Just when you think it couldn’t possibly get any worse, that the incompetence had reached its absolute nadir, you run across this headline!
To give you a taste of the f@#%-up du jour:
NEWARK, N.J. — Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory about two weeks ago, and authorities launched a search though health experts said there was scant public risk…
The possibility of theft prompted the institute to interrogate two dozen of its employees and conduct lie detector tests, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Thursday.
The FBI said it was investigating. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also investigating, the newspaper reported.
The mice would have already died if they escaped into nature, the report indicated. The question left hanging is whether they would have infected any other creatures.
Fortunately, plague is treatable today with antibiotics, but 1 in 7 cases is still fatal. About 10 to 20 people catch the plague in the US annually; it is carried naturally by some rodents and by armadillos.
From the Newark Star-Ledger:
Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University microbiologist and a critic of the government’s rapid expansion of bio-terrorism labs, said federal guidelines call for only minimal security at such laboratories — a lock on the lab door and a lock on the sample container and cage.
“You have more security at a McDonald’s than at some of these facilities,” Ebright told the newspaper.
And the kicker (back to the Washington Post):
The incident came as federal authorities investigate possible corruption in the school’s finances. The FBI is reviewing political donations and millions of dollars in no-bid contracts awarded to politically connected firms.
That’s our Bush, making us safe at home, yessiree!
