I used to live practically right outside the fence of Fort Detrick. After I retired from the Air Force I thought it was interesting that I could just walk onto the base with no problem, but the Bio research facility is like a second more secure base inside the main base that very few people have access to. I remember there was a sealed up building visible from outside the fence that kids used to call the anthrax building and there was an urban legend it was a lab that was sealed up because anthrax got loose and was growing wild inside. After I was able to access the base I could see it's nowhere near the high security portion of the base and appears to be an old maintenance building probably abandoned but not torn down because of asbestos.
I was one of my company's NBC team in the Marines. I went to NBC school at 18 and the stuff we learned about the weapons is horrifying for the 1970's and today. But we did have fun with it. Gassing our units with CS, giving out wrong size masks to officers and senior enlisted. Happy Veterans Day to all my brothers and sisters out there.
For a while, I served as the Corpsman who stood by in the gas house for any recruits who couldn't fit their mask and got into medical trouble. what a snot-fest.
In basic when we went to the gas chamber someone had sabotaged my mask (M-17) and yanked out the voicemitter disk. I immediately knew something was wrong when it wouldn't seal. To say that initially I gained no confidence in my equipment would be an understatement. Much later I learned that the culprit was my own drill sergeant... who was a longtime friend of my father (a now retired command sergeant major.) Though effective, I think there's more rational ways to see how you're going to hold up when sh*t goes south. And there was a practical joke component as well. Fortunately, I didn't make a complete ass of myself during that debacle. Sure, it made me some serious points with both my drill sergeant and my father for how I reacted. But there's far better ways to do that. lol I got through it due to some solid pointers from a Navy vet and NBC specialist in my platoon that was a retread. I don't rag on Navy after that. Air Force is still fair game for ragging. LOL
@@jssamp4442 " Who does their fighting from a comfortable chair? Chair Force!" "Who does their fighting way up in the air? Chair Force!" My family has been Chair Force for as long as there have been Chairplanes.
@@Jpm463 I can't tell you how many inoculations, stiches, and broken bones I had dealt with there, but it was a lot. It was 1980-86, so kids still went outside and did dumb shit.
@robmerrell1745 I love this story so much. I can picture a version of what this was like. I have to check the national archives for images from that time frame.
The one thing you've all for got to mention is that since 1942 Porton Down in Wiltshire has been carrying out similar if not the same work as in the states.
The channel 'Geographics' did one while Simon was still host. But now that I think about it, doing something here and/or 'Into The Shadows' would be interesting.
There is a suprising number of BSL4 facilities around the world, and they are increasing. It is something that the research community has raised the alarm bells about, because some countries don't have stable governments to ensure that they will be adequately funded to prevent leaks, or that they may become a threat if the government fails.
I don’t get how you could be a consciences objector and work in a BioLab. I’m pretty sure that bio weapon is 1000 times worse than shooting somebody with a rifle.
I live not too far away from USAMRIID/Fort Detrick. It is actually way safer than people think. I even knew one of the guys who was working in the building where anthrax was studied & allegedly lost. Now I don't drink water from near there though.
My friend who plays drums in the MD band Clutch, bought a house right near Fort Dietrich. He turned the basement into a recording studio, & kept all of his drum sets stored in the bomb shelter that was part of the lower level. FD was a Russian nuclear target since the late 40’s.
How did I not know that you had this video? This is my jam and most people are not aware of just how bad and quite frankly how horrific bio weapons can be. We can only fight against something if we understand it at the very least on a basic level and hopefully on the pinnacle of USSAMIRD in BS:L 3 and 4 research and defensive capability. Yet as I see that you speak on it I want to say there have only been a few times I truly was shamed and embarrassed by my country. The use of these pathogens on anyone is barbaric but to use them against our own people... it must not happen again. I would be willing to guarantee they did not truly know the hot mess they were getting into. In the worst cases other Americans were infected without them knowing. Anyway thank you Simon I love your work on all your channels. Edit: I just saw that you uploaded this yesterday so no wonder I didn't know.
The sound of Simon thumping his desk sounds *exactly* like one of my kids just closed the front door. I'm calling up to my kids a lot when I'm in the Whistlerverse.
