Bich Nguyen"Federal charges against two virologists have sparked public outcry among scientists concerned about NIH researchers being targeted by the Trump administration."
https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/121710
Szescstopni@bich A link to the archived copy, for those who might want to read this https://web.archive.org/web/20260613183608/https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/121710
NilaJones'Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges against Vincent Munster, PhD, and Claude Kwe, PhD, alleging the pair had transported undeclared inactivated mpox (or monkeypox) virus on a flight into the U.S. and made false statements to federal law enforcement about doing so....'
'The researchers now face a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, the DOJ announced.
'Since then, other virologists have expressed concern over the charges, suggesting they're reflective of the targeting of scientists under the Trump administration.
"This is extremely chilling -- virologists being targeted for what appears to be minor (if any) 'offenses,'" Kristian Andersen, PhD, an evolutionary virologist at Scripps Research, wrote in a post on Bluesky.
'For instance, the inactivated samples in question are "harmless," he noted. "And very specifically -- such samples do not contain the virus itself," he added in part. "It is nothing more than a soup of nucleotides, proteins, and whatever else may be in an inactivated sample taken from humans."
"As for the 'lying' part, I can't speak to that as I was not in the room, however, as I will outline, this part is likely due to misunderstandings and down to the fact that the investigators seem very unfamiliar with how research is done," Andersen further wrote.'