Posted on 11/13/2001 9:18:01 AM PST by spycatcher
A New Jersey doctor who wonders if he might have been the first person infected in the anthrax attack is still waiting for the FBI to talk to him about what he might know.
What makes his story potentially significant is that his symptoms appeared long before those who were infected by the letters mailed Sept. 30 — actually a week before the terror attacks of Sept. 11.
At the time he had a sore with a black scab, followed by what was diagnosed in a hospital as meningitis. In an interview with ABCNEWS' Good Morning America, Dr. Jerry Weisfogel said he may have had a brush with the anthrax attacker, but the government has ignored his story.
Four people have died, one person is in serious condition and 16 others are recovering from anthrax infection, while at least 37 others have been exposed to the spores.
The FBI says it is pursuing more than 1,000 leads, including at least 100 that have taken investigators overseas.
Weisfogel works in the town of Kendall Park, N.J., which is near Franklin Park, the town found on the return address of the anthrax-contaminated letter that was mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
There's no Greendale school, which was given as the return address, but there is a Greenbrook school in Weisfogel's town, and it only goes to the fourth grade. The return address of the letter sent to Daschle said, "4th Grade, Greendale School."
"It obviously made me think that there may have been some local connection between where my office is, between what I had and wherever the perpetrators of the anthrax mailings are," Weisfogel said.
Could There Be a ‘Cluster 0’?
But Weisfogel said that, to his amazement, he had a hard time getting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get interested in his case. They told him his case appeared too early to be connected, even when he suggested that his could have been the first case.
"That's exactly what I said," Weisfogel said. "I said, 'You have Case 1 and Case 2 or Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. How do you know there was not a Cluster 0?'"
Weisfogel said he originally diagnosed his black scab as a spider bite, but now he wonders if his mistake might not have been the same misdiagnosis so commonly seen in anthrax cases.
What's more, he said, he wonders if the bioterrorist responsible for the letters might have been in his office. "Have I come across patients from countries who might be doing this? Yes," Weisfogel said.
Weisfogel admits that there is no proof that anyone he treated had any connection to the rash of anthrax-contaminated letters received by lawmakers and media companies, but said it is "a possible lead" in a case in which investigators seem to have almost no leads, other than a trail of anthrax infections and spores all going back to New Jersey.
On Thursday, after the CDC became aware that Weisfogel was telling his story to Good Morning America, the agency tested his blood for anthrax antibodies. He was told it could be weeks before the results of the tests are in.
Hey, just like Freepers.
What's a Chief of Cardiology doing treating people for spider bites? Seems a little off base. Same doctor or not?
This appears to be poorly researched. The known letters were mailed Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, not Sept. 30.
To the liberal mind, conservative Americans are the only credible threat to their continued life of comfort and hedonistic abandon. It is questionable that the FBI will ever recover from the pro-global socialist bias that dominated its priority setting during the last administration.
THIS MAY BE BIG! I came home a few minutes ago and saw this article linked off Drudge, and got so excited, I posted it post-haste! (Did a search, but it didn't come up for some reason -- thanks for the ping -- that way I found it had been posted already and so had mine pulled.)
This links the two articles from last night -- one that didn't name the doctor, so we were wondering if there were two separate incidents.
I wondered about that too. The Gerald M. Weisfogel who has offices in Metuchen and Kendall Park (infospace.com lists his office as Franklin Park, which is adjacent) appears to specialize in "cardiac electrophysiology (EKGs) and internal medicine" according to this site.
So possibly he does work as an internist as well as cardiology.
And maybe the perp was having heart palpitations from all the excitement he is experiencing over his deadly activities!
I thought the Mayo Clinic had developed a new test that diagnosed anthrax within hours or even minutes?
I admit, I don't know -- the Mayo test may not be the same as an antibody test administered to someone who has already recovered from the disease.
And the baby was diagnosed with a spider bite.
Or an engineering or architecture student.
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