Really good and also for this kind of facilities takes a whole lot of money for these parts as well as the safety measures like suitcases and rooms for that.
In 1983 I was in security police training at Lackland AFB Texas, when some people came to our class and asked for volunteers for an experiment at nearby Randolf AFB. The experiement was to last two days and they offered us some takeout food as compensation. A few soldiers, including myself, raised their hands (I was 17 and pretty naive). The experiment involved testing a chemical decontamination chamber. We were suited up in chemical warfare suits and then sprayed with a strange substance that had a wintergreen smell to it. I should have been alarmed when the people spraying us were also wearing chemical warfare suits, but after eating messhall chow for several months, the promise of fast food drowned out any alarms that were ringing in my head. After the dousing we were then instructed to enter the decontamination chambers and perform a variety of tasks. Above us were windows in the ceiling where scientists (at least they looked like scientists, they wore white coats) and military officers observed the process. In the last room of many rooms we were ordered to strip and enter a very dark space for inspection. There, we were scanned with a black light to see if any drops of the chemical got onto our skin. This whole precess was then repeated for two days and at the end of those two days we were unceremoniously sent back to our flight (in army language a platoon). To be fair, they did keep their promise and we were fed generously burgers and pizza. Since then I haven't grown any extra appendages or developed an urge for human flesh, but I still do wonder why the guys spraying us were also wearing protective suits. 👀
They probably were wearing suits to prevent the fluorescent dye to come onto their clothes and everything outside. Also to prevent other influences (humans are full of bacteria). My guess is that the chemical thing was just a fluorescent dye (which are carcinogens in large doses), and not something dangerous. But in that time, you could never be sure. There weren’t so many regulations back then
For those interested, check out the science fiction book The Cobra Event by Richard Preston, the same author that wrote The Hot Zone. In short, he took the information and knowledge he learned from doing the research for The Hot Zone, to write a science fiction horror story. The main character get fired from a genetics lab, decides the world must be punished, and creates a biological weapon from several real world diseases. He rents an apartment , and buys all the equipment needed (all equipment needed was legal at the time the story was written), and releases it in a children's playground. It then shifts to how the government reacts to this new threat, and working out who did it and why. Scary thing is, it could all be done for real. You do need the right skill set, and the wrong mindset. And a small bank loan. I highly recommend it, especially if you have read The Hot Zone.
I've used papr systems with full bio/chemical suits and they are miserable to get on, work in and get off. We used them in training during covid for cerfp and what people don't realize is that if 1 troop is infected the papr system blows their unfiltered breath right into the face of the person they are decontaminating. The systems fact boy is talking about in this video are different and are connected to a building though.
One of my childhood friends worked/works at fort Dietrich on the administration side. It's one of the only places in the world where the smallpox virus is held.
I thought that was a thumbnail of a laundromat on my phone and was like, yeah checks out, there’s definitely more than one video of someone dying in one on here
Thank you Simon for pointing out that USAMRIID has actually prevented countless deaths. It is an important detail to clarify for those who choose to accuse the US military of any number of ludicrous atrocities. The US military is no more perfect than any other nation's military, yet far better than most, but USAMRIID has indeed done great things and saved many lives.
I hope there isnt coincidentally a wet market right next to this biolab, and that this "wetmarket" next to the biolab doesnt cause a global pandemic, a pandemic that isnt related to the biolab at all by the way
You forgot Ft. Doom’s most famous employee - Dr. Frank Olson! He was borrowed by the CIA, expressed concerns over the ethics over several experiments and interrogations…..and fell out a hotel window. Whoopsie.
you never mentioned that USAMRIID is one of the few places in the world that contains a surviving fully intact sample of small pox if that were to ever get out it would be BAD. I would fear a small pox outbreak more than Ebola
Then you outsource the research to a lab in North Carolina, and they offshore it to a lab with poor maintenance record to save money. Then you say Oops! Start destroying evidence and use your Gmail account to avoid FOIA request.
Watching this and then remembering the episode about the Russian equivalent facility having repeated accidents and/or being casually abandoned and left to scavengers.
