The government shut down the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md., due to concerns about the facility's decontamination procedures, according to The New York Times.
The biodefense center studies dangerous microbes that could be used to threaten the military or the American public, such as organisms causing Ebola, smallpox, anthrax and plague. The CDC issued a "cease and desist order" in July 2019 to halt the center's research because it lacked "sufficient systems in place to decontaminate wastewater," the center said in a statement.
The shutdown will likely last for months, said Caree Vander Linden, a lab spokesperson. There has been no threat to public health, no employee injuries and no leaks of dangerous materials outside the laboratory, she added.