The employees who received the Merck ERVEBO jab in November work at the Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center, part of Denver North.
Dr. Maria Frank, who received the jab, said: “Even though there are no current outbreaks in the world, we want to make sure that people have the chance to be protected in case we need to take care of a patient that has a disease with a mortality potentially of 70 percent.”
Just north of the facility in Fort Collins, a new $12 million lab is being built that will import bats from around the world for experimentation on a range of potentially deadly diseases, including Ebola. It is slated to be a biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) lab, which means it can work with pathogens linked to human diseases posing a health hazard, such as HIV, salmonella and hepatitis. It is expected to open in September of 2025.
As if that weren’t enough cause for concern on its own, the lab is being funded by EcoHealth Alliance, which was also involved with the Wuhan Institute of Virology where COVID-19 is believed to have originated. Other parties that are a part of the collaboration behind the lab include the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which used to be run by Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Colorado State University.
In proposals for the facility, which is expected to be around 14,000 square feet, there are indications that the lab intends to store and study pathogens such as COVID-19 and Nipah virus, in addition to Ebola.
The researchers behind the lab have said that it will enhance the U.S.’s “ability to study the role of bats in disease transmission and help us become even stronger in researching emerging zoonotic pathogens.” ...<<<Read More>>>....
