Operation Sea-Spray

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray

Operation Sea-Spray

Operation Sea-Spray was a secret 1950 U.S. Navy biological warfare experiment where bacteria were sprayed over the San Francisco Bay Area to assess a city's vulnerability to bioweapon attacks. The experiment is speculated to have caused one death and at least ten illnesses among residents. Further revelations in 1977 detailed numerous similar open-air tests of biological agents conducted across various U.S. cities between 1949 and 1969.

by Contributors to Wikimedia projects · 3 min · 1.9.2026

Note

quite the contrast to see the distrust and disinvestment in public health science today when we had things like Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Operation Sea-Spray in our history.

though, on the other hand, those events did lead to things like the IRB (independent review board) and what we are seeing play out is this constant evolution on ethics, communication and engagement.

Link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray

Published

2015

Summary

Operation Sea-Spray was a secret 1950 U.S. Navy biological warfare experiment where bacteria were sprayed over the San Francisco Bay Area to assess a city's vulnerability to bioweapon attacks. The experiment is speculated to have caused one death and at least ten illnesses among residents. Further revelations in 1977 detailed numerous similar open-air tests of biological agents conducted across various U.S. cities between 1949 and 1969.
#operation sea-spray#biological warfare#u.s. navy#san francisco bay area#serratia marcescens#bacillus globigii#human experimentation#bioweapon#dice trials#united states biological weapons program