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Here’s another interesting anthrax. It didn’t get much followup in the media and may or may not be important but it was an odd event.
Va. Defense Facility Locked Down
Similar Incident at Pentagon Spurs Queries About Coordination
By Jamie Stockwell and Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; A01
A sensor at a Department of Defense mailroom in Fairfax County signaled the presence of a suspicious biological substance yesterday, forcing hundreds of workers to remain inside three buildings for almost six hours.
The lockdown came just hours after the mail facility at the Pentagon, about four miles away in Arlington, was evacuated and closed. The Pentagon took that action yesterday morning after tests conducted last week came back positive for anthrax, officials said. Later tests at the Pentagon were negative.
Spokesmen for the Pentagon and the Fairfax fire department initially said the events at the Pentagon and in the Baileys Crossroads section of Fairfax were unrelated. But last night, a Virginia official said the events might be linked. In addition, emergency officials responding to the Fairfax incident said they were not aware of the Pentagon evacuation, causing Virginia’s top homeland security official to say that coordination by the Defense Department would have to be reviewed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....12_pf.html
On a related note to this story. Back on March 16, 2005, the NYT reported the following:
Anthrax Scare Is Attributed to a Testing Error
By SCOTT SHANE
WASHINGTON, March 15 - Health officials believe that a mix-up of samples in a Defense Department contractor’s laboratory was behind an anthrax scare Monday and Tuesday that rattled the stock market, set the White House on alert, shut three post offices in the Washington area and led to more than 800 people being offered antibiotics.
A senior military official said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday night that “quality control problems” at the contractor’s laboratory appeared to have caused the bioterrorism false alarm.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that any laboratory testing for anthrax usually kept a sample of anthrax on hand to calibrate equipment. He said evidence suggested that the sample had somehow contaminated an air filter from a Pentagon shipping center that had been sent to the laboratory for routine testing last Thursday.
The error was compounded when the same contaminated sample was then sent for a confirmation test to the Army’s biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. The Army laboratory confirmed the positive test at 4 a.m. Tuesday.
Only after dozens of other swabs from walls, floors and machinery in the Pentagon shipping facility were tested and all proved negative did officials conclude that the initial positive test must have resulted from the laboratory error, the official said.
The Defense Department official declined to identify the contractor, which does routine anthrax testing on air filters from the Pentagon shipping facility. Another government official said it was a private laboratory in Richmond, Va.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03.....;position=
While trying to track down the contractor that the anonymous government source would not identify I found out through a google search and a WaPo article that the company was Commonwealth BioTechnologies, Inc. In their 8k SEC filing they documented their internal review of the positive anthrax and they stick by their original POSITIVE results. It’s interesting reading.
Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc. Completes
Internal Review of Procedures
Snip>
"Since then, there has been public speculation as to the possibility that the source of the positive test outcome was laboratory contamination of the test sample which took place in CBI’s laboratory. Because the March 10 swab sample tested positive, CBI conducted a rigorous internal audit of its administrative and laboratory processes to try and ascertain whether the test outcome was the result of inadvertent laboratory cross-contamination. This review process has now been completed."
——————————————————————————–
In the last week, CBI’s quality assurance group has conducted an extensive review of our administrative and laboratory procedures and has re-examined our facility for the presence of viable environmental pathogens. None of these tests has come back positive. Among the findings of this review:
• There is no evidence in the BSL3 for the presence of surface contamination or air-borne contamination.
• At the time of the sample processing for the Pentagon, no other anthrax–related work was being done.
• CBI has no on-going work which requires us to work with anything but the vegetative form of anthrax.
• CBI has no on-going programs dealing with anthrax spores.
• CBI’s strict protocols which prohibit analyzing test samples in the presence of a positive control sample were strictly adhered to.
• Video records of the BSL3 lab on the day in question show that the testing was carried out per the operative protocols, that the required decontamination procedures of the workspace prior to working with the sample were followed, and that no gross deviations in standard procedures occurred.
• The internal review process also recommended minor modifications to the procedures and protocols used for analysis of these test samples. These changes, which have already been implemented, can only serve to improve CBI’s overall process.
——————————————————————————–
“While contamination cannot ever be absolutely ruled out, there is no evidence which directly links the positive test outcome to surface-to-sample, sample-to-sample, or air-to-sample contamination. Unfortunately, the source of the positive sample may never be known with certainty. From CBI’s point of view, we did our jobs and faithfully reported the positive test result to our contractor. We have a legal and contractual obligation to report these results, regardless of the underlying reason a sample tests positive. In light of the outcome of our internal review, CBI stands behind the results it provided. After CBI reported its results to its contractor, CBI had no influence on any subsequent decisions. CBI will continue to fully cooperate with all appropriate authorities and will help in any way to further any on-going investigations.”
For full info in 8K SEC filing:
http://secfilings.nasdaq.com/f.....&pdf=
