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Anthrax Investigation: Both Postal Workers Believed to Have Died from Anthrax Worked at Brentwood Facility

Aired October 23, 2001 - 07:00   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: Suddenly two more people dead. Anthrax the suspected killer. They were postal workers who sorted government mail at the postal facility near the capital. In Afghanistan, now in the target sites of U.S. warplanes -- Kandahar. Intensive air strikes now pounding the Taliban stronghold.

And good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. It is Tuesday, October 23. From New York, I'm Paula Zahn.

We are covering the anthrax investigation from every angle this morning. Rea Blakey is at D.C. General to tell us about the two postal workers who died late yesterday, Kathleen Koch at Fairfax Hospital updating us on two others who are in serious condition this morning and Kate Snow on Capitol Hill, where Congress heads back to work this morning. We will be right back with the three of you in a moment.

First, those, these latest developments.

Both postal workers believed to have died from anthrax worked at the now closed Brentwood postal facility. This morning, testing continues as questions arise over whether health authorities responded quickly enough to the dangers and if all the infections came from the same letter.

Overseas, the U.S. military strikes not only the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, but also the front line Taliban troops. And in Pakistan, police take a hard line against Islamic fundamentalists demonstrating against the U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan.

Now, back to some of the latest numbers in the anthrax crisis. Currently there are 10 people who are infected. Four of those cases of inhalation anthrax, the most serious form, and six cutaneous or skin anthrax. There are another 32 people who have been exposed.

Correspondent Rea Blakey is at D.C. General, where more postal workers will be tested today and where you might imagine the concern is growing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. IVAN WALKS, D.C. CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER: We have two postal workers who worked in the Brentwood mail facility that have expired.

REA BLAKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Stunning news to the hundreds of Brentwood postal workers who lined up at D.C. General Hospital for precautionary treatment and testing.

MELVIN THWEATT, POST WORKER: It was very shocking. It was very shocking.

BLAKEY: Public health officials strongly suspect anthrax.

DR. DAVID SATCHER, SURGEON GENERAL: It does seem highly probable that those two deaths were related to inhalation anthrax based on my discussion with colleagues at CDC.

BLAKEY: At least two other postal workers from the Brentwood facility are hospitalized, troubling news for employees like Melvin Thweatt, who can't understand what he calls the delay in testing postal workers.

THWEATT: They knew it came through the building. Before they go to Capitol, it has to come to our building anyway. You know, better safe than sorry. They should have closed it down and then say all clear.

BLAKEY: He says workers' concerns about the anthrax laden letter that passed through Brentwood and went to Senator Tom Daschle's office were ignored by post office management.

THWEATT: No one said nothing. Keep working, keep working.

BLAKEY: Postal service spokesperson Debbie Willhite (ph) explains that the Centers for Disease Control had advised there was no immediate need for employee testing. All that changed when a postal worker reported flu-like symptoms and was hospitalized Friday.

DEBORAH WILLHITE, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: The initial thought was that there would be no way that anthrax would not would be, present itself out of a sealed envelope.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLAKEY: Paula, this morning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that the remaining 2,000 postal workers in the District of Columbia also be treated and tested for possible anthrax exposure and/or infection. That would bring a total of 4,200 postal workers in the District of Columbia being treated. It's quite possible that as many as 10,000 people in D.C. are currently taking, or soon will be, antibiotics against anthrax -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Rea, in the meantime, what kind of precautions are being taken at other post offices in the District in terms of handling mail?

BLAKEY: The U.S. Postal Service has indicated that the blowing machines that sometimes spread a great deal of air, machines used to clean some of the postal equipment, will no longer be in operation until they can figure out another way to work that out. Also, machines that kill bacteria often used in medical settings or in food safety supply called electron beam sterilizers could soon be employed to try and sterilize the mail before it's actually distributed to personnel.

Of course, we've talked about the masks and the gloves, but we don't know how well those particular items might actually protect the postal workers. And, of course, testing will resume in just a matter of a couple of hours here at D.C. General Hospital -- Paula.

ZAHN: Because it would seem, Rea, that part of the problem is that no one fully understood the danger of even someone handling an unsealed envelope, right?

