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CNN Live Event/Special

America's New War: The Threat of Biological and Chemical Weapons

Aired October 01, 2001 - 14:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We've seen reports that across the country in stores people are buying up gas masks as a protection against a biological or a chemical attack. But it turns out the masks may not even be effective, and worse, they could be deadly.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSSELL SMITH, SURPLUS STORE MANAGER: This is a U.S. M-17(a)2.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this Army- Navy surplus store in Georgia, they have American masks, Swedish masks, German masks. And once they arrive at the store, they're usually sold within the hour. Since September, 200 to 300 people have called every day, desperate for any kind of mask.

SMITH: Even my mother called, you know: "You did save one for me, right?"

COHEN: Russell Smith, the manager here, says he did save one for his mom and one for himself, even though he has his doubts about whether they'd be helpful in case of a chemical or biological attack.

SMITH: You feel the mask suck against your face.

COHEN: First of all, it can be hard to get it to fit right, and a mask that doesn't fit right won't work properly. Second, you never know when an attack is going to happen. Terrorists don't send warnings.

SMITH: Yes, it would protect you, but you'd have to be wearing it. I mean, you can't just go to work wearing a gas mask -- it's not realistic.

COHEN: And third, different chemical and biological weapons require different filters. A mask with the wrong filter won't help. Plus, trying to put on a mask in a crisis can be dangerous.

DR. HENRY SIEGELSON, DISASTER PLANNING INTERNATIONAL: There certainly is a downside to the wearing of these masks. In Israel during the Desert Storm War, eight people died because they wore their masks incorrectly. COHEN: They suffocated, which makes Dr. Henry Siegelson, who helps train the government prepare for weapons of mass destruction, think there's got to be a better alternative.

He says, if you're worried about biological or chemical attacks, consider sealing off a room in your house, like they do in Israel.

SIEGELSON: They could go into this room, seal the doors and the windows, and wait until the gas cloud moves by.

COHEN: Dr. Siegelson says a sealed room won't kill you, but a gas mask could.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Stockbridge, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Quite a look. Well, among biological weapons, the most serious threat is anthrax. With more on this bacteria as well as the antibiotics and the vaccines that are useful fighting it, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon.

WOODRUFF: Dr. Sanjay, let's start by talking about the dangers, what we do know and what we don't know.

GUPTA: Right, right. Well, you know, there is a lot we don't know, and that's an important point, Judy. There hasn't been a case of inhaled anthrax in this country in over 20 years, and I certainly never learned much about it in medical school, certainly getting a lot of attention now.

What we do know is that it's a bacteria. It forms spores, and these spores can get into your lungs. Once these spores get into your lungs, they can actually wreak all sorts of havoc. They can get into your lymph glands, they can massive bleeding, and subsequently get into your bloodstream, possibly causing problems with your brain, causing things like meningitis, things like that.

There are certain things you can do about it. We've heard a lot about that over the last couple of days. Antibiotics, ciprofloxacin is one of the antibiotics we've hearing a lot about it. That in laboratory animals, in the laboratories has been shown to be effective to some degree.

Again, Judy, we don't know a lot about it in large human trials, because no one would knowingly expose people to anthrax in order to test the effectiveness of these antibiotics.

So in animals, they do seem to work to some extent. There is a vaccine. That vaccine really is no good for you unless you've been taking the shots already for 18 months. You have to take them every two months up until that point. So, that may be an option, but not for right now.

So, that's sort of about what we know right now.

WOODRUFF: Sanjay, what do we know about any previous effort by terrorist groups to use anthrax or to plan to use anthrax?

GUPTA: Right, good point. You know, there have been previous efforts. We do know about anthrax being used during the Iran-Iraq War, and we've also known about the terrorist group in Japan that tried to release anthrax. Confirmed cases at least eight times they tried to do that. And actually, pointing out that in those cases they were very unsuccessful in actually causing any harm, any deaths.

Weaponizing anthrax, the whole process of actually taking the bacteria, making it into a powder, and then aerosolizing that into the atmosphere is a very complicated process and one that is technically very challenging. And certainly, it sounds like in the case of the Japanese terrorist group very unsuccessful.

So, that might be a little glimmer of optimism there in terms of anthrax. While it is a deadly bacteria, in order to turn it into something that could cause mass casualties, it'd be more challenging.

WOODRUFF: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our medical correspondent, joining us, raising a lot of questions, I think, for people about just how prepared they should be or how prepared they can be.

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