S2E68 - Operation Sea-Spray: The Navy Ship That Sprayed a City With Bacteria
Published: September 24, 2026
Duration: 58:43
In September nineteen fifty, the United States military carried out six simulated biological attacks on the San Francisco Bay Area. A Navy vessel released Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii from offshore while military teams measured how the living aerosol moved through the city.
Days later, Stanford Hospital recorded an extraordinary cluster of Serratia infections. One patient, Edward Nevin, died. This episode reconstructs the operation, the secret report, the hospital outbreak, the congressional reckoning and the Nevin family's lawsuit. It also asks the question that secrecy made almost impossible to answer: did the test cause the death that followed...
Days later, Stanford Hospital recorded an extraordinary cluster of Serratia infections. One patient, Edward Nevin, died. This episode reconstructs the operation, the secret report, the hospital outbreak, the congressional reckoning and the Nevin family's lawsuit. It also asks the question that secrecy made almost impossible to answer: did the test cause the death that followed...