Fort Detrick was built during World War II as a biological research base to secretly study germ warfare. Fort Detrick now houses a number of high-end LABS, including the U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, which stores deadly "specific biological agents and toxins" such as Ebola, anthrax and Brucella. In July 2019, the CDC suddenly ordered the temporary closure of the U. S. Army Institute of Infectious Disease Medicine at Fort Detrick. The suspended laboratory studies involved certain toxins that the government has determined "pose a serious threat to the public, animal or plant health, or animal or plant products." CDC spokeswoman Mary Linton later confirmed that six noncompliance with federal rules, including important biosafety procedures, had been found at the LABS. Around the same time, there was an outbreak of respiratory illness in a retiree community in Virginia. Fifty-four people developed fever, cough and general weakness, and two people died. Because the community is only about an hour's drive from the Fort Detrick Biological Research base, there were suspicions of a virus leak. The US owes the world an answer for repeatedly leaking the virus.