Scientists around the world were scrambling to prevent the possibility of a pandemic after a nearly 50-year-old killer influenza virus was sent to thousands of labs, a decision that one researcher described as "unwise."

Nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries, received the virus from a U.S. company that supplies kits used for quality control tests.

"The risk is low and we've taken appropriate action," said Dr. Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Her counterpart at WHO agreed, but said, "If someone does get infected, the risk of severe illness is high, and this virus has shown to be fully transmissible."

The germ, the 1957 H2N2 "Asian flu" strain, killed between 1 million and 4 million people, 70,000 in the U.S. alone. It has not been included in flu vaccines since 1968, and anyone born after that date has little or no immunity to it.

Most of the labs that received the test kits were in the United States. The vials also were sent to labs in Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Chile, Brazil, France, Germany, Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Taiwan.

-->All because of a "clerical error." Read the full article as provided by CBS. If a clerical error could release the deadly virus once, why are the CDC and WHO officials claiming a low risk? Were you born after 1968?