So, WIRED Magazine recently ran a story about how HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had halted all research at the NIAID facility at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Md.
NIAID’s Integrated Research Facility is one of the few federal facilities charged with studying Ebola. Tuesday afternoon, all of its work was put on indefinite pause by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s department. https://t.co/jNfAoY8u1M
— WIRED (@WIRED) April 30, 2025
The story leads with this:
A research facility within the US National Institutes of Health that is tasked with studying Ebola and other deadly infectious diseases has been instructed by the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop research activities.
According to an email viewed by WIRED, the Integrated Research Facility in Frederick, Maryland, was told to stop all experimental work by April 29 at 5 pm. The facility is part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and is located at the US Army base Fort Detrick. It conducts research on the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases that are deemed “high consequence”—those that pose significant risks to public health. It has 168 employees, including federal workers and contractors.
The lab at Fort Detrick has a long, complicated, and controversial history. It started out as a biological warfare research facility during World War II and has changed its mission repeatedly in the intervening years. What Fort Detrick has, no matter what its stated mission may be, is Biosafety Labs Level 3 and 4 — BSL-3/4 — suited for research on extremely hazardous organisms like smallpox and Ebola, as well as SARS-CoV-2 (COVID).
What’s important here is the BSL-4 lab, the one in which diseases like Ebola are studied.
The problem is (in my best Paul Harvey voice) that you don’t get the rest of the story. Dr Jay Bhattacharya, the new director of the NIH, posted the real story on X:
Two weeks ago, I ordered all work to halt at a high biosecurity risk @nih lab located in Frederick, MD. I did this because of a serious incident involving biosafety that had occurred in early March, but which did not cross my desk until weeks later.
🧵1/5https://t.co/0koFwWmTxw— Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD (@NIHDirector_Jay) May 7, 2025
So it wasn’t RFK Jr. just arbitrarily stopping research. It was Jay Bhattacharya shutting down the lab because someone got in a tiff with another co-worker and cut a hole in their biocontainment suit.
An ongoing investigation revealed a pattern — going back to the Biden administration — of safety not taken as seriously as it ought. So with @SecKennedy‘s blessing, I immediately ordered all work to halt & all dangerous pathogens secured.
🧵3/5 pic.twitter.com/57DxEpl6xK— Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD (@NIHDirector_Jay) May 7, 2025
What’s worse is that it turned out that investigation showed there had been a pattern of not taking safety seriously.
Now, remember this was in the BSL-4 lab, where the really bad bugs live. Things like Ebola and anthrax, not to mention less dangerous bugs like COVID that have gotten a really bad reputation.
In theory, something like this would be detected early — the suits should be examined by eye before they’re put on, and there should be a pressure check when they’re put on.
But what if it wasn’t detected — and don’t forget, the investigation revealed there was a pattern of poor practices? What would the consequences be?
First of all, the worker could be exposed to something nasty, like anthrax. With anthrax, there is a milder form, cutaneous anthrax, that causes sores but is easily treatable once it’s detected and has “only” less than 1% mortality. Anthrax spores, when inhaled, can lead to a much more serious form that has a very high mortality rate between 45% and 85%, even with aggressive treatment.
And then, of course, there’s a problem with possible lab leaks. They’re in that BSL-4 containment for a reason. You may recall the possibility of a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology five years ago.
Jay Bhattacharya — not RFK Jr. — shut down the lab because there had been a serious incident that very possibly was an attempted murder and risked a serious lab leak. All points that WIRED couldn’t be troubled to find out or report.
And that’s the rest of the story.
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