The nice thing is that all the world powers have a mutual interest in avoiding the use of biological weapons since they are indiscriminate. It’s the terrorist, lone wolf nutcase (like the anthrax guy), and accidents that are the real risks for bio weapons. The accident and lab policy issue can be seen with the COVID outbreak from a certain lab in a certain country. 😅
True. I've heard a weird conspiracy theory that COVID was semi actively bred to be lethal only in the elderly. Certain countries are facing a retirement crisis with too many old people. I still think China leaked it accidentally though. And thank goodness for that omnicron strain, the free immunization strain. Whoever set that loose likely saved millions of lives
The CDC keeps a stockpile of the most lethal biological agents known as well. Their research tends to lean toward finding ways to treat these nasty contagions, however.
lyssa virus and Hendra virus.. Contained only in that labs.. And in the really cute fruit bats that fly around the more northern cities of Australia. :)
I used to live practically right outside the fence of Fort Detrick. After I retired from the Air Force I thought it was interesting that I could just walk onto the base with no problem, but the Bio research facility is like a second more secure base inside the main base that very few people have access to. I remember there was a sealed up building visible from outside the fence that kids used to call the anthrax building and there was an urban legend it was a lab that was sealed up because anthrax got loose and was growing wild inside. After I was able to access the base I could see it's nowhere near the high security portion of the base and appears to be an old maintenance building probably abandoned but not torn down because of asbestos.
I remember those stories, and yes, asbetos abatement was why it was sealed off.
I like how the opening of "Outbreak" does the security levels.
Yes really don't make it like that anymore.
If you’ve ever read “The Hot Zone” USAMRIID is frequently visited throughout the book. Worth reading if you want to have nightmares about Ebola. 😅
Had to read it for 8th grade biology class. Have to say, no other book has ever affected me as deeply as that existential nightmare.
I read that book too. Top notch Body Horror and Nightmare fuel.
Great book
I really liked that book. The Hot Zone miniseries was really good too
One of my most favourite books
I was one of my company's NBC team in the Marines. I went to NBC school at 18 and the stuff we learned about the weapons is horrifying for the 1970's and today. But we did have fun with it. Gassing our units with CS, giving out wrong size masks to officers and senior enlisted. Happy Veterans Day to all my brothers and sisters out there.
For a while, I served as the Corpsman who stood by in the gas house for any recruits who couldn't fit their mask and got into medical trouble. what a snot-fest.
@@jssamp4442I remember the gas house.
I remember I hate the gas house...
In basic when we went to the gas chamber someone had sabotaged my mask (M-17) and yanked out the voicemitter disk. I immediately knew something was wrong when it wouldn't seal. To say that initially I gained no confidence in my equipment would be an understatement. Much later I learned that the culprit was my own drill sergeant... who was a longtime friend of my father (a now retired command sergeant major.) Though effective, I think there's more rational ways to see how you're going to hold up when sh*t goes south. And there was a practical joke component as well. Fortunately, I didn't make a complete ass of myself during that debacle. Sure, it made me some serious points with both my drill sergeant and my father for how I reacted. But there's far better ways to do that. lol I got through it due to some solid pointers from a Navy vet and NBC specialist in my platoon that was a retread. I don't rag on Navy after that. Air Force is still fair game for ragging. LOL
@rtyrsson Air Force is made for ragging on. Two of my brothers were Air Force and my aunt. 👹
@@jssamp4442 " Who does their fighting from a comfortable chair? Chair Force!"
"Who does their fighting way up in the air? Chair Force!"
My family has been Chair Force for as long as there have been Chairplanes.
I used to live between Camp David and Fort Detrick. I figured I was either in the safest or most dangerous place in the world.
¿Porque no los dos?
Another great episode ......... and it's right up my alley.
I grew up on Ft Detrick, lol. The post medical clinic was in the same building as USAMRIID.
Yikes!
@@Jpm463 I can't tell you how many inoculations, stiches, and broken bones I had dealt with there, but it was a lot. It was 1980-86, so kids still went outside and did dumb shit.
@robmerrell1745 I love this story so much. I can picture a version of what this was like. I have to check the national archives for images from that time frame.
One of the greatest dangers in dealing with anything dangerous is human complacency. Places like this need to do things to SAFELY keep people alert.
But I keep hearing the the gubment can't do anything right? What could go wrong? 😂🤣We'll do that experiment in C*in*.
