[iwar] [fc:Anxiety.Grows.as.Anthrax.Mystery.Lingers]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-13 15:21:17
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 15:21:17 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Anxiety.Grows.as.Anthrax.Mystery.Lingers]
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New York Times 
October 12, 2001
Anxiety Grows as Anthrax Mystery Lingers
By Jim Yardley with Dana Canedy

BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 11 — With increasing anxiety spreading across South 
Florida, officials said today that the third person here who tested positive 
for exposure to anthrax had worked in the mailroom of American Media Inc. 
alongside one of the two other people who were exposed to the bacteria.
Although the third person, Stephanie Dailey, 36, said she was in good health, 
her mailroom job within American Media focused more attention on the 
possibility that the anthrax had been mailed to the company and spread fears 
among local postal workers that they too may have been exposed.
A second mailroom employee who was exposed to the bacteria is hospitalized in 
stable condition, while another employee, Bob Stevens, a photo editor, died 
last week.
Federal authorities today dispatched Ruben Garcia Jr., a high- ranking F.B.I. 
official in Washington, to effectively take command of the growing 
investigation in South Florida.
The government's move came after Gov. Jeb Bush had asked for more help and as 
American Media executives today sharply criticized health and law enforcement 
officials, saying they had not adequately kept them informed of the 
investigation.
Here in Boca Raton, where American Media publishes five of the nation's 
leading supermarket tabloids, many postal workers became concerned when a 
co-worker, a 50-year- old woman, became ill with pneumonia and went into a 
coma. There was no indication that her condition was related to anthrax 
exposure, and officials said the woman's office did not handle mail for 
American Media.
But two postal workers today were tested for the disease at the request of 
the local letter carriers' union, said Lori Groen, a spokeswoman for the 
United States Postal Service in Washington.
Employees from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today 
briefed postal employees in Boca Raton about anthrax, stressing that it has 
yet to be confirmed that anthrax was delivered by mail to the American Media 
building.
"Sure, our employees are concerned," Ms. Groen said. "We're trying to 
alleviate the fears of the employees."
State health officials say they tested about 1,000 people who worked at 
American Media or visited its headquarters here. On Wednesday, the state's 
secretary of heath, Dr. John Agwunobi, said that of the 700 people whose test 
results had been returned, only one person had been determined to have been 
exposed. That person was Ms. Dailey.
Today, state health officials refused to answer questions about whether any 
other employees had tested positive, referring callers to the Federal Bureau 
of Investigation.
One American Media employee, Carla Chadick, today confirmed earlier reports 
that a letter addressed to the actress Jennifer Lopez, sent care of The Sun, 
one of the tabloids, had arrived in the office about a week before the Sept. 
11 attacks. She said the letter included a bluish powdery substance, a Star 
of David and a letter from a fan to Ms. Lopez.
Ms. Chadick, a staff writer for The Sun, said several employees, herself 
included, passed the letter around, laughing at the contents. She said one of 
the employees who handled the letter was Mr. Stevens, who became the first 
person to die of inhalation anthrax in 25 years.
"We thought it was just some message from a wacko writing to a movie star," 
said Ms. Chadwick, who has not tested positive for anthrax.
Del Alvarez, a spokesman for the Postal Inspection Service in South Florida, 
expressed skepticism that the letter was connected to the anthrax outbreak 
and said that officials had not been able to locate it.
Although officials say they believe the anthrax exposure here was the result 
of a criminal act, they have not declared a motive or a target of the act. 
They say they do not believe it was connected to the Sept. 11 attacks on the 
World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and so far there is no evidence of 
terrorism.
Attorney General John Ashcroft told CNN today that he was not prepared to 
label the case bioterrorism. "But obviously anthrax is a very serious matter, 
and its presence would be very unusual in that setting," Mr. Ashcroft said. 
"We are treating this as a criminal matter and are investigating it with 
great care."
A former senior federal law enforcement official in South Florida said the 
F.B.I. was "extremely doubtful" that the anthrax was related to the Sept. 11 
attacks. "It's hard to believe that Osama bin Laden's organized network chose 
to drop a few drops on anthrax on Lantana, Fla. — it's not the population 
center that he would choose," the ex-official said. "If this was found in 
some hot dog at Joe Robbie Stadium on a day when 70,000 people were there, 
then we'd have to worry."
At the neat, stucco house she shares with her parents in nearby Boynton 
Beach, Ms. Dailey, the third person exposed to anthrax, said she was in good 
health and had already returned to work. "I just want to say I'm fine," Ms. 
Dailey told reporters gathered in her front yard.
She said she learned of her exposure from federal officials on Wednesday and 
had already begun taking a 60-day dose of the antibiotic, Cippro. Ms. Dailey 
said she thought a single anthrax spore had been detected in the nasal swab 
testing, though she was not certain. She said she had never gone to a 
hospital.
"When I first found out, it was like the wind knocked out of you," she said. 
"You don't know what it all means until it's explained to you."
Asked why she seemed so calm as so many others have become fearful of being 
exposed to the bacteria, she said: "I guess my faith in God. I believe 
everything will be O.K."
Ms. Dailey said her job entailed working in the mailroom. She said she knew 
Ernesto Blanco, the 73- year-old mail supervisor who was also exposed to 
anthrax, but not Mr. Stevens. "I might have passed him," she said of walking 
the hallways. "I don't really know him."
Health and law enforcement officials are awaiting the results of nasal swab 
tests of about 300 of the 1,000 people were known to have been in the 
American Media building in recent months. But with no new information and a 
diminishing role in the probe, local political and health officials said they 
were frustrated with having been shut out of an investigation so potentially 
critical to the lives of the residents they serve.
The mood among the senior executives at American Media, meanwhile, has turned 
to anger. They complained today that several government agencies 
investigating the anthrax at the headquarters had failed to inform them that 
the third case was discovered on Wednesday.
David Pecker, the chief executive of American Media, and the company's 
general counsel, Michael B. Kahane, said that, since the first exposure was 
discovered, the agencies had not kept them fully informed.
Mr. Kahane sent a letter today to several government agencies, including the 
state health department and the C.D.C. complaining that American Media 
executives found out about the latest exposure on the radio and began to 
field anxious phone calls from other employees who thought they might be 
infected.
"It is incredulous that we learned about the third American Media employee 
from a televised news conference rather than from appropriate governmental 
agencies," Mr. Kahane wrote.
Mr. Kahane said he saw a news report yesterday in which Ari Fleischer, the 
president's spokesman, was assuring the public that the White House and the 
governor's office were all communicating with American Media employees and 
management.
"That is not true," Mr. Kahane said. "There has never been a situation where 
anyone has called to say, `These are the results,' or anything like that. 
Regarding the investigation and our continuing interest in the building, we 
do not know anything." 

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