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bé b7C b2 b7E i To: Washington 8. From: Washington viel Re: 279A-WF-222936-USAMRIID, 05/24/2005 shelf under the air vent, 4) IVINS' office behind the computer monitor, 5) IVINS' office on IVINS' desk by the penholder, 6) IVINS' desk on the penholder, 7) IVINS' office on the upper shelf in a tray to the left corner air vent, 8) IVINS' office on the metal folder holder on the top shelf to the right of corner air vent, 9) IVINS' office, top shelf of desk, left corner air vent, 10) IVINS' desk, and 11) IVINS' office on the wooden bookcase shelves to the left of the desk.© Of the 11 presumptive positives, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis later eliminated numbers 1 and 6, indicating that the bacterial colonies were not B.a.* [WRITER'S COMMENTS - IVINS' explanations of his motivations for the April 2002 independent survey were contradictory to his actions following the December 2001 survey. If IVINS continued to be legitimately concerned that was contaminating the office space, why_did he not inform of his previous swabbing results, or givel some guidance with regard to safe handling of B.a.? One of IVINS' previous arguments for not notifying USAMRIID command of his December 2001 swabbing was that he believed that he had sufficiently cleaned the L ed desk area; however, IVINS used the possibility that desk was not completely decontaminated in Dece gs one of the reasons to justify further swabbing. survey of the suite yielded no indication of a breach in containment from the hot-side to the cold-side. Why were IVINS' convictions so strong regarding possible contamination on the cold-side, while the concerns of other experienced researchers, such and were satisfied by the results of survey within ° Results of IVINS! April 2002 environmental survey In total, 56 samples were plated by IVINS on April 15- 16, 2002. Of the 25 sites surveyed for the presence of B.a. on April 15, five presumptively positive samples were plated onto capsule agar, and all five produced mucoid growth after incubation. Of the additional 31 sites surveyed on April 16, 11 presumptive positives were obtained. None of the 11 presumptively positive colonies were plated on capsule agar.®’ Colony counts from all but one swipe indicated a very low level of contamination, approximately one to three spores. A single swipe from just outside the pass-box yielded greater than 200 spores. On April 18, 2002, 12 suspicious colonies, isolated from ' April 15-16, 2002, cultures, were provided to USAMRIID's [ox B.a. confirmation via PCR. e Responses to IVINS' April 2002 survey On April 16, 2002, after viewing the culture results from the first day of sampling, IVINS informed [|__| that he -—