Really like the new visual crossovers and layouts..
Many thanks Simon and the team 🙏🏻😁
HA! MY HOME TOWN! Frederick MD. All the locals know about that place!
Always nice to see Frederick mentioned 🤣🤣
USAMRICD has all the chemical weapons. Do that one next 😬
Or Aberdeen proving ground!
The one thing you've all for got to mention is that since 1942 Porton Down in Wiltshire has been carrying out similar if not the same work as in the states.
The channel 'Geographics' did one while Simon was still host. But now that I think about it, doing something here and/or 'Into The Shadows' would be interesting.
There is a suprising number of BSL4 facilities around the world, and they are increasing. It is something that the research community has raised the alarm bells about, because some countries don't have stable governments to ensure that they will be adequately funded to prevent leaks, or that they may become a threat if the government fails.
@@Myopicvisions well said
Imagine being a conscientious objector so the government decides to use you for human research.
Go right from conscientious to unconscious.
I don’t get how you could be a consciences objector and work in a BioLab. I’m pretty sure that bio weapon is 1000 times worse than shooting somebody with a rifle.
Do USAMRICD next!!!!🎉
As a follow-up, please do a story about the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah.
Yes!!
X3. Yes. That whole Skull valley area is creepy af.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see the comment section is actually civil. Well done gentlemen.
Good old Operation Paperclip.
I live not too far away from USAMRIID/Fort Detrick. It is actually way safer than people think. I even knew one of the guys who was working in the building where anthrax was studied & allegedly lost. Now I don't drink water from near there though.
Yea was stationed there for the satellite terminals, and had lots of friends that worked there. Never had anything bad happen
Praise God! When it's quiet that means the procedures are working. 😅
Dang, Simon. You make that sweater look good!
is called a 'cable stitch' ...and yes he rocks the look
Very interesting video. I thought you would be talking about Rocky Flats.
I remember learning about USAMRIID from "The Hot Zone." It actually got me absolutely fascinated with Ebola when I was a teenager. heh.
If you like " Hot Zone" look for a book called " Biopreparat" .
It's the Soviet version of USAAMRID.
Fort Detrick AKA Fort Doom
My friend who plays drums in the MD band Clutch, bought a house right near Fort Dietrich. He turned the basement into a recording studio, & kept all of his drum sets stored in the bomb shelter that was part of the lower level. FD was a Russian nuclear target since the late 40’s.
This is mind blowing.
Not really, this sort of lax security is exactly how the COVID pandemic happened…
I work on Fort Detrick, and drive by the Dan Crozier building daily. Pretty cool to see a video on it.
Simon got a beard trim 😂lookin’ good.
How did I not know that you had this video? This is my jam and most people are not aware of just how bad and quite frankly how horrific bio weapons can be. We can only fight against something if we understand it at the very least on a basic level and hopefully on the pinnacle of USSAMIRD in BS:L 3 and 4 research and defensive capability. Yet as I see that you speak on it I want to say there have only been a few times I truly was shamed and embarrassed by my country. The use of these pathogens on anyone is barbaric but to use them against our own people... it must not happen again. I would be willing to guarantee they did not truly know the hot mess they were getting into. In the worst cases other Americans were infected without them knowing. Anyway thank you Simon I love your work on all your channels. Edit: I just saw that you uploaded this yesterday so no wonder I didn't know.
The sound of Simon thumping his desk sounds *exactly* like one of my kids just closed the front door. I'm calling up to my kids a lot when I'm in the Whistlerverse.
Really good and also for this kind of facilities takes a whole lot of money for these parts as well as the safety measures like suitcases and rooms for that.
