Inside a Cardboard Box and left it in a storage room. Who came near it, and how dangerous was it . Abc chiefs medical editor dr. Richard besser starts us off with answers. Reporter tonight, real alarm about how six vials of smallpox, one of historys most feared viruses, were left in a low security fda laboratory for decades, forgotten in a refrigerated storage room at the National Institute of health in bethesda, maryland. If this material is infectious and these vials had broken, what could have happened . There is a potential that someone could have contracted the disease. Reporter the vials, believed to be from the 1950s, were discovered one week ago when the contents of the storage room were being moved. Opening that box, workers saw an alarming label, variola. Thats smallpox. They quickly moved it to a biohazard level 3 lab, one with cameras, scanners and alarms where everyone wears protective gear. The National Security council was notified, and five agencies, including the fbi,
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