RML questions

by Roger Mitchell, Stevensville

I attended the June 10, 2026, meeting of the Ravalli County Board of Health (BOH) which was focused on the subject of recent “incidents” at Rocky Mountain Labs (RML) and the arrest of two men in Detroit who were charged with attempting to smuggle vials of the virus which causes monkey pox into the country and lying about it to the customs authority. The men, Vincent Munster and Claude Kwe, are both employed by RML and, presumably, were expected to carry the virus back to Hamilton for further research. See https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2026/06/03/nih-monkeypox-detroit-scientists-africa/90384319007/.

Neither Dr. Marshall Bloom, a director at RML, nor Commander Megan Brose, a safety manager at the same lab, would comment directly on the arrest of Munster who was apparently in charge of the illegal operation, stating repeatedly that it was an ongoing investigation and that Munster was “innocent until proven guilty”. This was repeated so much that, when a member of the BOH mentioned it in a somewhat sarcastic manner, it drew laughter from the crowd.

• Is Vincent Munster still employed by RML?

• Is Munster restricted from entry into the building?

• Has he visited the building since his arrest?

• What is his current relationship with the lab?

What are his duties there currently?

Instead of answering these questions directly, Bloom referred to the “incident” as under investigation and, therefore, was unable to say anything about it. We still do not know if Munster is actively working at RML.

Brose, in her presentation on safety protocols and procedures at the lab, made a statement to the tune that there was “very little risk if there was no failure”. This implies there is a possibility of failure which does carry some risk. During the public comment time, I directly asked her what a failure would look like and what the risk to the local community was in the event of a failure. She equivocated and instead brought out the concept of redundancy to ensure that, even in the event of a failure, it would be contained. (Redundancy means that even if three pairs of latex gloves and a leather glove are worn, a monkey can still bite through them, which was one of the incidents being investigated, admittedly a failure of redundancy). I wanted to know, in detail, what “failure” meant, she gave a tour of the ways in which the lab was quite certain that failure, if it did occur, would not pose a risk to the community.

The question still stands.

What would a real failure at RML look like? This is what I wanted to know and neither Brose nor Bloom would touch that at all.