BLAKEY: Precisely. As you heard Debbie Willhite indicate, they were informed by the CDC that there was no way that anthrax could actually move out of a sealed envelope. It's not certain exactly where the source of the anthrax was and specifically, again, they're confirming that, in fact, anthrax was the cause. But again, the serious suspicions that that is what we're dealing with here.

But this is new territory for not only the CDC, but all public health employees who are working with inhaled anthrax that we haven't seen before in this country.

ZAHN: Well, even the postmaster general said on LARRY KING LIVE last night, "We are learning as you go."

OK, Rea Blakey, thanks so much for that update.

With the deaths of two colleagues and the infection of two more with inhaled anthrax, D.C. postal workers are worried. The inhaled anthrax victims are being treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia and that is exactly where we find CNN's Kathleen Koch this morning -- good morning, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

The two men remain hospitalized here in serious condition. One of the men was admitted on Friday afternoon, the other Sunday morning. The man admitted Friday suffering from flu-like symptoms -- chest pains, muscle aches and a fever. They're both being treated with a very aggressive regimen of antibiotics, including Cipro. Postal officials would not yet release their names, but they do say that the first man admitted worked handling express mail both at the Brentwood facility and at an air mail center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The second man, who was admitted on Sunday, is described as a loading dock supervisor.

Officials will not say whether or not the two men worked in the same area of the Brentwood facility. They have, however, questioned the first man admitted on Friday who says he has no recollection whatsoever of handling any letters or packages that may have been leaking any powder.

Now, of course, very intense concerns about anthrax contamination continue.

On Capitol Hill, where our congressional correspondent Kate Snow is standing by -- Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kathleen.

The U.S. Capitol Building behind me opened for business again today, but all of the House and Senate office buildings surrounding the Capitol will be shut down so they can search for more traces of anthrax. For several days now, people have been putting on protective gear, environmental teams going into these buildings and doing surveys, taking samples from the buildings, looking for traces of anthrax. That is standard protocol for them to wear these suits as they go into the buildings.

Authorities say preliminary results showing no new signs of any anthrax outside of the locations already identified as being contaminated, those areas in the building housing Senator Tom Daschle's office, also in several mail facilities here on Capitol Hill.

But just in case, they are going to keep those buildings closed throughout the day today. They've made arrangements for House and Senate members to house some of their staffs in locations less than a mile from here so that they can continue to work today, House members being allowed three staff people in these offices near here, senators being allowed to bring two aides in. And they will resume in session later today -- Paula back to you.

ZAHN: All right, thanks so much, Kate.

When anthrax exposures were suspected in the House and Senate office buildings, health officials moved swiftly. But many postal workers say the facility where the mail was processed did not get the same attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THWEATT: They closed the Capitol down first. That was kind of disappointing, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Why?

THWEATT: Well, our lives are important, too, you know? You know, you would think they would have closed this down at the same time at least. But they didn't. You know, I know the mayor got to get out, but the post office preaches safety first. Safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Did the postal service move as quickly as it should have?

Let's turn now to Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan in Washington. Good to have you with us this morning, sir. Welcome.

JOHN NOLAN, DEPUTY POSTMASTER GENERAL: Good morning. ZAHN: So, you, no doubt, have heard the sense of outrage you just heard in that young man's voice. Many postal workers feel betrayed by the government. Why wasn't that facility checked sooner?

NOLAN: You know, it's very easy to look back, as people have said, in hindsight everything becomes very clear. But as you yourself said a few minutes ago, this is all very new territory for all of us. We were doing everything and more that we thought we needed to do based on the information we had. We finally did call for the testing of that facility, based more on good labor relations, good labor management relationships than evidence from the science involved in the process.

Our number one concern is our employees and I spent the day up in New York City, the day and night last, the night before last and yesterday, talking to our employees and trying to make sure that they understood that was our priority, our employees first and then the mail for Americans second.

ZAHN: But don't you understand, sir, how some of these postal workers think there is a double standard at work here? They see, you know, the House closed down and representatives fleeing the House and by the same token they're still working at the mail facility where people knew, and particularly those two letters passed through from Trenton, New Jersey to that facility, the secondary facility on the Hill?

