Two researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been charged after allegedly smuggling viral pathogens into the United States and then lying to investigators, prosecutors announced on June 2.
Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, employed by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and working at the high-level laboratory in Montana, traveled in January from Congo—where there was an outbreak of monkeypox—and landed at the airport in Detroit, Michigan.
Customs officials saw the men traveling with a large black plastic case, according to charging documents. The men told officers that diagnostic and testing equipment was inside. An investigation revealed the case contained 113 vials….