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CNN Live Today

Current Test for Anthrax Believed to be Unreliable

Aired July 22, 2002 - 10:08   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: The White House wants to change how authorities across the country test for anthrax. The administration says that commercial field tests that are currently in use are unreliable.

CNN's senior White House correspondent John King checks in. He's got more on this story for us from the White House.

Good morning -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon.

This new policy stems from a study the FBI asked the Centers for Disease Control to look into the testing done after all of those anthrax scares late last fall into the spring of this year. And the Centers for Disease Control, simply put, found that the commercial test on the market does not work on both ends, if you will. It was not good enough, that test, the CDC says, to detect small amounts of anthrax if they are present, and much worse, from the view of the FBI, it was having way too many false positives.

We had one of those just up the street back in May here from the White House at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. There was a field test done. It tested positive on the scene. Workers were sent home, 100 were given antibiotics at the time.

And so, what we have now is the CDC says that test is not reliable. So the White House Office of Science and Technology will issue a memo later today. It will go to all federal agencies, it will go to state and local police departments across the country, urging them to drop the use of that field test. And if they come across a substance that they suspect might be anthrax, instead of using that commercial test that was used for months, send the substance into the FBI crime lab or another reputable crime lab, and have it tested there. All of this, part of the readjusting, if you will, of the homeland security strategy of this administration, because of the experience of the past several months -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, John, moving on to other topics, President Bush right now is traveling. He is up in the air even as we speak. He will be landing, I believe, in about a half-an-hour or so in Chicago. What's happening in Illinois today? KING: He is in Illinois to talk about homeland security, the very same subject. Anthrax will not be the president's focus. His focus now is on getting final congressional approval of that new Department of Homeland Security, that legislation making its way through Congress.

This is a key week. A special committee in the House handling the legislation. It will go to the floor this week. There will be some debate. The president is not likely to get everything he wants, but Republican leaders and most of the Democrats working with the administration to get that legislation passed as quickly as possible.

Congress goes on recess at the end of the week. The hope is the House will pass its bill, the Senate will act, they'll have a conference committee, and the goal still is to get that legislation creating the new department to the president by the September 11 anniversary. The department would be up and running by the first of the year.

HARRIS: Yes, that would be a heck of an achievement, considering the short timeframe they have been working on this to get that much work done and accomplished and nailed down between now and September 11 would be phenomenal.

KING: It would be.

HARRIS: John King at the White House, thank you very much. Yes, we will see. Thanks, John -- take care.

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