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WHERE SCIENTISTS ARE FIGHTING TO
SAVE THE LIVES OF MILLIONS.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
HEALTH EXPERTS IN MEMPHIS AND
AROUND THE WORLD ARE SERIOUSLY
CONCERNED ABOUT A NEW AND DEADLY
STRAIN OF BIRD FLU EMERGING FROM
CHINA.
TONIGHT, I'M GOING TO TAKE YOU
TO A HIGH
SECURITY LABORATORY IN MEMPHIS.
A PLACE MOST PEOPLE DON'T EVEN
KNOW EXISTS. A
PLACE OF DEADLY VIRUSES AND
DEDICATED SCIENTISTS. A PLACE
NEWS CAMERAS HAVE NEVER BEEN
ALLOWED
UNTIL NOW.
WE GO BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
You're looking at the front
line of a war against an enemy
that could kill millions of
people. This is the bio-
safety level 3 lab at St. Jude
Children's Research Hospital in
Memphis. It's known
as a BSL3. Researchers here
are developing vaccines to try
to stop
an especially deadly version of
Bird Flu
SOT UP FULL B-ROLL THIS BITE
:05 DR. RICHARD
WEBBY, FLU EXPERT, ST. JUDE.
00:36:53 "The potential threat
is large, we just don't really
know how to
quantify what that real threat
is." 00:36:58
St. Jude's, Dr. Richard Webby
is the scientist in charge. a
world renown expert
on flu virus. SOT UP FULL :04
WEBBY
00:37:32 "Essentially, we're
funded by the US government to
be in the trenches."
00:37:36 The lab is part of
the World Health Organization
flu surveillance network and
studies live virus
samples from around the globe. A
TV news camera has never been
allowed in, until we were given
exclusive
access. We agreed not to
reveal its exact location at St.
Jude or
photograph any of the extensive
security
measures that protect it. To
protect ourselves, we had to
"gown up" in scrubs and wear
special filter masks before even
walking down the long hallway to
the lab. Beyond the glass of the
access door, scientists in the
BSL3 wear special suits and
pressurized head gear to keep
them from inhaling a live virus
known as H5N1. SOT UP FULL
:07 B-Roll Cover WEBBY 00:41:26
" It kills 50 to 60% of the
people we know become infected
with that virus. " 00:41:33
For now, Bird Flu seems to
infect mainly people with direct
contact with live poultry
carrying the
virus. SOT UP FULL :08 On
Camera WEBBY 00:41:34 "On its
own, it's probably not very
infectious to humans, but if you
do
manage to contract it, then it's
a very serious
infection. 00:41:42 The
fear is it will
change into a form that easily
transmits
from person to person causing a
global
pandemic similar to the 1918
Spanish Flu
which lead to mass quarantines
and killed
as many as 100- million people.
SOT UP FULL :09
On Camera WEBBY 00:35:52 "What
makes, essentially a chicken
virus change to become a human
virus, and you know, we don't
really know".
00:36:01 At the St. Jude
lab,
the virus is injected into
fertile eggs as part of the
process of creating new
vaccines. Since the virus is
constantly mutating, vaccines
against it have to change too.
SOT UP FULL
:06 B-Roll Cover WEBBY
00:44:12 "There is an inherent
risk, I guess is a risk with
anything we do just from the
nature of the organisms were
working with." 00:44:18
But it is work scientists at
St. Jude
have been doing successfully for
decades. SOT UP FULL :06 B-Roll
Cover WEBBY 00:45:06 If we want
to get the answers to the
questions we need then it's work
that has to go on. 00:45:12
A VIRUS ESCAPING THE LAB WOULD
BE A PROBLEM, THAT'S WHY AIR
FLOWS ONLY ONE DIRECTION. INTO
THE LAB.
ON THE WAY OUT, IT PASSES
THROUGH
FILTERS MAKE IT CLEAN.
SECURITY IS HIGH,
BECAUSE IN THE WRONG HANDS, THE
VIRUSES COULD BE USED AS A
BIOLOGICAL
WEAPON. THE DECISION WAS
MADE TO LET US IN IN THE NAME OF
TRASPARANCY AND EDUCATION.
IF THERE'S SOME PLACE YOU'D
LIKE US
TO GO BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, JUST
LET ME KNOW ON OUT FACEBOOK
PAGE,
LOCAL MEMPHIS OR EMAIL ME AT
"DOORS @
LOCAL MEMPHIS.COM" AND I'LL TRY
TO OPEN