On 27 July, five public research institutions in France imposed a 3-month moratorium on the study of prions—a class of misfolding, infectious proteins that cause fatal brain diseases—after a retired lab worker who handled prions in the past was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the most common prion disease in humans. An investigation is underway to find out whether the patient, who worked at a lab run by France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), contracted the disease on the job. If so, it would be the second such case in a few years in France. In June 2019, another INRAE lab worker died, 10 years after pricking her thumb during an experiment with prion-infected mice. Her family is now suing INRAE for manslaughter and endangering life; her illness had already led to tightened safety measures at French prion labs.

7 月 27 日，在一名过去处理朊病毒的退休实验室工作人员被诊断出患有克罗伊茨费尔德后，法国的五家公共研究机构暂停了对朊病毒的研究，朊病毒是一类导致致命脑部疾病的错误折叠的传染性蛋白质。 -雅各布病，人类最常见的朊病毒病。正在进行一项调查，以确定在法国国家农业、食品和环境研究所 (INRAE) 运营的实验室工作的患者是否在工作中感染了这种疾病。如果是这样，这将是法国几年内发生的第二起此类案件。2019 年 6 月，另一名 INRAE 实验室工作人员在对感染朊病毒的小鼠进行实验中刺伤拇指 10 年后死亡。她的家人现在正以过失杀人罪和危及生命的罪名起诉 INRAE；