Fort Detrick Shutdown and EVALI Outbreak

In July 2019, the CDC temporarily shut down Fort Detrick’s USAMRIID labs—especially its BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities—due to serious biosafety violations, including failures in the wastewater sterilization system.

Around the same time, the U.S. was hit by a public health crisis known as EVALI (e‑cigarette or vaping product use–associated lung injury):

First cases emerged in April 2019, with a sharp rise throughout summer 2019, peaking in September.
The CDC recorded 1,604 hospitalizations (by October 22) and 34 deaths , which later rose to 2,807 cases and 68 deaths by February 2020.
State governments began issuing bans—Michigan in early September, Massachusetts, New York, and others followed—citing a public health emergency.

🕒 Timeline Comparison

Date	Fort Detrick	EVALI (Vaping Lung Illness)
June 2019	CDC inspections note biosafety violations	—
July 12–15, 2019	CDC issues “cease and desist” order; labs shut	—
August 2019	Labs remain closed	EVALI outbreak intensifies
September 2019	Labs still closed	Cases peak; states start bans
November 2019	Limited reopening of labs begins	EVALI cases decline
Feb 2020	Full reopening in April 2020	CDC stops EVALI updates

🔍 Connection?

Timing overlaps, but the two issues are unrelated scientifically or operationally.

Fort Detrick was closed due to wastewater safety violations, with no leaked pathogens.

A Department of Defense investigation found that seven U.S. service members who attended the games exhibited COVID-19-like symptoms between October 18, 2019, and January 21, 2020, but there is no official confirmation that these were actual COVID-19 cases.

Some reports and Chinese state media have claimed that five U.S. athletes became ill and left Wuhan early on a U.S. military aircraft, but there is no publicly available evidence or official U.S. confirmation supporting this claim.

The U.S. Department of Defense and Pentagon spokespeople have stated they have no knowledge of U.S. athletes being medically evacuated or falling ill with COVID-19 during the games.

CDC and Other References

Some reports and congressional documents have cited CDC admissions that certain COVID-19 patients in the U.S. may have been misdiagnosed as flu cases during the 2019 flu season.

Summary from Hearings

In these hearings, witnesses and committee members have emphasized that while definitive answers are still elusive, the weight of circumstantial evidence and intelligence points toward the virus circulating in humans before December 2019, contradicting the official Chinese timeline.