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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 29, 2001
Ridge, Thompson Hold Briefing
Press Briefing By Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, CDC Emergency Environmental Services Director, Dr. Pat Meehan
Room 450
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building
11:52 A.M. EST
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today's
briefing on homeland security. One of the things that you'll note in the
President's schedule today is that he will be meeting with the homeland
security team, the principals, later on this afternoon.
You should know that during the past several weeks I have been meeting on a
daily basis, along with individual members of the homeland security team, but we
have begun to formalize that process. And even though the President has
been in touch with us on a constant basis, we decided to formalize it. And we'll
probably have some action items coming out of today's homeland security meeting,
so stay tuned; we'll probably be back to you later on this afternoon.
The President has been conducting a 24-hour war on terrorism, not just with our
troops located in Afghanistan, and with the eyes of this country toward
Afghanistan, but it's been a 24-hour a day war on terrorism here in the United
States. And there have been so many elements and so many agencies that have been
involved in this process.
And what we intend to do in the days and the weeks ahead are to bring some of
these major players to this briefing room from time to time on a regular basis
to deal with the questions that you might have. As I said before, as we continue
our round-the-clock war on terrorism at home, we think it's very appropriate to
bring some of these principals together on a regular basis to respond to
questions that you might have and, obviously, some questions that people in
America have, as well.
Today, joining me from the Department of Health and Human Services is my friend
and former colleague, Tommy Thompson. And he is joined by Dr. Pat
Meehan, the Director of Emergency Environmental Services with the Center for
Disease Control. And I've asked them to give you an update this morning.
Gentlemen.
SECRETARY THOMPSON: Thank you very much, Tom. And good morning to all the
reporters here. I just would like to briefly update you on the efforts of the
Department of Health and Human Services. And currently, the Department of
Health and Human Services has 575 individuals in the field, responding to acts
of threats of bioterrorism. And these wonderful, dedicated employees are helping
state and local officials in Washington and New York, New Jersey and Florida.
And as officials in these affected communities know, more resources and help are
only a phone call away.
We're going to be very aggressive, as possible, in responding to acts of threats
or bioterrorism. We understand that people are very concerned about
anthrax. And we're going to continue to respond with the personnel, the
expertise and the medicine necessary to deal with these acts and threats of
bioterrorism. We're going to err on the side of the caution. We're doing our
best to get help to those at risk of anthrax exposure as quickly as possible.
And we're also working as aggressively as we can to strengthen our response
capabilities. We know we have to get stronger, and we're working with the
Congress to ramp up as quickly as possible. Americans should know that we have
the best scientists, the best doctors and bioterrorism experts in the country
helping us in this endeavor. We're learning more each and every day, and we're
becoming stronger each and every day. And we're going to keep working our
hardest to tackle this new challenge facing our country. We are determined, and
we will not be deterred in our efforts.
We appreciate the hard work and dedication of our partners at the state and
local level, as well. And as the medical community, they're doing a good job of
identifying cases that might be anthrax, so that precautionary measures can be
taken, and that we might respond as quickly as possible.
We also have reached an agreement with all those individuals dealing with the
flu vaccine, and it will be delivered on time, and we will have an increased
amount of about 5 million doses. So we will have 85 million doses of vaccine for
flu that will be sent out to the clinics and to the hospitals in the months of
November, and hopefully all will be sent by the first week in December.
In regards to the most recent update on anthrax, the Cohen building has
been presumptively positively tested for anthrax this past couple days, and all
the individuals in the mail room are on antibiotics. And we are letting all the
individuals know the mail rooms have been closed down. But presumptive positive
means that the next -- the environmental testing will now go to the CDC labs in
Atlanta, and that conclusion of those -- of that information will be sent back
within the next 24 to 48 hours.
With that, I'd introduce Pat Meehan.
