This story also appeared in Mountain Journal Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, includes a Biosafety Level 4 secure facility for working on the world’s most dangerous disease substances. Credit: Bryan Kercher / NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratories got its start back in 1900 in Hamilton, Montana, where settlers were dying from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The facility has been wrangling with biological and human trouble ever since. RML’s latest controversy arose this week when the U.S. Department of Justice arrested and charged two of its researchers with smuggling monkeypox virus samples into the United States and lying to investigators. That came on top of accusations by an animal welfare advocacy group called White Coat Waste Project Inc., which published an “exclusive whistleblower report” alleging that the facility, part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was covering up accidents involving exposure to dangerous pathogens.  The specific accusations have drawn attention from congressional Republicans, including Montana Senator Tim Sheehy. But they have also illuminated a larger debate over animal research during a time of deep political polarization amid an Ebola virus outbreak that has killed hundreds in Africa and following a hantavirus infection that killed several passengers on a cruise ship in early May. White Coat Waste is a registered nonprofit that raised $5.9 million in 2024. Besides its campaign against RML, White Coat Waste claimed credit for pushing several measures against federal lab testing on animals in the 2026 Farm Bill. It included cuts to funding for animal testing collaborations with China, Russia and other countries. WCW has listed past accomplishments of defunding the Department of Veterans Affairs labs that research dogs and ending a Food and Drug Administration monkey nicotine addiction project. U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. for the Eastern District of Michigan announced Tuesday that Vincent Munster, RML’s chief of virus ecology, and Claude Kwe, Munster’s research fellow, were stopped on January 25, 2025, as they arrived in Detroit on a flight from the Republic of Congo. Customs and Border Patrol agents found a large black plastic case in their luggage, which the men allegedly claimed contained diagnostics and testing equipment, according to a June 2 press release from the Department of Justice. Munster, 53, is a citizen of the Netherlands. Kwe, 38, is from Cameroon. Neither responded to Mountain Journal’s requests for comment. Both men worked in the Emerging Viral Pathogens section in RML’s Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, which the DOJ release described as having “the highest level of biosafety precautions for scientific research of known and potential human pathogens.” The lab specializes in studying and finding treatments for contagious and deadly diseases such as Ebola and hantavirus. The case transported by Munster and Kwe allegedly contained a cooler with 113 vials. FBI tests of 20 of the vials found 17 with deactivated monkeypox virus, one with chickenpox virus and two with human DNA. Monkeypox causes a painful rash and flu-like symptoms but is not fatal. The Republic of Congo had experienced a monkeypox (also called mpox) outbreak for two years until it was declared contained in April. Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022 addresses from left: NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, President Donald Trump, and VRC Research Fellow Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. Despite retiring in 2022, Fauci remains a target of suspicion by some who distrust federal disease science, including the White Coat Waste Project. Credit: NIH “These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak in the Republic of Congo,” Gorgon stated in the press release. If convicted, the two men face up to five years in prison. The release does not say if the researchers remain in custody or when they may appear in court. It does note that the two are innocent until proven guilty.  “We will remain fiercely vigilant in neutralizing biological threats — or otherwise — and continue to hold accountable those who jeopardize the safety and security of the American people,” Customs and Border Patrol Director of Field Operations Marty Raybon said in the DOJ release. But the incident also reflects a long-standing suspicion, since the 2020 COVID pandemic, that government researchers are either carelessly or deliberately tinkering with deadly diseases for unknown and possibly evil purposes. That has been a chronic tension for RML workers, who have spent years building community trust that they are handling dangerous pathogens to help the public, not harm it.  