Hey everybody,

I found this disturbing story cruising the internet.

According to a staff report from the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee, laboratory staff was ordered to destroy a "unique collection" of specimens compiled by two prominent researchers. The specimens, according to the report, were "particularly valuable because it was not a simple collection of disease strains" but correlated to clinical outcomes.

Michael Moreland, who headed the VA's Pittsburgh Healthcare System at the time, defended the decision to close the Special Pathogens Lab and destroy the specimens, saying the lab wasn't approved to do the work; that specimens were not labeled and were considered hazardous; and that the lab was operating an unauthorized commercial enterprise to test water for private companies, the AP reports.

The chairman of the House Science subcommitee, Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., said he saw no "credible reason" for the December 2006 destruction of the samples. The congressional report said the collection contained 8,000 disease, serum, respiratory and urine samples, gathered between 1979 and 2006.

Here are some links:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/09/anthrax_case.html

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIrbb_E7A4haxWQsNHHcC8x2pqIgD933BQ200

http://democrats.science.house.gov/Media/File/Commdocs/hearings/2008/Oversight/9sept/Staff_Report.pdf

Omai