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Interview with Biomedical Expert Jeffrey Elfing
Aired February 12, 2003 - 14:02 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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: With me right now is Dr. Doctor Jeffrey Elfing of the D.C. Hospital Association. You have 25 years of experience dealing with bioterrorism.
Thanks a lot for coming in to join us.
JEFFREY ELFING, BIOMEDICAL EXPERT: Thank you.
MESERVE: The principal things people are talking about is this, the plastic sheeting. Doesn't look that substantial. What kind of protection is this going to give me at my house?
ELFING: I think ideally you would want a fully self-contained oxygen-containing suit.
MESERVE: But we don't.
ELFING: But you don't, and most people don't have that, and there are a fair amount of maintenance and concerns about maintaining that, that it wouldn't be prudent thing for everyone to get.
However, if you're exposed to either a chemical agent or biological agent, it may be nice to reduce the amount that enters your household, and have a safe room where you could stay.
MESERVE: Will it save your life?
ELFING: Well, there are a lot of factors dealing with biological or chemical agents, particularly chemical ones, which this may help against -- what the environmental conditions are, what the level of exposure is, where you're located and actually the agent that's being used.
MESERVE: So is it silly in your opinion, as some people are saying?
ELFING: It seems prudent to have a protective and survival kit in your house, including these items, especially the radio, the flashlight and most of the things on your list.
MESERVE: We have a radio here, a standard AM/FM sort of radio, battery operated. We have the extra batteries, too, I should add. Is this the most important thing to have?
ELFING: I think you're going to need to get public information messages. And if you happen to lose electricity, it would be great to have radios like that. The AM/FM radios, you can buy for a few dollars. If you want to upgrade, you get a shortwave radio, which gives you information you could get internationally.
MESERVE: You mentioned you gave that as gifts to your kids at Christmas.
ELFING: Yes, my daughters are old enough. Their husbands and fiancees, I gave them shortwave radios with an extra set of batteries for Christmas.
MESERVE: Is this enough? You hear a lot of talk about Israel, for example, where people have gas masks, each and every citizen. Is that the sort of thing this country should be doing to get ready for a possible attack?
ELFING: Well, having managed protective masks during my Army career, it takes a fair amount of maintenance and training. You have to train to put them on, for instance, in the military. You have to do it within nine seconds. There are filters that need to be upgraded and changed; you have to make sure that they don't expire. The masks have to be fitted, and that's an awful lot of maintenance responsibility for somebody that's never had any experience with them, so it's probably not prudent for everyone to go out and buy masks.
MESERVE: Dr. Elfing, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 12, 2003 - 14:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: With me right now is Dr. Doctor Jeffrey Elfing of the D.C. Hospital Association. You have 25 years of experience dealing with bioterrorism.
Thanks a lot for coming in to join us.
JEFFREY ELFING, BIOMEDICAL EXPERT: Thank you.
MESERVE: The principal things people are talking about is this, the plastic sheeting. Doesn't look that substantial. What kind of protection is this going to give me at my house?
ELFING: I think ideally you would want a fully self-contained oxygen-containing suit.
MESERVE: But we don't.
ELFING: But you don't, and most people don't have that, and there are a fair amount of maintenance and concerns about maintaining that, that it wouldn't be prudent thing for everyone to get.
However, if you're exposed to either a chemical agent or biological agent, it may be nice to reduce the amount that enters your household, and have a safe room where you could stay.
MESERVE: Will it save your life?
ELFING: Well, there are a lot of factors dealing with biological or chemical agents, particularly chemical ones, which this may help against -- what the environmental conditions are, what the level of exposure is, where you're located and actually the agent that's being used.
MESERVE: So is it silly in your opinion, as some people are saying?
ELFING: It seems prudent to have a protective and survival kit in your house, including these items, especially the radio, the flashlight and most of the things on your list.
MESERVE: We have a radio here, a standard AM/FM sort of radio, battery operated. We have the extra batteries, too, I should add. Is this the most important thing to have?
ELFING: I think you're going to need to get public information messages. And if you happen to lose electricity, it would be great to have radios like that. The AM/FM radios, you can buy for a few dollars. If you want to upgrade, you get a shortwave radio, which gives you information you could get internationally.
MESERVE: You mentioned you gave that as gifts to your kids at Christmas.
ELFING: Yes, my daughters are old enough. Their husbands and fiancees, I gave them shortwave radios with an extra set of batteries for Christmas.
MESERVE: Is this enough? You hear a lot of talk about Israel, for example, where people have gas masks, each and every citizen. Is that the sort of thing this country should be doing to get ready for a possible attack?
ELFING: Well, having managed protective masks during my Army career, it takes a fair amount of maintenance and training. You have to train to put them on, for instance, in the military. You have to do it within nine seconds. There are filters that need to be upgraded and changed; you have to make sure that they don't expire. The masks have to be fitted, and that's an awful lot of maintenance responsibility for somebody that's never had any experience with them, so it's probably not prudent for everyone to go out and buy masks.
MESERVE: Dr. Elfing, thanks so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
