The moratorium was announced in July 2021 by several public research institutions after a retired lab worker was diagnosed with Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and came two years after the death of Émilie Jaumain from the same disease after acquiring it in a lab accident.
[1][2] In May 2010, Émilie Jaumain, a 24 year-old scientist working in the virology and molecular immunology unit of the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (Institut national de la recherche agronomique, INRAE) in Jouy-en-Josas, accidentally pricked her thumb on a pair of forceps while cleaning a cryostat which stored the frozen brains of transgenic mice that overexpressed human prion protein.
A 2020 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine that reviewed her case found that "percutaneous exposure to prion-contaminated material is plausible in this patient" and that there was a "need for improvements in the prevention of transmission of variant CJD and other prions that can affect humans in the laboratory and neurosurgery settings.
[6] A number of labs across France introduced more stringent safety rules after Jaumain's diagnosis, including switching to plastic scalpels.
[7] In April 2020, the Association EMILYS was founded to lobby for better health and safety regulations in research.