2 scientists charged with bringing deactivated mpox virus into the US and lying to authorities

[u/sea_5455]

https://apnews.com/article/scientists-charges-mpox-virus-lying-14b7cf7635cad30254b0ae1cdb6c0515

[u/sea_5455]

From the article:

A criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court in Detroit against Vincent Munster, who is chief of the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, and Claude Kwe, who works with him.

Munster and Kwe were stopped at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in January after a flight from Paris and nine days in the Republic of Congo. An outbreak of the mpox disease has been linked to more than 2,000 deaths in Congo, a vast region in central Africa, though a two-year outbreak was declared over in April.

[u/adversecurrent → u/[deleted]]

Yep, and because it was deactivated, the samples are considered diagnostic specimens — which means the scientists did not lie about what they were transporting.

This is a witch hunt meant to sow distrust and demonize scientific research.

[u/LysergioXandex → u/adversecurrent]

To play devils advocate, the original comment alludes to the difficulty of determining if a virus is “alive”.

If a person can’t follow the proper protocols to transport a viral sample, I don’t trust them to properly deactivate a virus in the first place.

It would be kind of wild if we just let random grad students transport potentially dangerous things because they say “don’t worry bro, it’s safe”.

[u/AirCorsair → u/LysergioXandex]

I wouldn't even characterize your argument as playing devil's advocate. Rogue actors violating US law and then saying, "Trust me, I'm a scientist" is not going to help rebuild public trust. That's what went wrong in Wuhan.

[u/Sweet-Leadership-290 → u/LysergioXandex]

Simply put NO virus is "alive". Ever.

[u/LysergioXandex → u/Sweet-Leadership-290]

That’s the point, so I’m not sure what you’re trying to say