Editing Fort Detrick (section)

===Fort Detrick (1956–present)===

====Cold War years (1956–89)====
Camp Detrick was designated a permanent installation for peacetime biological research and development shortly after World War II, but that status was not confirmed until 1956, when the post became Fort Detrick. Its mandate was to continue its previous mission of biomedical research and its role as the world's leading research campus for biological agents requiring specialty containment. 
 
The most recent land acquisition for the fort was a parcel of less than {{convert|3|acre|ha}} along the Rosemont Avenue fence in 1962, completing the present {{convert|1200|acre|ha}}.

On Veterans Day, November 11, 1969,  President [[Richard M. Nixon]] asked the Senate to ratify the 1925 [[Geneva Protocol]] prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons. Nixon assured Fort Detrick its research would continue. On November 25, 1969, Nixon made [[Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs|a statement outlawing offensive biological research]] in the United States. Since that time any research done at Fort Detrick has allegedly been purely defensive in nature,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=History :: U.S. Army Fort Detrick|url=https://home.army.mil/detrick/index.php/about/history|access-date=2021-12-15|website=home.army.mil}}</ref> focusing on diagnostics, preventives and treatments for BW infections. This research is undertaken by the [[United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases|U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases]] (USAMRIID) which transitioned from the previous [[United States Army Medical Unit|U.S. Army Medical Unit]] (USAMU) and was renamed in 1969.

As he ended the offensive biological research done at Fort Detrick, Nixon pledged to make former laboratories and land available by the disestablishment of the offensive biological warfare program transferred to the [[United States Department of Health and Human Services|U.S Department of Health and Human Services]] during the 1970s and later. The Frederick National Cancer Research and Development Center (now the [[Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research]]) was established in 1971 on a {{convert|69|acre|ha|adj=on}} parcel in Area A ceded by the installation.<ref name=":0" />

In 1989 base researchers identified the [[Ebola]] virus in a monkey imported to the area from the Philippines.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/>

====Post-Cold War (1990–present)====
In 1990, Hazelton Research Products' Reston Quarantine Unit in [[Reston, Virginia]] suffered a mysterious outbreak of fatal illness among a shipment of [[crab-eating macaque]] monkeys imported from the Philippines.  The company's veterinary pathologist sent tissue samples from dead animals to the [[United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases]] (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, where a laboratory test known as an [[ELISA]] assay showed antibodies to Ebola virus.
Thereafter, a team from USAMRIID euthanized the surviving monkeys, bringing the carcasses to Ft. Detrick for study by the veterinary pathologists and virologists, and eventual disposal under safe conditions. The Philippines and the United States had no previous cases of Ebola infection, and upon further study researchers concluded it was another strain of Ebola, or a new filovirus of Asian origin, which they named ''[[Reston ebolavirus]]'' (REBOV) after the location of the incident.<ref name="Preston">{{cite book | title=The Hot Zone | url=https://archive.org/details/hotzone00presrich | url-access=registration | publisher=Random House | author=Preston, Richard | year=1994 | location=New York | pages=[https://archive.org/details/hotzone00presrich/page/300 300] | isbn=978-0679437840}}</ref>

{{further|United States biological defense program}}
In 2009, author H. P. Albarelli published the book ''[[A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments]]'' about [[Frank Olson]]'s death and the experiments conducted at Fort Detrick. The book is based on documents released under [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|FOIA]] and numerous other documents and interviews to the police and investigators.<ref>"A Terrible Mistake:The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments" – by H. P. Albareeli Jr 2009 publisher by Trine Day LLC accessed August 14, 2010 at [http://aterriblemistake.com/index.html aterriblemistake.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712094904/http://aterriblemistake.com/index.html |date=July 12, 2014 }}</ref><ref>"Son probes strange death of WMD worker" – Scott Shane writing for ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'' (September 12, 2004), accessed January 20, 2009 at [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/12/MNG468MM8N1.DTL sfgate.com]</ref>

