Posted on 10/25/2001 1:38:00 PM PDT by SAMWolf
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Genetic testing shows the bacteria in the anthrax-by-mail attacks have not been bioengineered and are quite similar to natural strains that sicken animals, federal health officials said Thursday.
"These strains cannot be distinguished from other anthrax isolates that are known to have caused disease in barnyard animals" in the United States and Europe, said Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While CDC says the anthrax so far is susceptible to penicillin, preliminary tests suggest it also may contain an early signal of developing penicillin resistance. Thus CDC said Thursday that patients with inhaled anthrax should not be treated with penicillin alone.
But from an investigative viewpoint, that discovery "is entirely consistent with the natural biology of the organism," Gerberding said. In nature, anthrax strains often show that chemical signal.
"We have absolutely no evidence to suggest these isolates have been genetically altered or engineered in any way," she added. "We're quite relieved that their susceptibility profile looks like what we would expect from a naturally occurring strain."
So far, the CDC hasn't finished genetic tests on anthrax spores recovered from the Washington postal facility where two workers have died and two others become infected with inhaled anthrax. Those tests are important to help determine whether the anthrax came from the same batch as the bacteria in letters mailed to Florida, New York and a Senate office.
Then there's the nation's other antibiotic resistance worry -- that some 10,000 people now are taking Cipro while CDC figures out whether they were exposed to anthrax and thus are at risk. All of that Cipro use, infectious disease specialists worry, could cause everyday bacteria to mutate so that Cipro won't be useful against other infections.
The CDC won't be able to detect if that's happening right away, Gerberding said, "but I would be surprised if it was a zero impact."
Some quotes from this morning's NY Times article, Contradicting Some U.S. Officials, 3 Scientists Call Anthrax Powder High-Grade:
The key to understanding the anthrax letters is to recognize that they are not attacks. They are advertisments.
My point was not that "only a national government could have milled powder grains of the size used in the attacks," as my posting made quite clear. What matters is that the combination of 1) the size of the powder grains, 2) the fact that the bacillus is in its spore state, and 3) the fact that an an anti-static additive was used, taken together, point quite strongly to a national bioweapons program that only three countries are known to have (now or in the past).
I'm so sick of this damned merry-go-round of lies. One day it's highly potent, the next day it's the work of amateurs...then it's weaponized, then it's not weaponized it's just real little...sheesh.
How about the simple truth! The hacks at the CDC have spent so much valuable time, talent and treasure studying gun violence as a disease that they have NO EXPERTISE in the real diseases that are threatening our society. These guys are clowns, hacks and stooges. The CDC has NO credibility anymore.
You're so smart!! Glad to see someone here has the half a brain I'm missing.
Pearls before swine, my friend, pearls before swine.
It gets worse. DOD ran an exercise in which they assumed terrorists scattered a pound of pure spores of the right size, and aerolsolized (i.e., same as that used on Daschle), off the top of the Empire State Building. They estimated that would kill perhaps a million people. There's no way treatment could save more than a handful. And most of Manhatten plus some parts of the rest of New York City were deemed contaminated for years. I read a summary of the results of this exercise in a link from the Freep, I think, and recently.
So the question is how much anthrax the terrorists in the US have. I read someplace else that the xUSSR had produced either twenty pounds or twenty tons of equivalent aerolsolized spores in its history (I forget which). I sure hope it was just twenty pounds.
The only possible way to stop this from happening over and over, if the terrorists in this country have several pounds of Daschle-grade anthrax powder, would be to round up _every_ possible suspect, i.e., anyone who looks like they might possibly be a male aged 15-50 of Middle Eastern extraction. That not only means some of my friends and their sons who were born here, but millions of Hispanic males.
But when the alternative is millions of dead Americans, we won't have any choice.
And the best defense is a good offense.
FREE THREADKILLER!
"I think the phrases are indicative that they are trying to divert our attention to make us look at a foreign organization, to make us look at al Qaeda (Osama bin Laden's terrorist network)," said ABCNEWS counterterrorism expert Vince Cannistraro, "but that they are trying to obscure the real origin, which appears to be domestic."
Apparently there is NO WAY that militant islamic terrorist can claim responsibility for the anthrax letters. If they clearly state islamic believes like 'death to america, death to israel and Allah is great', the FBI and media shills will assume that they are still right wing nuts who are just trying to act like islamic terrorist. One could probably safely assume that if the islamic terrorist tried to look like right wing nuts, the FBI and media shills would have no problem taking the letters at face value. 'Look, its right wing nuts, look at their letter.'
Whats worrisome here is that while the media and FBI are clearly ignoring the connection between islamic terrorism and the anthrax attacks, a new over reaching anti-terrorism bill is about to become law. One that will be heavily utilized according to Ashcroft. So we have two things about to collide and synthesis. False claims of domestic right wing anthrax terrorism and a new anti-terrorism law. Is it any coincidence that both are occurring simulatenously ?
Milling it to a small size so the victim will inhale it deep into the lungs.
Milling - thereby destroying the outer protective layer of the spore?
I *don't* think so.
THIS is an organism in a state of hibernation - it's basically a seed - with a protective outer covering.
Milling it would destroy that outer covering ...
the "powder" could only have been prepared by a highly sophisticated national biowarfare infrastructure.
I take exception with that view and contend it could be down with FAR less sophistication than is claimed that it takes ...
Some time in an appropriately 'tumbler'/drier could render the spores smooth (de-burred) and dry, ready for the application of an anti-static agent (bought from a grocery store?) ...
Does anyone know if it is true that the anthrax infection is the same anthrax; the seriousness is determined by the entry, either superficially on the skin or internally in the lungs? Isn't it just that the more refined anthrax enters the lungs more readily because it is "finer"?
Have you noticed the increasing number of people around here who become apoplectic when they are informed of a simple, non-threatening explanation to one of the may conspiracy theories floating around here?
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