{"id":41274,"date":"2018-10-31T17:17:49","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T17:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/10\/31\/heres-how-the-pentagon-will-make-sure-it-never-accidentally-mails-live-anthrax-around-the-world-again-5\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:34:01","slug":"heres-how-the-pentagon-will-make-sure-it-never-accidentally-mails-live-anthrax-around-the-world-again-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/10\/31\/heres-how-the-pentagon-will-make-sure-it-never-accidentally-mails-live-anthrax-around-the-world-again-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how the Pentagon will make sure it never accidentally mails live anthrax around the world again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than three years have passed since news emerged that the Army i<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2015\/07\/23\/pentagon-no-single-cause-for-mistaken-anthrax-shipments\/\" target=_blank>nadvertently shipped<\/a> 575 samples of live Bacillus anthracis \u2014 the bacteria that causes anthrax \u2014 to nearly 200 labs and contractors across the globe between 2004 and 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while a government watchdog group found the both the Army and the Pentagon made progress in shoring up shoddy oversight of biological agents and toxins programs, more work must be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because the Army is the lead Defense Department tasked with leading the agency\u2019s germ efforts, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/700\/694617.pdf\" target=_blank>Government Accountability Office report<\/a> targeted its progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GAO found that the Defense Department has taken about half of the actions called for in a 2015 Army investigation into the shipments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But of the 35 recommendations, 17 remain incomplete and underway, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/700\/694617.pdf\" target=_blank>GAO<\/a> found.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2015\/07\/23\/pentagon-no-single-cause-for-mistaken-anthrax-shipments\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635732699810348587-geoint-2015-1216jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Pentagon: No single cause for mistaken anthrax shipments<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Defense Department investigators examining accidental shipments of live anthrax from an Army lab in Utah to 83 facilities in eight countries could not pinpoint a singular\u00a0reason that the facility produced live samples ashipments.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army\u2019s report into the anthrax flub \u201cdetermined that there was insufficient evidence to establish a single point of failure\u201d for all that anthrax bacteria shipped from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dugway.army.mil\/\" target=_blank>Dugway Proving Ground<\/a> in Utah. It houses the military\u2019s lone \u201cWhole System Live Agent Test Chamber,\u201d which is primarily used for biological agent aerosol testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the shipments were \u201ca serious breach of regulations and raised biosecurity concerns, it did not pose a public health risk,\u201d the GAO report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, that Army report cited \u201cscientific and institutional issues\u201d at Dugway and found that senior management there had contributed to \u201ca culture of complacency, resulting in laboratory personnel not always following rules, regulations and procedures,\u201d according to GAO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of the Army\u2019s investigation, the Pentagon established a Biological Select Agents and Toxins program office to help oversee reforms but \u201cDOD has not developed a strategy and implementation plan for managing the program,\u201d investigators wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWithout a strategy an implementation plan, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah and DOD\u2019s laboratory facilities that currently produce and handle (biological agents and toxins) may be unclear about DOD\u2019s strategy to harmonize\u2026operations to ensure safety, security, and standardization of procedures,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GAO also found that the Army has failed to fully establish measures to keep biological testing and evaluation missions independent from the biological research and development efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link smg-interstitial-link--fallback wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2016\/01\/15\/egregious-safety-failures-at-army-lab-led-to-anthrax-mistakes\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__fallback-link\">Egregious safety failures at Army lab led to anthrax mistakes<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Fiscal 2017 defense bill called for the DOD to report back to lawmakers by February 2017 regarding the feasibility of other reforms, including consolidating all the bio work under a unified command, partnering with the private industry to produce the germs and determining whether such jobs should be transferred out of the Army\u2019s hands altogether and to \u201canother government or commercial laboratory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDOD has not completed this required study and evaluation,\u201d the GAO report states. \u201cDOD officials have no estimated time frames for when DOD will complete the study and evaluation. Without times frames for completing the study and evaluation, DOD is unable to provide decision makers with key information on its infrastructure requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dugway officials thought they were sending inactivated anthrax bacteria samples that were still useful for research, according to the GAO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DOD concurred with GAO\u2019s recommendations that it figure out how to assess the effectiveness of reform prescriptions and develop a strategy and implementation plan for its Biological Select Agents and Toxins office\u2019s Biosafety and Biosecurity program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also agreed with GAO\u2019s recommendations regarding keeping parts of the programs separate from each other and meeting deadlines to complete a study on these issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new government watchdog shows progress, but much work remains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"},"5":{"categories":["your-army","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-army"},"6":{"categories":["your-marine-corps","news","newsletters","daily-news-roundup"],"primary_category":"your-marine-corps"}}},"categories":[101,23,89,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3355],"class_list":["post-41274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5FBGSE6N65FCHEDEZIVFDHVRGM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/10\/31\/heres-how-the-pentagon-will-make-sure-it-never-accidentally-mails-live-anthrax-around-the-world-again-5\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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