Plum Island

**Discussion begins at 7:45**

Plum Island is a 3 mile by 1 mile island isolated off the coast of New York.  It is home to a lab run by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Agriculture.  The lab claims to be dedicated to the study of disease in animal livestock.  They claim that in compliance with Nixon’s 1969 order, there is no offensive bioweapons research taking place there.  Instead, they argue, the goal is to focus on protecting the US against the introduction of animal diseases.  Their principal focus, they allege, is to prevent foot and mouth disease, which has not occurred in the US since 1929.  The island can only be accessed by military ferry which is escorted by armed guards, and personnel are not permitted to have pets or spend time around animals due to the inherent risk of disease spread.  While the government maintains that there is no bioweapons research happening there, evidence exists that discredits their claims.  In fact, one of the primary goals of the lab when it was first developed by Nazi scientist Erich Traub, was to research the use of ticks as bioweapons.  Since that time, people have argued that the lab is responsible for the development and spread of tickborne illnesses, including Lyme Disease and the African Swine Flu Outbreak in Cuba.  Is the government performing innocent studies to limit the spread of animal transmitted infections?  Or are they performing harmful biologic research under the guise of benign animal studies?

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