DR. MEEHAN: Good morning. As of this morning, we continue to have 12 confirmed
cases of anthrax; six suspect cases. And the good news is that there have been
no new confirmed cases in the last couple of days. Although, I have to tell you
that one of the suspect cases in New Jersey is of concern to us and could move
to the confirmed category in the near future.
Thank you.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Now, our partners in the United States Postal Service
continue to work, likewise, on a 24-hour pace to isolate, treat and remediate
any and all contaminated sites. They are also working with as rapidly as
possible to restore service to the affected areas and to clean up any mail that
may have been contaminated.
The United States Postal Service had a difficult weekend, as they laid to rest
two of their own members. A very difficult weekend for the family and the larger
family, the Postal Service community. So we remember them in our prayers and,
likewise, ask Tom Day, who is Vice President for Engineering, to join us, from
the Postal Service, to give you an update.
MR. DAY: From the Postal Service standpoint, we have continued our downstream
testing of facilities. In the D.C.-Baltimore area, we have over 6,000
employees on antibiotics; and in the New York-New Jersey area, nearly 7,000
employees on antibiotics.
As our testing does find any hot spots, and that has been limited, we then move
forward to decontaminate those facilities. Nothing to add in terms of new hot
spots found.
In terms of irradiation of the mail, we started this past weekend in
Lima, Ohio, to irradiate. We've been working closely with the President's Office
of Science and Technology to coordinate with other federal agencies to ensure
that the level of irradiation that we're applying to this mail can give us a
high degree of confidence that we're dealing with the threat.
We'll continue to work towards that and study it. The mail is a very -- various
products that go through there, so it does not have the homogeneity that you
might find in some of the testing that's been done with both food processing and
medical sterility. And up to this point, that's where that type of technology
has been used.
So we'll work closely with them. We've set a very high dose level that we
believe gives a high degree of confidence. And we're also doing extensive
quality assurance with the company that what they are applying does prove to be
very effective.
Also with the same company, we have contracted for eight of those systems. We
are looking to deploy them to facilities where we can then put the mail through
and not have to transport it great distances outside of this area. And we're
looking to get even more capacity, if possible, to increase the ability to
irradiate mail.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Joining us today, as well, in case you have any questions -- I
think some of you have been with us before when we've had Major General John
Parker, Commanding General of the United States Army Medical Research and
Materiel Command Center. But we also have Dr. John Marburger, the Science
Advisor to the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Any questions?
Q Governor, let me ask you something. First it started out that the medicine
of choice was Cipro. Then we heard doxycycline is also as effective. I want
to ask you about, how about regular penicillin? Can anybody say? Are there three
interchangeable --
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I will defer to a medical expert to give you the answer on that.
Dr. Meehan.
DR. MEEHAN: Generally, the two top drugs that we recommend are ciprofloxacin or
another drug in that category, but specifically ciprofloxacin and doxycycline.
After the organism is isolated and we do antibiotic sensitivities, we can
ascertain, we can figure out if the particular organism is sensitive to a broad
range or not. We tend to go to doxycycline because of the simpler dosing, and
because that is what we have lots of in the national pharmaceutical stockpile
and we can make it available to people readily for rapid implementation of
treatment clinics.
What we have done is figured out that the isolates so far have entirely been
sensitive to doxycycline, so that, essentially, ciprofloxacin and doxycycline
are interchangeable.
Q But penicillin does not have the same effect?
DR. MEEHAN: Penicillin, I would need to look at the antibiotic sensitivity
profile on these. Penicillin may work fine for these. I've only concentrated on
those two because that's the two that we're offering on a regular basis to
people.
Q Governor Ridge, Dr. Koplan from the CDC said late last week that it was his
belief, given the pattern of exposure of anthrax, that there had to be another
letter that had not been discovered yet, making its way through the postal
system. I'd like your thoughts on that.