In 1983 I was in security police training at Lackland AFB Texas, when some people came to our class and asked for volunteers for an experiment at nearby Randolf AFB. The experiement was to last two days and they offered us some takeout food as compensation. A few soldiers, including myself, raised their hands (I was 17 and pretty naive). The experiment involved testing a chemical decontamination chamber. We were suited up in chemical warfare suits and then sprayed with a strange substance that had a wintergreen smell to it. I should have been alarmed when the people spraying us were also wearing chemical warfare suits, but after eating messhall chow for several months, the promise of fast food drowned out any alarms that were ringing in my head. After the dousing we were then instructed to enter the decontamination chambers and perform a variety of tasks. Above us were windows in the ceiling where scientists (at least they looked like scientists, they wore white coats) and military officers observed the process. In the last room of many rooms we were ordered to strip and enter a very dark space for inspection. There, we were scanned with a black light to see if any drops of the chemical got onto our skin. This whole precess was then repeated for two days and at the end of those two days we were unceremoniously sent back to our flight (in army language a platoon). To be fair, they did keep their promise and we were fed generously burgers and pizza. Since then I haven't grown any extra appendages or developed an urge for human flesh, but I still do wonder why the guys spraying us were also wearing protective suits. 👀
They probably were wearing suits to prevent the fluorescent dye to come onto their clothes and everything outside. Also to prevent other influences (humans are full of bacteria).
My guess is that the chemical thing was just a fluorescent dye (which are carcinogens in large doses), and not something dangerous. But in that time, you could never be sure. There weren’t so many regulations back then
You forgot about the Motaba virus.
Dustin Hoffman saved Amurica!
😂
All the best to everyone
Missed opportunity to talk about the Magic 8 Ball and the building that they cinder blocked off instead of decontaminating during the Cold War.
On Mondays years ago they incinerated test subjects on detrick. It stunk so bad.
Just watch the movie "Outbreak"
For those interested, check out the science fiction book The Cobra Event by Richard Preston, the same author that wrote The Hot Zone.
In short, he took the information and knowledge he learned from doing the research for The Hot Zone, to write a science fiction horror story.
The main character get fired from a genetics lab, decides the world must be punished, and creates a biological weapon from several real world diseases. He rents an apartment
, and buys all the equipment needed (all equipment needed was legal at the time the story was written), and releases it in a children's playground.
It then shifts to how the government reacts to this new threat, and working out who did it and why.
Scary thing is, it could all be done for real. You do need the right skill set, and the wrong mindset. And a small bank loan.
I highly recommend it, especially if you have read The Hot Zone.
That novel and The Hot Zone effectively scared Bill Clinton into starting the initial development of bio defense programs as we know it now
@Arnold-l1k I didn't know that, but it doesn't surprise me.
Wonderful 😊
Scary shit.
Grew up right next to Detrick and mom still lives there. Ah the stories that come out of this place could make several videos.
Morgan Freeman’s and Dustin Hofmans unit from from the movie outbreak😷
1:19 America's most important laboratory
5:57 major advances
12:07 bioweapons: a murky endeavour
Scary stuff.
I've used papr systems with full bio/chemical suits and they are miserable to get on, work in and get off. We used them in training during covid for cerfp and what people don't realize is that if 1 troop is infected the papr system blows their unfiltered breath right into the face of the person they are decontaminating. The systems fact boy is talking about in this video are different and are connected to a building though.
0:48 It'd be nice if you put a key in, so we know what the different colours mean.
One of my childhood friends worked/works at fort Dietrich on the administration side. It's one of the only places in the world where the smallpox virus is held.
I thought that was a thumbnail of a laundromat on my phone and was like, yeah checks out, there’s definitely more than one video of someone dying in one on here
Thank you Simon for pointing out that USAMRIID has actually prevented countless deaths. It is an important detail to clarify for those who choose to accuse the US military of any number of ludicrous atrocities. The US military is no more perfect than any other nation's military, yet far better than most, but USAMRIID has indeed done great things and saved many lives.
I hope there isnt coincidentally a wet market right next to this biolab, and that this "wetmarket" next to the biolab doesnt cause a global pandemic, a pandemic that isnt related to the biolab at all by the way
🥱
Are you talking chi-naw virus?
@@owellorge1868 yes
oyvey
1:25 - Chapter 1 - America most important laboratory
6:00 - Chapter 2 - Major advances
12:10 - Chapter 3 - Bioweapons; a murky endeavor
Star Trek’s handheld medic is coming! 😂
I'd like to see a Megaprojects on Porton Down.
Reminds of something that just happened recently. But i cant seem to quite place it.
oyvey
What could possibly go wrong?
The world explode and my head fall off?
