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November 30, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Administration health officials told Congress Thursday that $3-billion is needed to prepare for bioterrorism, twice as much as President Bush is requesting.
"God help the American people if we have a biological attack and are not prepared, and God help the Congress if it is derelict in its duty," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who wants $4-billion for bioterrorism preparation.
Surgeon General David Satcher defended the Bush administration's handling of information in the early days of the anthrax crisis, saying officials did the best they could given the rapidly changing situation.
"Through it all, vital public health information has been disseminated promptly, and we have delivered medicine to people who needed it," Satcher, a Clinton appointee, told a House Government Reform subcommittee.
Authorities were set to begin a first-of-its-kind fumigation of part of the Hart Senate Office Building, where an anthrax-packed letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was opened. Beginning today, they plan to fill Daschle's office with chlorine dioxide gas while monitoring the air around it to ensure that none of the deadly chemical escapes.
In Connecticut, investigators still have little idea how a 94-year-old woman was exposed to enough anthrax to infect and kill her with the disease's inhaled form. They said the trail has not gone cold.
Dr. David Swerdlow, coordinating the Connecticut investigation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said investigators have taken samples from almost "every single place" where Ottilie Lundgren had been in the two months before her death. None has tested positive for anthrax, although all the results are not back.
Investigators were looking for any similarities to the case of a New York woman, who also died from inhaling anthrax and whose exposure also has baffled authorities.
Lawmakers were on more familiar ground as they debated how much money is needed for bioterrorism.
Bush has asked Congress for $1.5-billion to prepare for bioterrorism, including money to buy smallpox vaccine, stockpile antibiotics and upgrade state and local preparations. But several crucial senators say more than twice as much is needed.
On Thursday, top health officials from the administration agreed. Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the CDC, listed needs totaling $3-billion.
For instance, while Bush has asked for about a half-billion dollars to buy smallpox vaccine, Koplan said more -- $600-million to $700-million -- is needed to help local and state officials store it and learn how to use it properly.
Other developments:
A CDC team is headed to New York to encourage postal workers who might have been exposed to anthrax bacteria to take their full 60-day regimens of antibiotics. A CDC survey found only about half of the workers offered the antibiotics are taking them.
The FBI said it plans to examine today an anthrax-tainted letter sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. The letter, discovered Nov. 16, is thought to contain billions of spores, making it difficult for investigators to handle, so the FBI plans to use a small robot. The envelope and its contents could hold important clues for the investigation, including fibers, fingerprints or human DNA.
The White House said it will begin receiving mail for the first time since the threat of bioterrorism shut down service weeks ago. Press secretary Ari Fleischer said that mail will be delivered as soon as Friday. Mail delivery stopped after trace amounts of anthrax were found at a mail-sorting facility for the presidential complex. Among the mail that piled up during the shutdown are untold numbers of letters from children sending dollar bills to Afghanistan children at Bush's request.
A NASA spokesman said that a trace amount of anthrax was found last week in one mail room in the space agency's Washington headquarters. The room was cleaned and is back in use.
DJ CHARGED AFTER COMMENT: A former Fort Walton Beach radio disc jockey has been charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction because of what he claims was just a joke about anthrax.