# Bubonic Plaque samples stolen from Texas Tech? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 15, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790 "2003-01-15T18:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/1 "2003-01-15T18:36:13Z")
[http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/011503/upd\_075-7172.shtml](http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/011503/upd_075-7172.shtml) Ooooooohhhhhh boy. WTF is this all about? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/2 "2003-01-15T19:05:48Z")
No need to worry… the _campus police_ are working on it. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/3 "2003-01-15T19:13:00Z")
Well, heck. It’s not like anyone lives in Lubbock anyway. 😉 Robin ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/4 "2003-01-15T19:14:27Z")
Oh, jeez, **lieu** …that makes me feel so much better. Can’t you go over there with your knockdown farts and get something done? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kakkerlak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@Kakkerlak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakkerlak)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/5 "2003-01-15T19:18:47Z")
As though we needed proof that the Enemy is dedicated to returning us to the Fourteenth Century. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/6 "2003-01-15T19:27:39Z")
Clearly, Texas Tech is part of the axis of evil. I hear troops are shipping out right now. Some grad student is gonna be in _major_ trouble when they realize the vials are just on another shelf in the freezer. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/7 "2003-01-15T19:28:21Z")
That would be akin to nuking the Andromeda Strain. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/8 "2003-01-15T20:05:56Z")
And in near record time, [they’ve been “accounted” for](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/15/national/main536631.shtml) No details, and I’d bet we’ll never hear them. “Sorry to nearly start a national panic, but Dr. Smith told me the vials were on shelf 4 when they were actually on shelf _2_” ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/9 "2003-01-15T20:08:48Z")
So that was a tempest in a teapot. You’d think they’d keep stuff like that under lock and key…imagine some janitor moving a tube to clean under it, then he mistakingly puts it in his pocket…wanders down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee, finds the test tube, and leaves it on the shelf between the salt and the cumin… ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/10 "2003-01-15T20:57:37Z")
I hate to get all pedantic (except I don’t, I actually love it), but I’d just like to point out that the plague bacillus, _yersinia pestis_, is still endemic over large portions of the world, including West Texas, so it’s not exactly like smallpox getting out or anything. There are a number of cases of plague treated every year, but with modern antibiotics and sanitary procedures, any sort of medieval-type epidemic is a pretty far-fetched scenario. Just watch out for rat fleas. ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/11 "2003-01-15T21:04:03Z")
I should also point out that if aerosolized plague were released in a populated area, it could infect a number of people with pneumonic plague, which can spread from person to person, although it does so with difficulty. So, it’s not completely harmless, but hardly a doomsday scenariom since pneumonic plague can be treated with antibiotics (athough with no treatment, it has a high rate of fatality). ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/12 "2003-01-15T21:21:20Z")
Yeah, the dentist warned me about bubonic plaque and I ignored him. **Big mistake!** ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/13 "2003-01-16T12:58:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jk1245 \* > \*\*And in near record time, [they’ve been “accounted” for](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/15/national/main536631.shtml) > > No details, and I’d bet we’ll never hear them. > “Sorry to nearly start a national panic, but Dr. Smith told me the vials were on shelf 4 when they were actually on shelf _2_” \*\* They were destroyed, & a scientist lied about it, for unknown reasons. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2662889.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2662889.stm) Strange. Was he trying to dramatise some point? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![AchimbaProphet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@AchimbaProphet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AchimbaProphet)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/14 "2003-01-16T13:11:26Z")
\ Scenario 1 (Probable but really paranoid). This is the fall-guy being provided to us by the powers that be so we do not fret any longer about bad stuff which is not accounted for. Scenario 2 (Likely). He sold it or smuggled it to someone who wanted it. He reported it missing (knowing where it had gone). They did not find the trail OR they were too close to finding out the truth so he reported that he had destroyed it. End search. Bubonic plague journeys onward… Whatever the ‘story’ turns out to believe I am sure that it was never accounted for and is now out ‘there’. \ ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/15 "2003-01-16T15:39:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MsRobyn \* > \*\*Well, heck. It’s not like anyone lives in Lubbock anyway. 😉 > > Robin \*\* Hey!!! ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/16 "2003-01-16T15:44:13Z")
Relax, Max. Robin meant to say that nobody _important_ lives in Lubbock. 😃 Hey, wait! I have some in-laws there … But is that evidence for or against that theory? ---
**Author:** ![lionel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@lionel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lionel)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/17 "2003-01-16T17:09:48Z")
Oy, the only time my alma matter gets national exposure is when we hired Bobby Knight and when we lost some plague materials. :sigh: ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubonic-plaque-samples-stolen-from-texas-tech/148790/18 "2003-01-17T16:21:04Z")
Speaking of which, did you see [FARK](http://www.fark.com)’s headline about this? > [@](#): > > Bubonic Plague Missing From Texas Tech labs. In other news, Bobby Knight said to have new “motivational technique” in basketball practice.