Revelation of The Method hosted by Simon Whistler.
0:01. Clearly you have never seen the bathroom of a Taco Time franchise on Taco Tuesday. The horror…the horror
There are 42 known BSL-4 sites in the world. Canada itself has two, one of which is in the heart of a major city. 😅
Listening to this video while working on an anthrax detection machine.
He didn't mention the term gain of function research a single time but that's exactly what this is 😂
You forgot Ft. Doom’s most famous employee - Dr. Frank Olson! He was borrowed by the CIA, expressed concerns over the ethics over several experiments and interrogations…..and fell out a hotel window. Whoopsie.
you never mentioned that USAMRIID is one of the few places in the world that contains a surviving fully intact sample of small pox if that were to ever get out it would be BAD. I would fear a small pox outbreak more than Ebola
USAMRIID was brilliant in dealing with COVID. 😂
Hope there's no wet markets nearby
I'm sure this won't have any undesirable effects
Then you outsource the research to a lab in North Carolina, and they offshore it to a lab with poor maintenance record to save money. Then you say Oops! Start destroying evidence and use your Gmail account to avoid FOIA request.
Scary as F#$K
I built several of those facilities. They take things that can end mankind and screw with them!!!
Watching this and then remembering the episode about the Russian equivalent facility having repeated accidents and/or being casually abandoned and left to scavengers.
Simon did you not want us seeing you are wearing the same shirt as the other video?
I knew it was Ft. Derrick 50 years ago
being in the US Army Corps of Engineers Civil Service after serving
previously in the US Air Force. 😅
Enough to make you feel really sick inside......
ill always find vx gas as the most scary weapon, bioweapons dont scare me like vx
Are you talking about the VX in The Rock? Or actual VX? I’d fear novichok more than VX, just imo
@@HyBr1dRaNg3rI fear teen gangsters with handguns more than both 😂
The AIT is the ET one
Did this facility have self desruct nuke? As last resort counter measurment for leaks...
Re: Dr. Ivins - shades of Richard Jewell...
You can apply to be a test subject there.
What they have been doing during the COVID pandemic?
Uh, I've been fighting a bad cold for the past few days. Should I worry?
The nice thing is that all the world powers have a mutual interest in avoiding the use of biological weapons since they are indiscriminate.
It’s the terrorist, lone wolf nutcase (like the anthrax guy), and accidents that are the real risks for bio weapons.
The accident and lab policy issue can be seen with the COVID outbreak from a certain lab in a certain country. 😅
True. I've heard a weird conspiracy theory that COVID was semi actively bred to be lethal only in the elderly. Certain countries are facing a retirement crisis with too many old people.
I still think China leaked it accidentally though. And thank goodness for that omnicron strain, the free immunization strain. Whoever set that loose likely saved millions of lives
A country could immunise it's people before releasing a deadly pathogen
The preamble tells me you’re confident that this video will still be around when those currently under the age of 4 get around to watching it?
"that guy you wanted to ask about the anthrax, um, looks like he shot himself in the back of the head. twice."🤷♂️
He says LABORATORY like the kid from Dexter's Lab.
The kid was Dexter. In Dexter’s Lab
human CWD. Nightmares lurk here.
Bio weapons will always come around and bite the user on the ass.
Ha I grew up near Ft. Detrick
The Amerithrax situation makes covid look legit. I was never satisfied with any of the 'conclusions' from it and it's been mostly swept under the rug.
The CDC keeps a stockpile of the most lethal biological agents known as well. Their research tends to lean toward finding ways to treat these nasty contagions, however.
Did they really destroy the US stockpile of VX?
lyssa virus and Hendra virus.. Contained only in that labs..
And in the really cute fruit bats that fly around the more northern cities of Australia. :)
And there was me thinking that most off the book bio/chemical weaponary experimentation was carried out off shore by third party black budget labs 🤔
Ah, yes, the Respurritry system
Sounds familiar.
Captain Tripps
Captain Trips. 🤧🤒😵
hubris
Umbrella corp.
They did great during Covid
Like Wuhan but in the before times!
Test subjects?
Just watch the movie outbreak to see them in action
3:20 Not a killer, you say? Gotcha. Gotcha. What if we gave you the plague tho?