'ICE Barbie' Kristi Noem leaves hospital after allergic reaction
Kristi Noem has been discharged from the hospital after suffering from an allergic reaction - as the coincidental timing of her symptoms sparked online conspiracy theories. The Homeland Security secretary, 53, was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday for what a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Daily Mail was an 'allergic reaction.'
'Secretary Noem had an allergic reaction today,' Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said. 'She was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering.' On Wednesday, Noem was released from the hospital, according to the Wall Street Journal. But speculation swirled as Noem's hospitalization came just one day after she visited a biosafety lab that has been temporarily shuttered over safety concerns.
On Monday, Robert F Kennedy shared a photo of himself, Noem and Rand Paul (pictured) at the Integrated Research Facility in Frederick, Maryland. 'With @Sec_Noem and @SenRandPaul inspecting the biological hazard labs at Fort Detrick,' Kennedy, the Health and Human Services secretary, wrote. The MAHA Institute - a thinktank supporting Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again initiative - also posted online that the three had earlier visited the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases biosecurity lab at Fort Detrick.
Some on X questioned whether Noem had suffered some sort of exposure to hazardous material. 'Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem visited a biological hazard lab the day before she was rushed to [the] hospital over an allergic reaction,' one X user pointed out, calling it 'probably just a coincidence.' Others were not so sure, however.
'She toured the NBACC, a DHS-run facility built after the 2001 anthrax attacks and used during COVID to analyze potential biothreats for the FBI. Now she's suddenly hospitalized,' another X user asked, incredulously. 'This isn't just an allergy,' he asserted. 'What the hell did she come into contact with?' A third X user also asked whether Noem experienced 'biochemical warfare firsthand. 'Biochemical terrorism is something to consider in today's upside down world!' she noted. According to its website, the Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick studies viruses 'causing high-consequence disease' like like Ebola or COVID.
One of its major focus areas is to 'mitigate major public heath events related to emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases or biological weapons attacks.' But Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services ordered an indefinite work stoppage at the facility in April. 'NIH has implemented a research pause—referred to as a safety stand-down—at the Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick,' HHS officials said at the time. 'This decision follows identification and documentation of personnel issues involving contract staff that compromised the facility's safety culture, prompting this research pause.' They added: 'During the stand-down, no research will be conducted, and access will be limited to essential personnel only, to safeguard the facility and its resources.'
Dr Connie Schmaljohn, the lab's director, was also placed on administrative leave after she allegedly failed to report the incident to other officials. Speaking anonymously, an HHS source revealed to Fox News that the shutdown came after one of the researchers poked a hole in the other's protective equipment during a vicious 'lovers' spat'. As the shutdown continued, Kennedy told a Senate committee last month that the FBI was investigating the incident as a potentially 'deliberate criminal act' because the pathogens the researchers were handling were highly dangerous, according to the Daily Beast.
It now remains unclear when the facility may resume, as Democrats push the Department of Health and Human Services for answers. They noted in a letter last week that scientists at the Integrated Research Facility 'study some of the most dangerous pathogens and viruses to prevent, address and eradicate high-consequence and deadly diseases.'
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