No Guarantees Your Mail is Safe

WASHINGTON, DC: October 24, 2001 — With cases of anthrax infection growing, the nation's postmaster general warned Americans Wednesday there are no guarantees the mail delivered to their homes is safe but he stressed that the risks to them are slim.

"That's why we're asking people to handle mail very carefully," Postmaster General John Potter told "Good Morning America" on ABC. "People have to be aware of everything in their day-to-day life, and certainly, mail in our system is threatened right now." Acknowledging that the public health system is being challenged in unprecedented ways, Surgeon General David Satcher told NBC's "Today": "I'm worried that we're being attacked and we don't understand the attack."

Asked about the particular risk to postal workers, Satcher said the government should consider vaccinating "anyone who works in a high-risk area."

Federal doctors are working around the clock to determine how many people with suspicious symptoms really have anthrax in addition to 12 confirmed cases. Three people have died from the disease.

President Bush declared the White House safe after workers at a mail processing center across the Anacostia River discovered a small concentration of anthrax spores on machinery that sorts letters headed for the executive mansion.

Investigators say it is possible that some of the White House mail picked up a few spores, although not enough to cause inhaled anthrax, as it went through a central Washington mail facility where two workers died from anthrax and at least two others have become seriously ill.

"I'm confident that when I come to work tomorrow, I'll be safe," Bush said Tuesday. "I don't have anthrax."

The disclosure came as the administration pledged more aggressive testing of the anthrax trail, and that antibiotics would be given at the first sign to anyone else, especially postal workers, who may have been exposed to anthrax-contaminated mail.

Postal facilities in Washington and New Jersey known to have processed one or more anthrax-tainted letters were closed after environmental testing found the germs lurking inside. "We're going to err on the side of caution in making sure people are protected," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said.

Potter was asked if contaminated mail could reach people at their homes, and said, "Theoretically it could, but it hasn't yet." He stressed that "the chances are very, very slim, but again, people should do things that are safe and when they handle mail they should wash their hands."

"There are no guarantees that that mail is safe," he said.

At a northern Virginia hospital, the two seriously ill postal workers were reported to be stable and breathing on their own. Doctors were treating them not only with the now-famous drug Cipro but with two additional medications, clindamycin and Rifampin, in hopes the extra medication could better battle both the anthrax bacteria and the toxin those germs are pumping into the patients' bodies.

Dr. Susan Matcha, the physician attending the two, expressed a measure of optimism. "They've made it through the critical first 48 hours," she told "The Early Show" on CBS. "They've beat the odds so far, so we are cautiously optimistic." She said both were conscious and breathing on their own, but remained in serious condition.

Six weeks after the terrorists attacks that killed thousands, the FBI released the text of three anthrax-tainted letters that suggest a connection: Each bore the date Sept. 11, the day that 19 suicide hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and crashed another in a southwestern Pennsylvania field. The letters contained anti-American and anti-Israeli messages.

"You can not stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great," said the letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Bush said, "We're working hard at finding out who's doing this."

The confirmed anthrax toll stood at 12, half the deadly inhaled form of anthrax and the other half the easily treatable skin form. A Florida tabloid photo editor and two Washington postal workers have died from the inhaled form.

Five more inhaled cases are suspected, including a New Jersey postal worker hospitalized near Trenton. The woman worked at a Trenton-area postal facility believed to have processed at least three anthrax-tainted letters: one sent to Daschle, the second to NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw and the third to the New York Post.

Four other people, at least three of them workers at Washington's Brentwood postal facility that also processed the Daschle letter, are hospitalized in suburban Maryland and are considered probable cases. But Washington health officials said suspicion was very low that an additional 12 people with vague symptoms actually had anthrax.

Angry postal workers and lawmakers asked why the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hadn't tested the Brentwood mail facility as soon as they knew the Daschle letter had passed through that building.

The deaths stunned CDC doctors, who ordered precautionary antibiotics for thousands of Washington postal workers and 7,000 employees of six New York City post offices that may have handled anthrax-tainted letters sent to news organizations. Those workers were to take the drugs until CDC could prove whether anthrax was in any of those mail facilities.

But testing of other post offices that had handled contaminated mail had turned up only trace amounts of anthrax.

There were plenty of reminders the threat may not be over. The State Department issued a worldwide alert warning U.S. citizens to be mindful of the risk of anthrax or other biological or chemical agents. The Postal Service said it would provide gloves to any postal employee anywhere in the country who requested them.

While Congress reconvened, one of six congressional office buildings was to reopen Wednesday but some tainted congressional offices may stay closed for weeks.

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News