White Coat Waste spokeswoman Karen Lapizco emailed MoJo with “major WCW scoops” on May 13. Those include claims that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had confirmed the FBI was investigating Munster for allegedly smuggling hazardous virus samples from Africa to Montana; that in November a different lab worker had been exposed to Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever through a monkey bite and had to be airlifted to a “distant location” for treatment; and that in February, another RML staff person had an accident with a “select agent,” the technical term for a dangerous pathogen or substance. “It’s caused a lot of alarm in Congress that [the National Institutes of Health] was not transparent about those accidents,” Justin Goodman, senior vice president for White Coat Waste, told MoJo Wednesday. “Lawmakers are also concerned that international smuggling was brushed under the rug by NIH leadership.” On May 26, Sheehy sent a letter to Health and Human Services Inspector General T. March Bell, requesting more information about the incidents and the “risks posed by potentially rogue scientists.”  “It is critical that scientists, especially those with foreign connections, are thoroughly vetted given the potentially catastrophic impacts of their work on our nation’s health and security,” Sheehy wrote.  On May 14, Montana Senator Tim Sheehy posted on X that his office would be “looking into” the allegations against Rocky Mountain Labs. Screenshot credit: Robert Chaney On Wednesday, RML shared a statement from the NIH about the arrests of Munster and Kwe. It stated that it would not provide additional details, but that “NIH took appropriate actions and confirmed there was no risk to staff or the surrounding community.  “We also want to reaffirm NIH’s expectations regarding the handling, transport, storage, documentation, and stewardship of research materials and biological samples,” the statement continued. “All staff are responsible for understanding and complying with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures governing these activities. Maintaining public trust in our work requires a shared commitment to accountability, transparency, and strict adherence to established biosafety and biosecurity requirements.” NIH has also acknowledged the November and February lab incidents, stating, “Rocky Mountain Laboratories filed a required reporting form on Feb. 18, 2026, in response to a potential exposure to Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus due to a hole in a glove that occurred while changing cages of laboratory mice. All reporting, emergency response, and safety protocols were followed. There was no release outside of the lab and at no time was there any risk to the public.”  An NIH official told the Ravalli Republic newspaper the November accident involved a monkey bite penetrating a worker’s protective gear, potentially infecting the person with the same virus. That person was airlifted to a Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. Goodman said his organization did not know the identity of the whistleblower who led to its report or that person’s sources. “The main claims of the letter have started to be confirmed,” Goodman said. “We’ve been careful to say these are allegations. RFK confirmed the main allegation about the FBI investigation. It’s up to NIH to disclose more details to the press or Congress.” DISEASE CHASERS In late April, reports of a deadly Ebola virus outbreak began to circulate from the Democratic Republic of Congo. By mid-May, the fast-spreading disease had killed more than 100 people, and cases had spread to Uganda. On May 21, a crowd in the eastern DRC town of Bunia attacked a medical facility and burned several of the isolation tents in an attempt to retrieve the body of an Ebola victim for burial. A local politician who witnessed the attack told the BBC that the crowd “did not believe the virus, which has so far killed more than 130 [in DRC], was real.” The incident reflects a growing distrust of institutional science. In a May 17 post on X, blogger Laura Loomer claimed that “Fauci holdovers” were “about to unleash Ebola in America in an effort to undermine President Trump’s second term with another pandemic so they can steal more elections.” She continued that the “whistleblower letter” allegations about RML revealed a “cover-up about illegal virus smuggling by Trump-hating, foreign-born NIH animal researchers and a monkey bite incident that exposed a staffer to a deadly virus at an NIH lab in Montana.” However, White Coat Waste’s public activity indicates dissension within Trump-aligned ranks. While Fox News has called the group an ally of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, it has posted highway billboards near RML with Kennedy’s picture next to lab animals and text reading “WTF RFK?/End Fauci’s labs/MAHAbetrayed.org.” The billboards state they are paid for by White Coat Waste. Fauci refers to Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who retired in 2022. He continues to attract blame and suspicion from MAHA activists. Blogger Laura Loomer’s X post on May 13. Screenshot credit: Robert Chaney Nevertheless, White Coat Waste’s Goodman echoed Loomer’s accusations to MoJo. “We certainly don’t think that mad scientists from NIH should be traveling to remote parts of the world and bringing back deadly viruses to U.S. soil where they can cause a lab accident and possibly a pandemic,” Goodman said. “[Microsoft founder and philanthropist] Bill Gates and other people concerned with public health should be doing this research if they want to. But taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill and possibly cause a pandemic like the one that caused COVID. They should all be