Reps. Walden, Murphy push for stronger reporting, investigation practices for pathogen incidents

U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Greg Walden (R-OR) recently sent a public letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), regarding the Blue Ribbon Panel’s review of the 2014 smallpox virus incident on the NIH campus that called into question a number of missed opportunities to discover vials of the virus.

The report was conducted as part of a request from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, seeking a review on lab incidents involving select agents and lab safety. The committee said in a release that there was reason to believe that certain individuals within NIH were aware of the smallpox vials, but were hesitant to report the incident.

“This report correctly points out that there were several missed opportunities to find the samples before 2014, specifically incidents involving select agents and toxins in NIH laboratories in 2008, 2011, and 2012,” the letter said. “We believe the record should reflect that another major missed opportunity to find the smallpox samples occurred in 1995.”

Referencing the 1995 incident, the congressmen pointed to a report from the Washington Post which stated that NIH safety officers received an anonymous tip from a “top ranking person at the lab” who said there was smallpox in the freezers of the laboratory of Carlton Gajdusek, which were typically used to store biological specimens.

A subsequent investigation of the freezers in question found that no sample was labeled “smallpox”. However, a subsequent examination of all cold storage units throughout NIH might have led to the 2014 vial discovery.

“Although the NIH search efforts did not find the smallpox samples in Gajdusek’s lab, it is a reasonable possibility that the tipster’s allegation in fact was referring to the smallpox samples eventually found in the Building 29A cold room in 2014,” the letter said.

NIH officials have yet to formally respond to the Congressmen’s letter.