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CNN Live At Daybreak

Anthrax Detected in Mail Receiving Building at CIA in Langley, Virginia;

Aired October 26, 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: New this morning, evidence of more anthrax in the nation's capital. Overnight, traces of anthrax are found at the CIA after the State Department adds one new case of inhalation anthrax. And the vice president once again is warning the American public to expect more attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In this conflict for the first time in our history we will probably suffer more casualties here at home than will our troops overseas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And good morning. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. It is Friday, October 26. From New York, I'm Paula Zahn.

We are covering the angles on the anthrax story from many fronts this morning. We're going to be talking with medical correspondent Rea Blakey, State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel and congressional correspondent Kate Snow. Stay right there. We'll get right back to you.

Also coming up in this hour, we're going to hear from Ernesto Blanco's doctor. Blanco is the man who inhaled anthrax and lived to tell about it.

And now, some of the latest developments to report this morning. A worker at an offsite State Department mail facility has been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax and another worker there is being tested. No exposures are reported at the CIA, but traces of anthrax have been detected in a mail facility for the agency at Langley, Virginia. In New York, anthrax bacteria has been found on four mail sorting machines at a postal processing station in Manhattan. More than 5,000 people work at that station.

In the shooting war on terrorism, Britain has just committed 200 commandos of the Royal Marines to the offensive in Afghanistan. They will be part of a larger military force that includes warships and planes. And the Taliban say they have arrested opposition leader Abdul Haq in Afghanistan. CNN has been told that Haq was on a peace mission for the exiled king of Afghanistan. And this morning we learn that anthrax has been detected in a mail receiving building at the CIA in Langley, Virginia. It is being called a medically insignificant amount and no cia personnel have been tested for anthrax exposure. but another government mail room has tested positive for anthrax, the mail room at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Springs, Maryland. Also, one worker at a State Department mail facility that is offsite has been hospitalized with inhalation anthrax. Another there is being tested.

State Department mail arrives there from Washington's Brentwood processing facility, where CNN's Rea Blakey is standing by this morning -- good morning, Rea. What's the latest from there?

REA BLAKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

It's a little bit like being a character in a Tom Clancy novel, basically because some of the postal trucks that are passing by behind us here at the Brentwood facility, which are preparing for some kind of decontamination, are being driven by individuals who are wearing biohazardous safety suits. And so it's a little eerie to see that happening right here behind us.

What I can tell you is that approximately 8,000 United States postal service employees are currently on antibiotics. Those people in Washington, D.C., in New York and New Jersey affected by traces of anthrax in their postal facilities.

Now, the CDC says that everyone affiliated with the mail system is being tested and treated accordingly. Tom Ridge, who is the director of homeland security, indicates that environmental sweeps are under way in approximately 200 mail facilities up and down the eastern seaboard. And Debbie Willhite from the U.S. Postal Service says that all government mail rooms as well should be tested and their employees treated.

You might imagine the scope here is continuing to extend and evolve. For more information on that employee from the State Department who was at the Sterling, Virginia facility, we go now to my colleague Andrea Koppel.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rea, thanks so much.

That unidentified 59-year-old man who is a State Department contract worker out at one of its main mail handling facilities in Sterling, Virginia is still in guarded condition today. He was admitted to the hospital yesterday after he complained of flu-like symptoms. Then late last night, CNN learned from the State Department that another unidentified person who also worked at Sterling, Virginia at that facility that you're looking at right there has also contracted some form of anthrax. We do not know, unlike the 59-year- old man who has inhalation anthrax, what type of anthrax this individual has.

The connection between the Sterling, Virginia facility is that most of the mail that it receives for the State Department comes from the facility where Rea just was in Brentwood, where two people died from anthrax. But having said that now, all State Department mail handlers are on Cipro, on that antibiotic. They're all being tested for anthrax. But as things stand right now, there are now only two confirmed cases of anthrax.

Now, I'm going to pass things over to my colleague Kate Snow on Capitol Hill.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Andrea.

We're out in front of the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. This building, two more traces of anthrax found inside here, announced last night. These are small traces. One location on a night, between the eighth and ninth floor in a stairwell. The other location on a ninth floor filter in the ventilation system.

Capitol Police spokesman Dan Nichols saying that this isn't unexpected because people were going up that staircase who worked in Senator Tom Daschle's office, staffers who were in the office when that anthrax laced letter was opened, and those people were taken up the staircase and into the ninth floor. So this not all that unexpected.

Unclear, though, how the anthrax got onto the air filter, whether perhaps it was in the air. This morning the Hart Building remains closed. The Dirksen Building next door, however, will be reopening about two hours from now. Authorities here saying that they believe they've isolated all of the areas that are contaminated. But it definitely is dangerous stuff that they're dealing with here. Yesterday, Governor Tom Ridge saying that this potent anthrax that was sent in a letter to Tom Daschle was more dangerous than any of the other anthrax that's been identified in other letters -- Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Thanks, Kate.

You might remember the name Ernesto Blanco. He is the man who is resting at home after his release this week from a Miami hospital where he was treated for inhalation anthrax. Blanco, a 73-year-old grandfather, worked in the mail room at the Boca Raton, Florida office of American Media Incorporated, a publisher of supermarket tabloid newspapers.

He got sick at work on September 28 and entered the hospital October 1. Five days later, photo editor Robert Stevens, who also worked in the Boca Raton building, died of inhalation anthrax. Ernesto Blanco now told the "Miami Herald," "They never told me I had anthrax. I heard it from watching television. I felt that at any moment I was going to die. I physically felt the arrival of death."

But now Blanco says he feels stronger every day. His doctor is Carlos Omenaca and he joins us this morning from Miami. Good morning, sir. Thanks so much for being with us.

