Montana senator wants monkey bite, and lab where it happened, investigated
Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana is asking for an inspector general’s review of a renowned federal research lab in his state after a monkey infected with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever bit a worker there.
The employee, whose name was never made public, was treated after the November 2025 incident, did not contract the lethal tick-borne illness and soon returned to work. But a conservative animal welfare group, White Coat Waste, and MAGA influencer Laura Loomer have since urged federal intervention. They say the incident at the lab, a National Institutes of Health facility in a small town in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, as well as their separate suspicions about one of its employees, demand investigation.
Loomer has highlighted in her social media posts</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/lauraloomer/status/2059348824838295894?s=43&t=G6D1OoYklEVF3UCZEqHT9A","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab50014","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab50015","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>highlighted in her social media posts the lab’s work on the Ebola virus — at a time when an outbreak of that hemorrhagic fever is spreading in central Africa — and said she’s spoken directly with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about specific scientists who work at the lab, who she wants to see fired. A person familiar with the exchange between Loomer and Kennedy confirmed that it happened.
Loomer, who’s close to President Donald Trump and shares White Coat Waste’s desire to protect animals, has in the past targeted other federal employees and nominees, claiming they are insufficiently loyal to the president</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/01/trump-firings-loomer-00488070","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>insufficiently loyal to the president, or that they failed to do enough to protect animals</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/05/rfk-animals-testing-welfare-right-loomer-00591725","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60002","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60003","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>to do enough to protect animals or that they were closet progressives</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/30/white-house-drove-prasad-firing-despite-rfk-jr-makary-concerns-00485972","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>closet progressives. This has sometimes resulted in the people being fired or having their nominations derailed.
On Tuesday, he followed through, asking Health and Human Services Department Inspector General March Bell in a letter to review the details of the incident and the lab’s safety procedures. A spokesperson for Bell said Friday that his office received Sheehy’s letter and that it is “reviewing it for appropriate action.”
“We don’t want Montana to be the next Wuhan,” Sheehy wrote on X</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/TimSheehyMT/status/2059352255967408333?s=20","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60008","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60009","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Sheehy wrote on X, referring to the contentious theory that a Chinese virology lab was the source of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is no scientific consensus yet on whether the pandemic started as a result of the virus jumping from animals to people in nature or from an accidental release of the virus from a lab.
The Rocky Mountain Laboratories is credited with advancing understanding of myriad diseases and conducts its work at the government’s highest biosafety level. Scientists at the facility in Hamilton, about an hour’s drive south of Missoula, wear positive-pressure encapsulating suits and breathe filtered air as they work.
They investigate the molecular traits of microbes, which the lab says</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/rocky-mountain-overview","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6000a","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6000b","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>the lab says helps others develop treatments to combat disease. Lab scientists are credited with breakthroughs involving Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme, and Ebola, among others.
Two of Sheehy’s Republican colleagues in the Senate, Rick Scott of Florida </u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/ScottforFlorida/status/2054959266109284730?s=20","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6000c","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6000d","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Rick Scott of Florida and Joni Ernst of Iowa, have nonetheless also expressed concern about the possibility of a lab leak from the Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
“We need to stop any funding of batty research before it causes another pandemic,” Ernst wrote on X</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/SenJoniErnst/status/2055295995450167594","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6000e","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6000f","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Ernst wrote on X earlier this month.
“I have been asking about this NIH lab and the research that happens there for years and years,” Ernst told POLITICO in an emailed statement, pointing to letters she wrote in 2023</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/rml_letter.pdf","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60010","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60011","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>wrote in 2023 and in January</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://links.us1.defend.egress.com/Warning?crId=6a19a4093526d47039773fb8&Domain=politico.com&Threat=eNpzrShJLcpLzAEADmkDRA%3D%3D&Lang=en&Base64Url=eNoFwjEOgCAMAMAfgTI4ODoYNcTNuanSCAlaQqvx-eYuqhbprT1ZsJrIj5A5-bVbyYyBwpgyiV3nCQZU8LgLDOnAiypm8KRKFRa8oXXgGteZwMf3AybrHlY%3D&@OriginalLink=gosar.house.gov","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60012","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60013","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>in January. “We can never allow another Wuhan to occur, especially within our own borders,” she added.
Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican who serves on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has said safety concerns are another reason to cut funding for all NIH programs that remain</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/RepGosar/status/2055013004232765873?s=20","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60014","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60015","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>another reason to cut funding for all NIH programs that remain from the time when Anthony Fauci ran the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the NIH division the Rocky Mountain Laboratories is part of</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/rocky-mountain-overview","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60016","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60017","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>the Rocky Mountain Laboratories is part of.
Anthony Foti, a spokesperson for Gosar, said Gosar and Ernst met recently with HHS officials to discuss a January letter from the two lawmakers asking how much taxpayer money is spent on bat research and why. Some of the diseases studied at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, such as Ebola, come from bats. Gosar is now working on a follow-up request for documents and information about it, Foti said.
Sen. Scott’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
At a meeting of the lab’s community liaison group last week, the lab’s associate director for scientific management, Marshall Bloom, said that the person bitten by the monkey was OK, according to a report in the local paper</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://ravallirepublic.com/news/local/government-politics/article_5918f05d-e9b0-4744-a223-936c75969bc3.html","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60018","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab60019","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>a report in the local paper, the Ravalli Republic. “The person that was exposed to that never developed any signs or symptoms, was completely well, and has been back at work for, oh gosh, months and months and months,” Bloom said, according to the paper.
Bloom referred a request for comment to the National Institutes of Health, which did not respond. But a person familiar with the monkey bite, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, confirmed the details to POLITICO.
“The worker was highly experienced, wore all required protective gear, and followed all established procedures at the time of the exposure,” the person said. “Experienced clinical experts” and “highly trained safety professionals” decontaminated, isolated and evaluated the lab employee, the person said.
The employee was then transferred to the nearest Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Center, which is located at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital in Spokane, Washington, the person said.
The hospital confirmed to POLITICO in an emailed statement that an individual from the lab was transferred to the facility. “The patient was isolated and monitored and was later discharged,” the statement said, adding that it can’t share additional details due to patient privacy rules.
“At no time was there any evidence of disease transmission or infection, nor was there ever any risk to staff, caregivers, or the public,” the person who confirmed the details of the case added.
In his letter to Bell, Sheehy also cites a whistleblower complaint made public by White Coat Waste</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://x.com/WhiteCoatWaste/status/2054316353444585813?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2054316353444585813%7Ctwgr%5Ee99b20f580465c3f9bcc50fc83d667e28a55de2d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitecoatwaste.org%2Fblog%2F2026%2F05%2F12%2Fwcw-exposes-accident-with-deadly-virus-at-nih-animal-lab%2F","_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6001a","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"0000019e-750a-d458-a1de-f76b7ab6001b","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>a whistleblower complaint made public by White Coat Waste alleging Vincent Munster, a researcher at the lab who studies Ebola and other diseases capable of spreading from animals to people, was detained in January following a trip to Africa at Detroit’s airport because he was carrying vials of an unknown substance.
“The NIH confirmed to our office the incident involving Vincent Munster occurred and that there is an ongoing investigation,” Sheehy’s communications director, Tate Mitchell, told POLITICO.
Munster did not respond to a request for comment sent to his NIH email address and HHS referred to the FBI for comment.
The FBI told POLITICO that it “can neither confirm nor deny conducting specific investigations.”
A Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson said the CBP will not comment on individual travelers due to privacy concerns and “ongoing law enforcement protocols.”
The Wayne County Airport Authority, which oversees the Detroit airport, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sheehy wants Bell to review the lab’s security and oversight policies, as well as its personnel management practices, including background checks and clearance processes for staff who handle dangerous pathogens.
He also demanded a review of NIH protocols for employees who are under investigation, including facility access.
المصدر: Politico
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