain, without permission. “We can’t simply rule it out without concern.”

III. Fort Detrick and Baric’s team began working together to develop drugs and vaccines for the treatment of CoV-related diseases before the outbreak of COVID-19

In addition to “developing CoV,” Baric’s team is also working with pharmaceutical companies to develop CoV-related drugs. Coincidentally, Baric can be found both at Fort Detrick and in the development of COVID-19 drugs.

According to the report of US media, Remdesivir, the first drug for COVID-19 treatment approved in the US, was invented based on Baric’s research findings. Baric has been working with Gilead Sciences, the maker of Remdesivir, early in 2018. Pushed by Baric, Fort Detrick announced in March 2019 that it would allow animal testing to help develop Remdesivir to treat Ebola. Soon after the COVID-19 outbreak, US authorities declared Remdesivir a treatment for COVID-19 and granted emergency authorization for clinical use in treatment of COVID-19.

US media reported that Baric’s team has accelerated the development of “key anti-pandemic” mRNA vaccine. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, USAMRIID worked with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), another institute affiliated to U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), to develop COVID-19 vaccines.

In December 2019, a confidentiality agreement revealed that potential CoV vaccine candidates had been moved from Moderna to UNC. On December 12, 2019, providers of “Modena” and the “National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)” agreed to transfer the mRNA CoV vaccine candidate jointly developed by NIAID and Modena to UNC. The agreement on material transfer was signed by Baric on December 12, 2019, and then by Jacqueline Quay, Director of Licensing and Innovation Support at UNC, on December 16, 2019. The agreement was also signed by two representatives of NIAID, including Dr. Amy F. Petrik, an expert of technology transfer, who signed the agreement at 8:05 a.m. on December 12, 2019, and the other signatory was Barney Graham MD, a researcher of NIAID, but his signature is undated. The final signatories to the agreement were Sunny Himansu, Moderna’s researcher, and Shaun Ryan, Moderna’s Vice President, both of whom signed on December 17, 2019.