When it comes to health and wellness, and fastidious attention to safety when working with dangerous pathogens in a high-level biological lab, Maryland’s Fort Detrick has failed the test, according to a new book by investigative reporter Alison Young.

Despite assurances by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases that nothing had leaked outside the lab during a 2018 flood, the truth was that 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of unsterilized wastewater found its way to storm drains and a creek not far from Frederick, Maryland.

The labs that drained into the leaking sterilization tanks were working with Ebola, anthrax and other lethal pathogens — and the 65-year-old, rusting facility had a history of problems that had already caused multiple leaks over the years.

Basically, it was a disaster waiting to happen. What’s worse, when it was finally noticed that the spill did occur, “nobody seemed to be looking very hard to find out,” Young reports. So what happened? Young’s book tells the true story of coverups, slipups and deceit that the government agency tried to hide.

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KFF Health News April 25, 2013