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CNN Live At Daybreak
Investigators Wonder if Newest Anthrax Cases are Related to Daschle Letter
Aired October 31, 2001 - 08:04 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: We continue to track the anthrax story. The total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has risen to 16. Three people have died, and investigators are pushing forward with their efforts to find the source.
National correspondent Eileen O'Connor has the very latest on the search for answers -- good morning, Eileen.
EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, scientists say they really are on a learning curve, and the latest theory has been blown apart. That theory was that no one could get inhalation anthrax from contaminated mail. Still unlikely, they say, but not something that the scientists are now ruling out anymore, after a woman in New York contracted inhalation anthrax, not sure if she got it at work or at home from her mail. They are retracing her steps, but nevertheless, officials still insist the chance of getting anthrax from your mail is very small, although they do say they are investigating that possibility very intensely.
Now, the next question they're grappling with: Did all of this contamination come from the anthrax-laced substance in the letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, or are there more letters? Letters impounded already will be looked over piece by piece by FBI agents, but after it is sanitized.
Now, the FBI is under fire in Congress for not having tested that mail earlier, despite what is described as the most intensive investigation in the agency's history. Officials admit they still are not much closer to finding out just who had sent the anthrax in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOMMY THOMPSON, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Hopefully, we will be able to break this case soon and get this thing behind us. But right now, we don't know who is doing it. We don't know if it's from internationally or if it's domestic, or if it's one person or several persons.
(END VIDEO CLIP) O'CONNOR: As for other threats, officials say the alert, but live life as usual, including allowing your children to go trick or treating. But, they say, parents should go along and watch what your children are receiving -- Paula.
ZAHN: Eileen, could you go back to that point you were making about the letters that have been impounded? How long have those letters been impounded for?
O'CONNOR: Well, many of them are from government offices that have been shut down on Capitol Hill, so they've been impounded for a couple of weeks. They were sent to Lima, Ohio for sanitation. And some members of Congress yesterday were grilling a member of the FBI and saying, why were they sent away to be sanitized, when they really should be tested for anthrax before they are sanitized?
The FBI says they're going to sanitize them to protect their own workers and investigators, and what they're going to do, they say, is go through that mail piece by piece and see if they have any similar letters -- letters that are similar in writing or in content -- to the letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and the "New York Post" -- Paula.
ZAHN: Sorry, Eileen, I might be a little confused here this morning. But if they're going to go through this process in Lima, Ohio, how are they going to figure out whether any mail is tainted or not? Is everything going to be sanitized, so you lose the fingerprints?
O'CONNOR: It will be sanitized -- well, it will be sanitized but the, you know, there still could be substance in that mail. Also, what they're not going to be able to tell, perhaps, is that was other mail still contaminated? But if there was a lot of substance in the mail, they'll still be able to see that.
What this does is it kills the DNA inside of the spores, so the actual substance itself will still be there. It won't vaporize, or it won't disappear. So they still will be able, they say, to find out if any other substances were -- or anyone was trying to send any substance through the mail -- Paula.
ZAHN: All right. Thank you very much for that clarification -- Eileen O'Connor, as always good to have your expertise.
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