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CNN Live Saturday

New York Investigates Anthrax Exposures

Aired October 13, 2001 - 14:29   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: New York officials have had enough to handle with the attacks on the World trade Center, but now they're dealing with even more: the threat of anthrax. This after an NBC employee tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.

CNN's Maria Hinojosa is live in New York; she's got the very latest on this investigation for us.

Hello, Maria.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon.

Well, things here at Rockefeller Plaza seem to be quite normal. There are people skating in the ice skating rink, tourists on the tour buses. But behind the scenes there have been some important developments regarding the employees here at NBC News that became infected with anthrax originally thought that the letter she had received -- she's an assistant to Tom Brokaw -- that contained a powdery, white substance, and that had infected her.

In fact, it was a brown, granular substance. And that letter has proved to be answering the question of how this employee became infected with anthrax.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), NEW YORK CITY: Postmarked, it appears, to be the 18th of September that it was sent to Tom Brokaw. That letter was tested last night, and it turns out to be positive for anthrax, or at least traces of anthrax. So the letter itself, when tested -- although there's no powder left -- appears to have contained anthrax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HINOJOSA: Now, interestingly, this letter was postmarked from a place just about 75 miles away from New York City. The letter was postmarked from Trenton, New Jersey.

Originally what had been thought was that the letter that the assistant had opened had been coming from St. Petersburg, and that there had been a white, powdery substance in that letter. The powdery substance has tested negative for anthrax, and this letter from St. Petersburg is clearly not the letter that has infected this employee with anthrax.

Now, regarding "The New York Times." Yesterday Judith Miller, a reporter there who covers biological terrorism, received a letter also postmarked from St. Petersburg with a white, powdery substance. That substance has tested negative for anthrax.

But what we have here now are a total of three letters from St. Petersburg that investigators are still looking at that contained a white, powdery substance that all came up negative: a letter to NBC News, a letter to "The New York Times" and a letter to the "St. Petersburg Times"; but all of those have come back negative for anthrax.

What we do know now is that the letter that did infect the NBC News employee arrived here much earlier than they had thought. It was postmarked and arrived on September 18. That means that that will push back the time of which people may have been exposed to this letter, meaning that perhaps more NBC News employees may have to be tested for anthrax.

So far, 358 employees have been tested. At least 200 of them are taking antibiotics protectively, including NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw -- Leon.

HARRIS: Maria Hinojosa in New York, thank you very much.

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