US Military Sprayed The Atmosphere of San Francisco With Dangerous Microorganisms

Decades ago, during the time of the World War II, the US military showed keen interest in biological warfare. They wanted to test the potential hazards posed by harmful toxins and microorganisms. They first experimented with harmless strands of bacteria. They quickly moved to more dangerous methods: infecting soldiers and their families. Later on, they took to open-air tests on the citizens of the US. It was revealed in 1977 that the US military performed such experiments 239 times. Talking about ethics.

In one such experiment, called the Operation Sea-Spray, giant hoses were used to spray a supposedly harmless bacterial cloud of Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii. The latter was sprayed from a Navy ship docked off the coast of San Francisco. They wanted to test whether the city’s fog would promote the spread of the cloud. According to estimates, the 800,000 residents of the city breathed in millions of bacteria for weeks from when they were propagated.