Two virologists at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) face charges related to the alleged smuggling of non-infectious monkeypox virus (MPXV) and other biological samples into the United States, in a case that has become a flashpoint for legal and political concerns over biosafety.

The charges center on samples that NIH scientists Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe were carrying when they arrived in Detroit, Michigan, in January after conducting research in the Republic of the Congo. Samples tested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation through May 29 contained MPXV DNA, according to a criminal complaint, but none were infectious. These samples do not require an import permit, but must be declared to federal officials.

Arrests of scientists over contraband samples raise anxiety at US border

According to the complaint, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Munster and Kwe allegedly failed to declare the samples and then lied to officials about them. Both scientists have pleaded not guilty. Benton Martin, a federal community defender representing Kwe, who had his initial hearing last month, said his client “is presumed innocent and we will await future proceedings before making further comments.” A lawyer for Munster, who will appear at an initial hearing on July 22, did not respond to a request for comment.

The case is the latest in a series of prosecutions of researchers for smuggling biological samples. It has generated additional scrutiny on Munster and Kwe’s workplace, the NIH’s Rocky Mountain Lab (RML), in Hamilton, Montana, and on the importation of pathogens for study. The RML declined to comment and a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, declined to provide additional comment because the case is ongoing.

Members of Congress have called for an investigation of the lab and have introduced legislation to impose harsh sentences for smuggling biological agents. “Illegal smuggling of dangerous viruses into our country threatens the health and safety of all Americans,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said in a statement.

Some scientists have defended the couple and argued that they did nothing dangerous.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, said inactivating viruses with powerful chemicals is a reliable way to render them inert. “You could drink them and not get infected,” he wrote in a blog post.

Other researchers agree that inactivated samples do not pose any risk and recognize the logistical difficulty of transporting the samples. But “you have to respect the rules,” says Melanie Ott, a virologist and director of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California. “The virology community is not willing to take shortcuts.”

Virus trackers

Munster, chief of the virus ecology section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), is a leading virologist who has spent decades tracking viruses like Ebola.¹ and more recently, a new strain of MPXV². In 2020, Munster and Emmie de Wit, an RML virologist married to Munster, won the Golden Goose Award, which honors obscure research that turns out to be beneficial: They studied coronaviruses in camels.³ for years before turning his work into research into antiviral treatments for COVID-19.

In January, Munster and Kwe conducted nine days of fieldwork in the Congo. When they attempted to re-enter the United States, Munster “flatly denied any biological material or sample,” according to the federal complaint, and said he and Kwe carried diagnoses. Inactivated MPXV is considered biological material according to the import law, but samples of it are used for diagnosis.

Growing mox outbreak prompts WHO to declare global health emergency

The FBI complaint repeatedly says the men’s luggage contained “inactivated monkeypox virus.” It also states: “Munster and Kwe did not present the true identities of the biological materials they possessed and did not provide or possess the necessary certifications. Rather, Munster and Kwe attempted to pass off the samples as unused diagnostics.” Inactivated viral samples also require inactivation certification. Munster, who designed protocols to inactivate MPXV⁴He allegedly told border control that the required documents were on his laptop, but the complaint does not clarify whether that was the case.

email cache

On June 5, Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, released dozens of pages of emails between Munster and other scientists about the handling of biological samples. Paul, a frequent critic of former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci and other virologists, says the correspondence shows a pattern of violations by Munster. In a series of emails from 2011, another researcher suggests that Munster could “personally carry” viral samples on a commercial flight. The emails do not say whether Munster did it.

Jean-Paul González, a virologist and biosafety specialist at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, said taking samples, even inactivated ones, on a commercial flight, was a mistake. “We did it 20 years ago,” he says. “We don’t do that anymore.”