LIEBERMAN
HEARS OF PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSE TO ANTHRAX CONTAMINATION THROUGH
THE MAIL
Communications Broke Down
Report
Expected
October
31, 2001
WASHINGTON - Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe
Lieberman, D-Conn., heard testimony Wednesday about the breakdown
of communications between government agencies regarding the
anthrax contamination of postal workers and the U.S. mail.
At the second in a two-part series of hearings titled
“Terrorism Through the Mail: Protecting Postal Workers and the
Public,” health officials from the U.S. Army and the Centers
for Disease Control described the steps they took and the advice
they gave following the October 15 exposure of members of Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s staff when an aide opened an
anthrax-laced letter.
“These hearings have been informative but also troubling in
many ways,” Lieberman said. “The question is whether the
public health system is truly prepared to address the unique
threats of bioterrorism.”
Major General John Parker, commanding officer at the U.S. Army
Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick said his
office was aware the evening of October 15 of the virulent nature
of the anthrax contained in the Daschle letter.
But Dr. Mitchell Cohen, a witness for the Centers of
Disease Control, which was advising the Postal Service on how to
respond to the crisis, operated for nearly a week on the
assumption the anthrax was of similar quality to the anthrax that
had been sent to media outlets in New York and Florida, but which
did not immediately make postal workers ill.
On October 18, when contamination was discovered at the
Dirksen mail room, it became clear that the so-called Daschle
anthrax was capable of escaping from an unopened letter.
Based on the advice of health officials, the Postal Service
did not close the main postal processing center at Brentwood, nor
did it begin testing workers, until October 21.
Lieberman said there needs to be better coordination
between federal agencies, between federal and state and local
governments and within the health system nationwide.
“The various agencies within the federal government that
have responsibility in crises like these need to be reading from
the script and speaking with one voice,” Lieberman said.
Lieberman announced that said Governmental Affairs Committee
staff would develop a time line tracing the still unfolding events
of the anthrax attack using the U.S. mail.
“It’s clear the federal government has much to do in
order to better organize itself,” Lieberman said, “to prepare
us to better meet the next germ warfare challenge directed against
us.”
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