NIH Documents Detail Safety Lapses at Montana Virus Lab

Internal NIH documents describe a November 13, 2025, exposure incident at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, where a researcher was bitten by a monkey inside a Biosafety Level 4 facility. The worker was evaluated on site, then transferred first to St.

Patrick's Hospital in Missoula and later to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. The documents indicate the transfer required approvals from the governors of Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Notes from a June NIH meeting show the sequence involved multiple hospitals and improvised arrangements rather than a pre-planned protocol.

A separate November 2025 exposure to Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus through a breach of protective equipment was reported by a Montana newspaper in February 2026. NIH statements to the newspaper described immediate decontamination and evaluation with no evidence of infection.

Emails released by Senator Rand Paul show 2011 discussions among researchers about shipping virus samples from Africa, including a suggestion that samples could be hand-carried on commercial flights in viral transport buffer.

Feldmann was transferred in August 2025 from Rocky Mountain Laboratories to the NIH Integrated Research Facility in Maryland after safety violations were identified at the Maryland site. Feldmann has since divided time between the two locations. Earlier this month the Justice Department indicted virologist Vincent Munster and a lab worker on two felony counts each related to the transport of viruses without required permits.