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CNN Live At Daybreak

Anthrax Scare: AMI Employees Will be Retested

Aired October 15, 2001 - 07:04   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And later on this week, those who work at American Media in Boca Raton will be retreated for anthrax. That's the company where one employee died from the disease.

Let's go to our own Mark Potter with an update from Boca Raton this morning -- good morning, Mark.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Health officials say that a second test is normal procedure when checking for anthrax exposure. We are told that proper results cannot be obtained from a single test. If you recall, some 300 employees here at American Media Incorporated in Boca Raton were tested last week. They were given nasal swabs and blood tests. And health officials tell CNN that five of those employees were found to be, in their words, mildly reactive to a test for anthrax antibodies.

But we are warned that these tests are preliminary and not at all conclusive and could be reversed in subsequent testing. A local health official said all we really know now is that these employees test positive for some sort of antibody. We don't know anything beyond that. And he warns that there have been other false positives in this case that later turned out to be negative.

So for now officials say there is still only one known case of anthrax here in which the man died, two other cases of anthrax exposure in which the individuals were not actually infected with the disease.

Meanwhile, as the FBI investigation rolls on into a new week, the secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, says this is clearly terrorism of some sort.

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TOMMY THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: There's no question that it's bioterrorism. It's a biological agent. It's terrorism. It's a crime. It's terrorism. But whether or not it's connected to Al Qaeda, we can't say conclusively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POTTER: Now, this week will be critical for the investigation. Agents are waiting lab results back on swabs and samples that were taken from the building behind me. They stress that this case is highly scientifically based on that lab testing is critical. These results could help focus the investigation, whatever those results turn out to be.

Over the weekend, agents also were interviewing some 800 employees and workers here at the building, trying to see if they could develop leads that way. That procedure that, interviewing procedure, will continue into this week.

And finally, the FBI confirms some reports over this weekend that a real estate agent who also happens to be the wife of the editor of "The Sun" newspaper, one of the papers in the building behind me, rented an apartment to two men who turned out to be hijackers in the September 11 attack. An FBI spokesman says that the bureau considers this to be a strange coincidence and that no known links have been made between that apartment, anthrax and the events here in Boca Raton -- Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Yes, Mark, I heard a report this morning that that American Media building is completely fenced off now. Is there any expectation people will ever be able to go back to work there full- time?

POTTER: Well, the question is who would want to.

ZAHN: Yes, that's a good question.

POTTER: But the answer more directly to you is you can maybe see behind me the police car and the fence. Indeed, it's there. And we are told that this building is shut down for the time being and we don't know how long it's going to be, how long the FBI is going to need to be in there.

If they get more positive results, for example, in these lab tests, they're going to need to go back in and refocus. So we don't know how long it's going to be shut down is the real answer.

ZAHN: All right, Mark Potter, thanks so much for that report.

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