defunded and shut down. They’re a menace to public health.” But Goodman stressed that White Coat Waste is focused on animal welfare, not public safety. “If the government wants to fund experimentation on exotic viruses, that’s their prerogative,” he said. “My organization is concerned with government funding on animal experimentation. If animals are involved, we’re going to work to stop it. That includes everything at RML or any other biosafety lab that involves animal experimentation.” Asked whether RML’s work on pathogens such as Ebola and hantavirus, and their treatments, justified its activity, Goodman reiterated his group’s focus. “That’s not my organization’s concern,” he said. Ryan Pferdehirt is the vice president of ethics services at the Center for Practical Bioethics. He said that while the rights of animals are an ongoing and serious debate, their unresolved status makes it unlikely that they will outweigh more established principles. “If I had an Ebola outbreak and animal research question, I’m focusing on the Ebola outbreak,” Pferdehirt said. “The benefits of a research institution continuing to exist are likely to outweigh the harms that would come if the institution went away.” ODD ALLIANCES The New York Times in March reported how the Trump administration has been cooperating with animal-welfare groups, including White Coat Waste and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, “in a way that fits into their anti-government, pro-meat-eating ethos.” Science Magazine called the group an “unlikely coalition of fiscal conservatives and liberal activists that aims to end federal funding for research involving dogs and other animals by targeting people’s pocketbooks in addition to their heartstrings.” A Duke University Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law report in April observed that science and politics have been at odds long before Pope Urban VIII put Galileo under house arrest in 1633 for saying the Earth revolved around the sun. However, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 turned the heat up to new levels. “The benefits of a research institution continuing to exist are likely to outweigh the harms that would come if the institution went away.”Ryan Pferdehirt, vice president of ethics services, Center for Practical Bioethics “The current period is defined by an alarming intensification of partisan antagonism, administrative disinvestment, and strategic delegitimization,” the Duke researchers wrote. “Under the Trump administration, politically motivated actors have actively undermined scientific consensus on issues such as climate change, vaccines, and COVID-19, exploiting public anxieties and media fragmentation to sow distrust.” Officials from the EPA, Food and Drug Administration and NIH, for example, have been publicizing efforts supported by the loosely organized “Make America Healthy Again” movement to limit animal research and to close dog-fighting and dog-breeding operations. The Duke report called it a “deliberate effort to integrate public health measures into the vocabulary of grievance and identity politics.” LOCAL TRUST RML has come under scrutiny many times in the past two decades. It added the Biosafety Level 4 facility in the early 2000s, making it one of just a dozen in the nation with the security features required to handle extremely dangerous pathogens such as the Ebola virus. When construction began, a coalition of local environmental groups demanded and received a 20-point public commitment to safety and transparency.  Kim Hasenkrug worked at RML for 31 years, including serving as its chairman of animal research. He told MoJo the lab’s trust relationship with the community has been a constant concern. “Occasionally lab exposures do happen — that’s undeniable,” Hasenkrug said. “The lab does everything possible to mitigate the risk to investigators and the public. Any accident is reported, and strict measures are taken afterward.” That trust was repaid last year when Ravalli County political leaders and residents publicly protested DOGE layoffs that eliminated more than two dozen RML workers. Hamilton City Council members told NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya at the time that the facility employs about 450 people and injects nearly $250 million a year into the local economy and that the cuts would “endanger the safety and economic well-being of our community and its residents.” Hasenkrug explained that RML’s public safety commitment extends beyond its Hamilton campus. The lab’s scientists and technicians, he said, have traveled to dangerous disease outbreaks and risked their lives treating victims and training medical personnel how to respond without exposing themselves. “One thing people don’t understand, when they don’t want these Biosafety Level 4 labs,” Hasenkrug said, “is that those viruses are out there in the wild. The way we contain that is by studying them and developing vaccines and therapeutics. That’s what RML does. It’s much more dangerous to not have the lab than it is to have an accident. And it’s a rare incident to have an accident in the labs.” The post Rocky Mountain Laboratories researchers arrested as lab critics campaign against animal testing appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less