The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the director of the bioterror lab in Atlanta, which was involved in the June anthrax mishap that potentially exposed over 80 CDC scientists and staff to anthrax, has decided to resign from his post.
On Wednesday, the CDC said that Michael Farrell, head of CDC's Bioterror Rapid Response and Advanced Technology Laboratory (BRRAT) since 2009, who was reassigned from his duties following the discovery of safety breaches in the federal lab last month, tendered his resignation on Tuesday, July 22.
"I can confirm that he was the team lead for the BRRAT lab since 2009 and that he's resigned from that position," CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner said.
Farrell is the first employee of the CDC to resign from his post following the incident that could have exposed a number of federal lab workers to anthrax, a dangerous and deadly form of bacteria, after the BRRAT laboratory failed to inactivate samples of the bacteria before sending them to lower security laboratories that are not equipped to handle such dangerous pathogen.
Although none of the lab workers got sick and the agency said that the risks of infection is low, the incidence prompted an investigation which eventually found more lapses on how laboratory workers handle deadly bacteria and viruses. Investigators said that the incident occurred because the laboratory did not follow approved sterilization procedures. The lab did not also have standard protocols that would ensure transfer of dangerous materials such as anthrax and similar pathogens would be safe.
Amidst the scandal embroiling CDC laboratories, CDC director Thomas Frieden pledged to improve the culture of safety in the agency. Frieden likewise said that CDC would consider imposing disciplinary measures against staff that did not report security breaches or intentionally violated safety protocols.
Some biosafety experts, however, said that CDC would be better off training its staff so they could identify and respond to security breaches more efficiently instead of casting blame for problems that have repeatedly surfaced in government laboratories in recent years.
Sean Kaufman, a biosecurity expert who used to be connected with the CDC and now president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, said that everybody knows that Farrell is just a scapegoat.
"For (Farrell) to resign as a result of this is an indicator that they're focusing on who instead of what," Kaufman said. "It was a culture that led to this issue. It was not an individual,"
