Labs Scramble to Destroy Deadly Flu Samples

An anonymous reader submits "According to this Yahoo! news story, a deadly strain of the Flu virus was mistakenly sent out to thousands of labs, mostly in the U.S., as samples for routine testing. The samples were sent starting last year, but the rush to destroy them began shortly after the WHO raised an alert last Friday following its discovery by the National Microbial Laboratory Canada on March 26. It was not immediately clear why the 1957 pandemic strain, which killed between 1 million and 4 million people -- was in the proficiency test kits routinely sent to labs."

Comments

Famous last words

[Koiu Lpoi]

"Oops."

Well...

[ResidntGeek]

It was not immediately clear why the 1957 pandemic strain, which killed between 1 million and 4 million people -- was in the proficiency test kits routinely sent to labs.

You'd have to be pretty freaking proficient to kill it, I guess, so it's a good test.

this is the way the world ends

[Leontes]

This scares the living shit out of me. I really appreciate all the work that scientists do to protect, understand and appreciate deadly virii in the name of humankind, but for the love of god, people, don't be foolheardy with these biological agents. I think what I dread the most is some alien discovering this world a thousand years from now, a corpse planet, a slow hour long series of flashbacks and a slow fadeout to, "they were destroyed by their own hubris!" I mean, talk about cliche. If you find yourself in possession of a deadly virus, be extra careful and don't send it out to your grandmom by accident, just a tip.