And also, what can you tell us about the possible presence of bentonite or
aluminum silicon in the sample of anthrax that was discovered at Senator
Daschle's office?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: With regard to the investigation surrounding the Brentwood
Post Office and the one letter to Senator Daschle's office, the FBI has
secured its own independent facility to run the mail that had been basically
sequestered, after we discovered that they had -- there was anthrax contained in
one letter. And they are in the process of investigating to determine whether or
not there are additional letters.
With regard to your second question, I'm going to ask General Parker to give you
an update. There is, just to give you -- there has been one test that has been
completed, and other tests are being conducted. And I will let the General
explain to you the science of both.
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Good morning. I won't go through what we already know.
There seems to be a lot of questions about bentonite. I'm not sure where
they're coming from, or their importance. But if you ask what is bentonite, it's
a volcanic clay. And one of its principle ingredients is aluminum. And it varies
in percentage of aluminum. And we have subjected the New York Post sample and
the Daschle sample to very high energy x-ray studies, and I will say to you that
we see no aluminum presence in the sample.
And, therefore, if you go back to the definition, MERK Index, the Internet, and
geology centers all over this country, we can say that there is no bentonite in
the New York Post sample or the Daschle sample.
Q To follow up, what does that say about the level of sophistication, and
obviously connected to that, the level of expertise needed to -- for something
like this, if it doesn't have --
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Bentonite is a lubricant. That's all I know about it by
reading, just like you read. It's a hydroscopic compound. I don't know what its
significance is, and I've been asked to study the samples thoroughly, from A to
Z, to know what's in the sample, what's the character of that anthrax, what its
family lineage is, and what it's antibiotic sensitivities are. And I feel very
strongly that the scientific data that I'm giving to you this morning is all I
know.
Q Does that suggest then that there was no additive, there's been nothing in the
spores to make them more -- or nothing added to the spores to make them more
easily aerosolized?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Complicated question. We do know that we found silica
in the samples. Now, we don't know what that motive would be, or why it would be
there, or anything. But there is silica in the samples. And that led us to be
absolutely sure that there was no aluminum in the sample, because the
combination of a silicate, plus aluminum, is sort of the major ingredients of
bentonite.
But the significance is -- I don't know what the significance is.
Q Is silica negatively charged, do you know?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: I don't know that. It would depend on what form it would
be in. I suppose you could do all sorts of things with it.
Q Sir, is there anything other than bentonite that can make anthrax less
inclined to clump together and more able to float freely?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Not to my knowledge -- and that's very limited, of course.
You understand that, I'm not the expert. I hope there are people that could
probably answer your question much more articulately.
Q John, you've told us a bit about what's not in the Daschle anthrax.
From your briefing the other day, could you update us on what you do know about
the characteristics of this anthrax?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: May I repeat what I said? The Daschle sample is very fine
and powdery. It appears that -- and I'm talking gross, looking at the specimen
grossly, not under the microscope. The New York Post sample is very granular, by
comparison. And when you look at the two samples under the microscope, the
Daschle sample is very pure and densely compact with spores. And so is the New
York Post sample, but not quite as dense -- I'm talking magnitudes of, you know,
times 10 difference, maybe, between the density of the two samples. Both samples
are densely populated with anthrax spores.
Q I just thought in four days, you would have found out something new about it?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: There's not much more to learn about anthrax. You know,
the spore, itself, has been around a long, long time. It dates back into
biblical times; we know it's not a good organism to have in your body.
Q Would further tests show whether bentonite was there? Ari earlier
suggested there may be other tests would identify it. Does this, what you're
doing rule out bentonite, in your opinion?
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Sir, in my opinion, it rules it out. If I can't find
aluminum, I can't say it's bentonite.
Q Will there be other ways to look for the composition of this additive? Are
there other ways, aside from high energy x-rays, to go about looking for --
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: The scientists are pursuing that, they're discussing it
and are trying to characterize this right down to the point where we know
everything about these samples. But you have to know that we don't have much
sample, and so doing comparison is very, very difficult and people have to think
about it before we destroy more sample to maybe run down a wrong road. So
there's a lot of discussion about what is needed.
