Local officials noted their concern to CDC officials in writing. In email correspondence, they informed CDC that, during the abatement process, they had uncovered a freezer labeled with the word “Ebola.” In the email, a local official asked the CDC, “[w]hen you [] are going through and looking for select agents, do the containers need to be labeled individually with what is in it to count as one? We are doing the abatement here in Reedley and a fridge [freezer] had a label on it and one of the words in English was Ebola,” while noting that the containers within were not expressly labeled “Ebola.” The CDC official responded by stating, “Yes, we would typically look for the vial to be labeled as Ebola” and noted that they did not recall seeing the Ebola label. He did not cite any CDC policy when making this pronouncement. The court-ordered abatement action required local officials to destroy the samples under a defined timeline. Local officials emailed CDC on the afternoon of July 6, 2023, and CDC responded the following morning. Local officials had already destroyed the samples.
The CDC did not note an Ebola label on the freezer in its report. When asked about the freezer labeled Ebola in a subsequent email, the CDC official noted that the CDC “would typically look for the vial to be labeled as Ebola,” that they “didn’t recall seeing a fridge labeled as Ebola,” and asked for a photograph of the freezer. A photograph was not available. The Select Committee has received written statements reporting the presence of the label. Ebola is a Select Agent.[1]
F. The Investigation and Lack of Testing Leave Many Unknowns
The CDC’s refusal to test any potential pathogens with the understanding that local officials would otherwise have to destroy the samples through an abatement process makes it impossible for the Select Committee to fully assess the potential risks that this specific facility posed to the community. It is possible that there were other highly dangerous pathogens that were in the coded vials or otherwise unlabeled. Due to government failures, we simply cannot know.
In its refusal to test, the CDC likewise did not offer to connect local officials with any other federal agency or authorized lab that may be able to test the samples.[2] Based on statements from local officials and briefings the Select Committee received from the CDC, the CDC did not contact the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, the government biodefense laboratory located in Fort Dietrich, Maryland that could potentially have provided greater assistance.
According to local official accounts, in a subsequent conversation with the CDC in early September 2023, local officials again pressed the CDC on why they refused to test any potential pathogens. A CDC official informed the local officials
- ↑ HHS and USDA Select Agents and Toxins, CDC (Aug. 1, 2023).
- ↑ The Select Committee was unable to find any emails or other communications where the CDC offered to make these connections to agencies with similar authorities. Local officials reported that the CDC did not do so.
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