The CDC sent a statement to CNN saying, “There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials.” The federal health agency added that the lab worker who found the vials was wearing gloves and a face mask. “We will provide further details as they are available,” wrote a CDC representative. Yahoo News obtained an unclassified “For Official Use Only” alert from the Department of Homeland Security reporting that there were a total of 15 questionable vials — five labeled “smallpox” and 10 labeled as “vaccinia.” Health authorities immediately secured the products in question. William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor of preventive medicine and health policy at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, calls the discovery a “huge surprise” because almost all stocks of the variola virus (which causes smallpox) were thought to have been destroyed after the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the disease to be eradicated in 1980. Today, only two locations officially store and handle variola virus under WHO supervision: the CDC in Atlanta and the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (VECTOR Institute) in Koltsovo, Russia. The last time such a surprising discovery of smallpox vials occurred was in 2014 when six vials labeled as variola were uncovered during a cleanup of National Institutes of Health labs in Bethesda, Maryland. The CDC later destroyed these vials under the observation of WHO officials in 2015. “It’s understandable that this discovery may cause such concern because smallpox was one of the great pestilential scourges of the world, causing periodic epidemics and devastating illness,” said Dr. Schaffner. On average, 3 out of every 10 people who got the disease died, and the people who did survive usually had scars and lesions, which were sometimes severe. Some infected individuals were left blinded. Thanks to the success of vaccination, however, the disease has been eradicated, and no cases of naturally occurring smallpox have happened since 1977. The last known outbreak in the United States goes back to 1947. Schaffner cautions, however, that because the disease has been “eliminated,” the vast majority of the world’s population is no longer inoculated against smallpox. Still, he stresses that this incident should pose “zero” concern to the general public. The vials were intact and the person who discovered them was wearing protective equipment so there should be “no hazard at all.” Schaffner also notes that although smallpox has a fearsome reputation, under the vast majority of circumstances, it did not spread rapidly. “It has the reputation of spreading like wildfire, but that’s actually not the case,” he said. The investigation by the CDC and FBI is still ongoing, and details will be reported as they develop.