Q And in that discussion, is there essentially a debate as to whether or not
this additive indicates a foreign source, or whether or not this additive
indicates a domestic --
MAJOR GENERAL PARKER: Sir, I'm not aware of a debate. I'm not aware of a debate.
Q Governor Ridge, I have another question. You can refer it out as you see
appropriate. The issue of a second letter you've already spoken to. What is the
latest theory as to the nature of these additional hot spots within the
Brentwood facility, and how cross-contamination might have occurred? In
other words, is other mail affected that's now being sterilized as a precaution?
Or -- and all going to the point of whether or not there's mail arriving at
people's home, particular in this city, that might somehow be tainted?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: The belief within the administration is that we need to isolate
all the mail that was on the Hill to determine whether there was more than one
letter, and that process is being done and that's part of the investigation that
the FBI is running. The belief in the commitment within the administration is to
do as much environmental testing as we possibly can to determine whether or not
there are other environmental indications of anthrax. And then we would proceed
accordingly to determine its medical sufficiency in dealing with people who may
have been exposed to it.
The belief within the administration is to basically leave no stone un-turned.
There will be additional tests on the remaining anthrax samples that we have.
They're going to be looking at the letters at another facility, at another
venue. This is -- it continues to be a very aggressive, ongoing investigation.
There are a lot of theories out there; we just need some facts to turn a theory
into reality.
Q Can I follow on one point? In other words, what I'm asking is almost
mechanically, what would happen -- in other words, if nobody within Daschle's
office got the inhaled form of anthrax, is that because once it aerosolizes,
your biggest hot spot is going to be within the processing center or where it's
going through various equipment, and so forth?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: It seems to me that the inhalation anthrax that took the lives
of a couple postal workers came at a point where there was obviously maximum
exposure. What caused it, whether or not it was spraying the strappers with --
again, it's an investigation dealing with, frankly, perhaps a universe of
unknowns that we're trying to narrow down. But I would ask any of my colleagues
-- Dr. Meehan or Mr. Day, if you care to elaborate on that.
DR. MEEHAN: I'd be happy to, Governor Ridge. At this point, the epidemiologic
data point to a situation where the Daschle letter probably went through the
Brentwood facility, was processed by a machine, some aerosolization occurred of
the spores. The people who were working in the facility were exposed to
aerosolized spores, and developed inhalation anthrax.
We think -- we believe very strongly that people that live -- the individuals
who receive mail in the Washington, D.C. area, are at extremely -- are
essentially at no risk of inhalation anthrax. They are not in a situation where
they're going to be agitating letters that have spores. If there's a remote
possibility that a letter has a few spores on it, because it was in the
Brentwood facility at the same time, those people may have a very, very small
risk of cutaneous type anthrax.
But it's important to remember that we're doing very aggressive surveillance and
case finding, working with Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., and have
seen no cases of this so far. So it makes us feel good that people are really at
essentially --
Q But are you also in touch with large businesses, say in downtown
Washington, that may get mail in bulk from Brentwood -- law firms, other --
DR. MEEHAN: We have recommended that their mail handlers, the ones that get mail
-- in the rooms that get mail directly from Brentwood, be on preventive therapy
right now. But let me tell you that having tested now -- having results back
from -- I believe it's 22 post offices where non-governmental mail was going
through -- out of almost 300 samples, we only have one positive. And that
suggests to us that it's starting to look like non-governmental mail was
minimally affected by this so far.
Q Governor Ridge, what accounts for the positive hits at these off site
facilities, like the CIA, at the State Department, the Supreme Court? Is
it additional contaminated mail may have also gone through those facilities, or
is it cross-contamination from Brentwood?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: I'll let the folks at the CDC or the post office, but I believe
that that theory is cross-contamination. But, again, you don't eliminate
anything at this point. Does anybody care to respond to that?
