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CNN Live At Daybreak
White House Mail Facility Has Anthrax Spores
Aired October 24, 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: The president tries to reassure the nation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't have anthrax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Even as anthrax spores are discovered at a postal facility that handles mail for the White House. And, is the threat spreading beyond the mail carriers? This morning, a new warning for the customers of a New Jersey post office.
And good morning. Glad to have you with us this morning. It is Wednesday, October 24. From New York, I'm Paula Zahn.
The new state of anthrax in America this morning, let's take a look at this map. All the states shaded have anthrax related cases. From Florida to New York, a new total of three people dead, and the other numbers may be changing, too.
Here are some of the latest developments at this hour. Six possible new cases of anthrax this morning. All six people are hospitalized in Maryland and authorities suspect they were exposed at the Brentwood mail processing facility in Washington.
Now, New Jersey has issued a statewide anthrax alert following three cases of infection among postal workers in the Trenton area. And for the first time, bulk mail customers are being urged to begin taking antibiotics and doctors in hospitals are on alert for any sign of anthrax infection.
U.S. war planes pounded military targets in and around the Afghan capital of Kabul this morning. But to the south, the intense bombing of Kandahar has subsided. On the northern front, Chris Burns reports the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance fighters are trading artillery fire, but there is no movement of troops at this hour.
The State Department, meanwhile, has issued a worldwide alert warning Americans about the risk of anthrax or other bioterrorism agents. But President Bush says he does not feel threatened, although anthrax spores were found on machinery at a facility that opens White House mail.
John King, our Senior White House Correspondent, is covering that part of the anthrax story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUESTION: Have you been tested for anthrax?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't have anthrax.
QUESTION: So you have been tested, sir?
BUSH: I don't have it.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president was asked because of another anthrax scare, this one at a military installation that screens all mail to the White House. Only a trace amount was detected, on a piece of machinery. No workers have complained of symptoms, but the White House says it is taking precautionary measures.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: All employees at the site are being swabbed and tested. Mail room employees at the White House will also be swabbed and tested, and environmental sampling throughout the White House has all shown negative.
KING: All White House mail is opened at the facility and sources tell CNN no suspicious letters were found. So investigators suspect mail became contaminated at its prior stop, the Brentwood postal facility that processed the anthrax letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Workers there were not immediately tested or treated because health officials did not think it possible that anthrax could seep from a sealed envelope.
JEFFREY KOPLAN, CDC DIRECTOR: We don't know whether that is out of, you know, open flaps in the envelope, whether it potentially can pass through the envelope. We don't know.
KING: But two workers at the facility are dead and at least two more diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, and the administration says it will no longer wait.
TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: If we even remotely suspect that an anthrax-tainted letter may have passed through a facility we're going to get there, test the facility and make the appropriate treatment available to those who may have been exposed.
KING: The postal service has more than 27,000 facilities across the country. Testing every one is not viewed as feasible. But sources tell CNN the government is likely to soon order initial tests at a random sampling nationwide.
(on camera): Some postal workers see a double standard in how quickly the government responded when the anthrax scares were at facilities associated with the Congress or the White House. The administration insists that's not the case, but acknowledges it knows more now about the risks and is promising to act much more quickly in the future.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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