An infected lab monkey at a federal NIH facility in Hamilton, Montana bit a government worker, and if your first reaction was "here we go again," congratulations — you've been paying attention. The monkey was carrying Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a lethal tick-borne illness, and GOP senators are now demanding answers about what exactly is going on inside Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
A government lab. Infected primates. A worker gets bitten. And they wonder why we have trust issues.
The incident happened back in November at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, known as RML, a National Institutes of Health research facility that studies some of the world's most dangerous infectious diseases. The employee was treated and, thankfully, did not contract the disease and eventually returned to work. But the fact that we're only hearing about this now — and only because Republican senators started asking questions — tells you everything about how the NIH handles "transparency."
Sen. Tim Sheehy, Republican of Montana, didn't mince words. "We don't want Montana to be the next Wuhan," Sheehy said. "Montanans and Americans deserve answers over concerning reports out of Rocky Mountain Laboratories." He added that "the seriousness of the work conducted at RML means that even small lapses can carry real risks for the staff and surrounding community." Small lapses. Like a monkey with a hemorrhagic fever sinking its teeth into somebody. Just a little oopsie.
Sen. Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, has been sounding the alarm on this facility for years. "I have been asking about this NIH lab and the research that happens there for years and years," Ernst said. She drove the point home: "We can never allow another Wuhan to occur, especially within our own borders."
That's not hyperbole. We literally just lived through a pandemic that growing evidence suggests leaked from a Chinese lab doing gain-of-function research — research partially funded by American tax dollars through NIH. And now we find out our own NIH facility has monkeys biting people while infected with deadly diseases. The jokes about government competence write themselves, except nobody's laughing.
Dr. Vincent Munster, a researcher at the facility, allegedly brought unmarked vials back from an Africa study trip. Unmarked vials. From Africa. To a lab in Montana. If you wrote this into a movie script, the studio would reject it for being too on the nose.
Both senators have contacted the Department of Health and Human Services demanding a full accounting of safety protocols at RML. Good. Because the same government that wants us to "trust the science" apparently can't keep an infected monkey from chomping on an employee.
Fool me once with a lab leak, shame on the lab. Fool me twice — well, that's why Sheehy and Ernst are making sure there isn't a twice.