DR. MEEHAN: I'm sorry, could you restate the question?
Q The contamination at some of these off-site mail facilities that service the
Justice Department, the Supreme Court -- what's the working theory on that, is
it that it's cross-contamination --
DR. MEEHAN: We think probably in most cases it's mail that was processed at the
same time as the Daschle letter, that was cross-contaminated by it.
Q Doctor, in that regard, we have been using the terminology "hot spots." And
I'm wondering if you could comparatively tell us how hot or not hot some of
these places are? I mean, are we talking about very, very small spore samples
that are of almost no particular danger at some of these off site facilities,
and we should sort of think of them in a different way then all being hot spots?
DR. MEEHAN: Right. It's important to realize that these are facilities where
we're taking wipe samples. So these are spores that are on the surfaces of
things. It's highly unlikely that they would be re-aerosolized in sufficient
quantity to cause anybody to get inhalation anthrax. So our level of concern is
quite low, but we still want people to be taking antibiotics.
Q On a follow up, could you talk about the CDC recommendation on Friday that
some high risk workers begin, at some point when it's available, to receive the
anthrax vaccination? Be these contamination workers, others who are
working in mail facilities in investigatory capacity, and at some point possibly
postal workers?
DR. MEEHAN: I'm sorry, what is the question?
Q Well, can you talk about why that's necessary, when the vaccine will be
available, what will be the methods to work that out?
DR. MEEHAN: Those are some very preliminary discussions that are going on right
now, looking at if we were to expand vaccine availability, if we were to
recommend that, which groups would we recommend it for. And as -- I believe it
was Dr. Fleming, from CDC, said, those are the initial groups that we would
certainly look at.
Q But you're saying that's not a final determination yet?
DR. MEEHAN: No, sir.
Q That's not a policy. Can you stand on that, Secretary Thompson?
SECRETARY THOMPSON: It's not final. It's very preliminary -- it's being
discussed, and it's not final in any way.
Q I just wanted to clarify. You mentioned the Cohen room.
SECRETARY THOMPSON: The Cohen Building.
Q Or, building, rather. Is that a new site, or -- I mean, is that --
SECRETARY THOMPSON: That's the new site.
Q What is the Cohen Building?
SECRETARY THOMPSON: Sorry?
Q What is that building?
SECRETARY THOMPSON: It's the Health and Human Service Building, right next to
the Humphrey Building. There's a lot of -- Voice of America is in there, Food
and Drug is in there, and some of our other --
Q There was a report this morning that there had been a possible anthrax at the
State Department. Is that accurate?
SECRETARY THOMPSON: That, I don't know about. All I know is about the Cohen
Building.
GOVERNOR RIDGE: That report about the State Department I believe is accurate.
Q Main building?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Main building, I'm not sure. But it is.
Q Will you be briefing like this every day or Monday, Wednesday and Friday? What
are your plans?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Well, at least Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But as -- again,
there's probably a pretty good chance you will see us tomorrow, because we found
a new site in the Cohen Building. We anticipate you'll want to know more about
that. So I suspect that throughout this week, you will probably see us daily. It
may not always be at 11:00 a.m., but right now, tentatively 11:00 a.m.
Q And the whole lineup?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: That may vary from time to time, depending on the information
that we gain over the next 24 hours, as it relates to either the Post Office,
CDC. It's an interchangeable lineup. Everybody's on the same team. We just don't
bring the entire team at the same time.
Q Is this in response to some of the criticism that the administration received
last week, that it was -- had a very ragged response to the anthrax and homeland
security?
GOVERNOR RIDGE: Actually, if you recall the first press conference that I think
we held over a week ago, we brought out -- we've taken the same approach, and
we're going to continue to take the same approach, with me speaking much less on
matters of science and medicine and bringing the experts along with me.
That's it. Thank you very much.
END 12:20 P.M. EST