DR. CARLOS OMENACA, ERNESTO BLANCO'S DOCTOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: How is Mr. Blanco doing this morning? OMENACA: He is doing great. I saw him in my office and he was in a great condition, in good spirits. He's feeling very well.

ZAHN: And how do you plan to continue to treat him?

OMENACA: I still have him on Cipro. He's going to be on Cipro for a few more days.

ZAHN: And do you plan to give him an anthrax vaccination as well?

OMENACA: We are not planning on doing that because he received what we would call a mega dose of vaccine. He himself experienced the infection and when somebody experiences the infection builds his own antibodies. So he's not going to need the vaccine.

ZAHN: At one point you thought Mr. Blanco only had a 20 percent chance of survival. How did he make the turn?

OMENACA: Well, this 20 percent comes from very old statistics, from old studies that were done many years ago, when antibiotics did not, we didn't have the antibiotics that we have now and the ICU care that we do have now. So I wouldn't say that those statistics could apply at this point.

He did receive the standard treatment. We were very aggressive in keeping him in the ICU and finally he got better, turned the coin and was discharged in good condition.

ZAHN: But the truth is when he first walked in, didn't you think he had flu, like a number of other serious cases you had seen in the hospital over the last couple of weeks?

OMENACA: He did have flu-like symptoms as the other cases. Anthrax has what is called a biphasic presentation in which you may develop a few days of dry cough, maybe a little bit of fever, fatigue and then people get really sick and in a matter of hours they can die if not treated appropriately.

ZAHN: And at what point in his treatment did you truly understand what you were dealing with here?

OMENACA: It took a few days. Initially we were all in the dark and had very low suspicion, except for that his, that connected him with Mr. Stevens as co working in the same building. And then we had the positive swab testes for anthrax from his nasal phalanx. It took a few days for us to gather more and more evidence and convince ourselves that we were dealing with this severe infection.

ZAHN: And I can't even imagine what you were going through during this process. Describe to us a little of your own uncertainty and what it was like to deal with the CDC as you were trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together.

OMENACA: Yes, it was really a team effort. We were four or five doctors in our hospital working together. We were all the time in contact with two or three doctors assigned from the CDC and I was talking to them on a daily basis, many times in the middle of the night. There were even doctors from other states that offered their expertise just to try to help. It was a difficult case.

ZAHN: I know that in the medical community there was great surprise that Mr. Blanco survived. Given the fact that the information about the anthrax came, as you said, several days into his treatment, what have you learned from Mr. Blanco's case that could possibly be applied to some of the other cases we're looking at in the nation right now?

OMENACA: Well, the first thing that is I was struck about is that his presentation was very atypical. What is described in the books as inhalation anthrax syndrome didn't apply to him. So you have to keep open your mind for atypical presentations. In this case, he presented with pneumonia. If you review the literature, most of the cases that we have, especially there was a study done in the Soviet Union, most of the patients did not have pneumonia. They only had implication of the media sternum (ph). So we have to look for atypical cases, as well.

ZAHN: So you truly understand why the CDC has admitted it has made some mistakes. This is all new territory, isn't it, sir?

OMENACA: I'm sorry.

ZAHN: Basically the CDC has said everybody sort of has the same learning curve right now, that this is all very new to us.

OMENACA: Oh, yes, definitely this is a moving target. We are all learning. There is, I'm sure there will be more different presentations clinically. The testing is going to evolve. Treatment, I'm sure, is going to evolve. There is a doctors, I'm sure there is doctors testing different antibiotics, combinations of them, to look for a more effective way of treating this severe infection.

ZAHN: Well, Dr. Omenaca, we really appreciate your joining us this morning. And Mr. Blanco is one lucky man, isn't he?

OMENACA: Yes.

ZAHN: Our best to him and his family. Thanks again.

OMENACA: Thank you.

ZAHN: Congress has some completed action on an anti-terrorism bill that gives law enforcement officers some very broad new powers and President Bush is expected to sign it into law later this morning. And our White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is standing by to give us a perspective on that this morning -- good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

ZAHN: You've got a coat on for the first time in many weeks. It's chilly down there, isn't it?

WALLACE: It is. Eighty degrees yesterday, 50s today. So a little bit colder.

But, you know, Paula, this bill gives law enforcement, as you mentioned, sweeping new powers and President Bush is getting almost everything he wanted, although not everything he wanted. For example, the administration wanted the ability to detain non-U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism indefinitely without charging them. Well, under the bill a compromise. Prosecutors would now be able to detain such individuals for up to seven days without filing charges against them.

Here's a look at some of the other measures of this sweeping new anti-terrorism bill.

Prosecutors would now get what's called roving wiretap authority, and that would be the ability to tap any telephone that a suspect might use as opposed to just using, tapping a single phone. Prosecutors also would be able to share secret grand jury information with intelligence officials and would also be able to track e-mail records and Internet activity of suspected terrorists.

And yesterday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said immediately after this legislation is signed into law later this morning, he will advise law enforcement officers all around the country to begin using this new power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Upon the signing of the legislation into law will be a campaign that will last for many years. Some will ask whether a civilized nation, a nation of law and not of men, can use the law to defend itself from barbarians and remain civilized. Our answer unequivocally is yes. Yes, we will defend civilization and yes, we will preserve the rule of law because it is that which makes us civilized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: But the measure is not without some controversy. There are those who say it will violate individual civil liberties and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, who was the lone dissenter in the United States Senate, he said he's concerned that this new measure would allow the government to get information even from anyone who just has casual contact with a suspected terrorist. Paula, others had some concerns, as well, which led to a so-called sunset provision, which means most of this law will expire in four years unless Congress decides to renew it -- Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: OK, thanks, Kelly. Appreciate it.

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