Government watchdogs have warned for years about weaknesses in federal labs dealing with dangerous bugs. The CDC’s own report on the June incident details four other times that pathogens inappropriately left high-security labs since 2006, including an earlier case involving anthrax. While investigating the latest mishap, CDC Director Tom Frieden also discovered that a contagious strain of avian flu was unintentionally shipped to a lower security Department of Agriculture lab in March.
“What we’re seeing is a pattern that we missed, and the pattern is an insufficient culture of safety,”
via CDC’s Tom Frieden Says Agency Culture Contributed to Anthrax Lapse – Businessweek.