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Defense officials admitted the Pentagon didn’t just send live anthrax spores to 28 facilities in the United States and to an Army base in South Korea – the agency also sent them to three laboratories in Canada and previously, to Australia.
The Washington Free Beacon reported the live spores were sent to Australia by accident in 2008 and to Canada just recently.
The anthrax shipments originated from an Army lab at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Military officials believed the spores had been rendered inactive by scientists.
“We have concern that the inactivation procedures, when followed properly, are inadequate to kill all spores,” said Danial Sosen, the deputy director of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, to USA Today.
He also assured “the U.S. government is developing an approach to secure such possible samples from misuse.”
So far, nobody’s been reported to have been infected by the spores. But BBC News reported four Americans and 22 military members stationed at South Korea’s Osan base are receiving preventative treatment, though.
In all, live anthrax spores have been sent by the Pentagon into three countries, 12 states in America and the District of Columbia.