NOLAN: Well, I can certainly understand anyone being concerned about what's going on, but I think they can also understand that we felt that -- we were told that the difference is that in the House and on Congress, in Congress, they were actually opening the mail as opposed to just having it pass through.

Again, we took every precaution that we thought needed to be taken at that time. We have since taken a lot different actions, even to the point, as was mentioned before, of trying to find ways to sanitize the mail.

ZAHN: Well, let's talk about that for a moment, because, let's be completely fair here, because your boss said obviously you're learning as you go on. This is all brand new. Do you think part of the problem was that no one realized that someone could have been infected from an unopened letter? Is that the bottom line?

NOLAN: Oh, that's, that is the bottom line, that there was no information at all that indicated that there was any risk. I mean you had, the postmaster general himself was in that facility with a number of other people and is now taking precautionary measures. So it's not that we were happy to have someone else take the risk while we sat somewhere else. That's not the point. The point is that we did not believe that there was a risk.

ZAHN: The "New York Times" talks about the possibility in an editorial of you all shutting down the postal system for a couple of days to take a security inventory. Is that going to happen? NOLAN: No. This country needs its mail service. There is not a risk to the overwhelming majority of our employees and consumers who receive mail throughout this country. Again, we're delivering over, almost a billion pieces of mail a day in this country. That's an awful lot of mail and the amount of pieces that have been tainted has been relatively small, obviously.

The point is that this country depends on its mail. We have a job to do. The employees that I talked to in New York are committed to doing that job. We're committed to making sure that the job that they're doing is safe and that we're doing the right thing by them as they work for the rest of the people in this country.

ZAHN: Can you assure them, though, that they're 100 percent safe working with gloves and some of the other equipment they've provided them?

NOLAN: I guess given everything that's happened, you'd say 100 percent safe would be a foolish thing to say. But as recently as last night, we have counseled with medical personnel who indicate to us that the gloves and the masks are highly effective fort this kind of thing. And so that's the advice that we're taking and we've checked with a number of people and they say that's true.

ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about that electronic beam sterilizer that they're talking about using in some mail facilities. How expensive are these machines and how practical is it to use them in mail sorting facilities across the country?

NOLAN: We don't care how expensive they are. The big thing is how effective they are. Preliminary indications are that they can be highly effective for certain types of mail or ways that mail are presented. And so what we're doing right now is continuing our evaluation of that, trying to determine how we would use it, where we would use it and how fast we can get it into place.

ZAHN: And what would happen if an anthrax laced letter would pass through one of those sterilizers? Would it not make it powerful? What exactly would happen?

NOLAN: Well, the indications are that it would kill the bacteria and therefore render the spores, kill the spores, essentially. And so the letter would be untainted by any bacteria and perfectly safe for handlers and receivers.

ZAHN: I know you say it doesn't really matter how much it costs, you want to make sure everybody's safe. But obviously there's a price tag attached to this machine. How much does it cost and how many of them are available right now?

NOLAN: I believe that we are in the process of discussing approximately 10 machines that are closed to being completed at this point. We're also checking a number of different suppliers, a number of different technologies. This is not just a matter of grab the first thing that you see, but to turn over every stone you possibly can to try and find all the tools that we can, including utilizing capacity that already exists in these same kinds of equipment that are already deployed in companies around the country.

They may have underutilized equipment, so we might be able to utilize them a whole lot faster than we could actually get delivery on new pieces of equipment. But I think the key thing is that we're finishing up our review of whether this will work, how it will work, where we can make it work and where the capacity exists.

ZAHN: And then just a quick reminder to people what they might be finding in the mail in the next couple of days in terms of any guidelines you're giving the public about what to look out for.

NOLAN: Yes. We've got a postcard that is being mailed to every American and every one of our postal employees that basically provides information on what to look for in a suspicious piece of mail, how they can protect themselves from unusual things and what to do if they find them.

ZAHN: All right, Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan, thank you very much for your time this morning.

NOLAN: Thank you for your time.

ZAHN: Thanks for dropping by.

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