In the 1980s and 1990s, KGB disinformation agent [[Jakob Segal]] claimed that Fort Detrick was the site where the United States government "invented" [[HIV]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=I.|title=German scientist couple presses theory that AIDS was created at Fort Detrick|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/02/21/german-scientist-couple-presses-theory-that-aids-was-created-at-fort-detrick/|access-date=25 January 2017|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=21 February 1992}}</ref>

USAMRIID had been the principal consultant to the FBI on scientific aspects of the [[2001 Anthrax Attacks]], which had infected 22 people and killed five.<ref>{{cite news|title=Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in |url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gH1fcT1QrjvwIaAZTO63_lxHs9EQD929A37O0 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=2008-08-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080805031940/http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gH1fcT1QrjvwIaAZTO63_lxHs9EQD929A37O0 |archive-date=August 5, 2008 }}</ref> While assisting with the science from the beginning, it also soon became the focus of the FBI's investigation of possible perpetrators (see [[Steven Hatfill]]). In July 2008, a top U.S. biodefense researcher at USAMRIID committed suicide just as the [[FBI]] was about to lay charges relating to the incidents. The scientist, [[Bruce Edwards Ivins]], who had worked for 18 years at USAMRIID, had been told about the impending prosecution. The FBI's identification of Ivins in August 2008 as the Anthrax Attack perpetrator remains controversial and several independent government investigations which will address his culpability are ongoing. Although the anthrax preparations used in the attacks were of different grades, all of the material derived from the same bacterial strain. Known as the Ames strain, it was first researched at USAMRIID. The Ames strain was subsequently distributed to at least fifteen bio-research labs within the U.S. and six locations overseas.

In June 2008 the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] said it planned to add the base to the [[Superfund]] list of the most polluted places in the country.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/> On 9 April 2009, "Fort Detrick Area B Ground Water" was added to the list which currently includes 18 other sites within Maryland.

The Forest Glen Annex of the [[Walter Reed Army Medical Center]] in [[Silver Spring, Maryland]] was transferred to the command of Fort Detrick in 2008 as a result of the [[2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission|Base Realignment and Closure]] process.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Detrick 2010 Post Guide|url=http://ww2.dcmilitary.com/special_sections/sw/090110Ft_Detrick/Ft_Detrick_2010jhc.pdf|access-date=26 July 2014|page=6|year=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010122812/http://ww2.dcmilitary.com/special_sections/sw/090110Ft_Detrick/Ft_Detrick_2010jhc.pdf|archive-date=10 October 2011}}</ref>

{{as of|2008}} about 7,900 people worked at Fort Detrick. The base has been the largest employer in Frederick County and contributed more than $500 million into the local economy annually.<ref name="baltimoresun.com">Wood, David, "[https://archive.today/20130117205123/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.detrick02aug02,0,5108456.story Variety Of Research Carried Out At Fort Detrick]", ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', August 2, 2008.</ref>

In 2020, a [[COVID-19 misinformation#United States biological weapon|conspiracy theory regarding COVID-19]] arose that alleged that the [[SARS-CoV-2]] virus was developed by the [[United States Army]] at Fort Detrick.<ref>{{cite news|author=Helen Davidson|date=20 January 2021|title=China revives conspiracy theory of US army link to Covid|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/20/china-revives-conspiracy-theory-of-us-army-link-to-covid}}</ref> This allegation has been promoted by [[Government of China|Chinese government]] officials, most notably [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China|Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] spokesman [[Zhao Lijian]], who has called for an inspection of the facility, although the allegation remains baseless.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ang |first1=Katerina |last2=Taylor |first2=Adam |title=As U.S. calls for focus on covid origins, China repeats speculation about U.S. military base |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-us-calls-for-focus-on-covid-origins-china-repeats-speculation-about-us-military-base/ar-AAKrPGx?ocid=uxbndlbing |access-date=29 May 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 28, 2021}}</ref> A petition organized by the [[Chinese Communist Party]]-owned tabloid ''[[Global Times]]'' urging the WHO to investigate Fort Detrick for COVID origins reportedly amassed 25 million signatures.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Levin |first1=Dan |title=Florida Sees Worst of Pandemic So Far |url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/25/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine |access-date=29 August 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=25 August 2021}}</ref>