Posted on 10/17/2001 6:44:12 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 20 people in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office have tested positive for exposure to anthrax, sources said Wednesday.The tests were conducted after a letter sent to Daschle's office was found to contain a highly refined form of anthrax, suggesting it was produced by experts.
One official with direct knowledge of the test results said 22 Daschle staffers had tested positive for exposure to anthrax. All of them are taking the antibiotic Cipro. Another source said that more than 20 had tested positive. Both sources insisted on anonymity.
The FBI is investigating strong similarities in handwriting and style, including identical anti-American language, between the letter sent to Daschle in Washington and a letter with anthrax sent to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw in New York.
Elsewhere in the country, four people are known to have contracted anthrax and nine others have tested positive for the bacteria.
Hundreds of people were tested Tuesday after the suspicious letter was opened in Daschle's office Monday. Nasal swabs were used on the staffers to see if there were any anthrax spores in their noses. A positive finding does not mean the person has the disease or will get the disease.
About 8,000 spores must be inhaled for a person to develop inhalation anthrax.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said about 200 people on Capitol Hill are taking Cipro because of the anthrax scare, including himself.
Lieberman, who has not tested positive for anthrax exposure, said during a CNN interview on Wednesday that his taking the antibiotic ``is probably unnecessary, but why not?''
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said of the anthrax scare: ``There's no question that right now we are in a period of the unknown.''
For Education And Discussion Only. Not For Commercial Use.
Undoubtedly and it undoubtedly originated from Iraq. There time is coming.
Undoubtedly! :-}
I have not read any information on strains that are resistant to the quinolones such as Ciprofloxacin, Levafloxacin, etc etc. Unless attacked with weapons grade anthrax on a large scale with a sophisticated delivery system (something I do not think the terrorist have the capability of doing) our country has a more than ample supply of drugs that will kill the beast.
Charlie the Pharmacist
Why do you think 20 Daschle staffers would sniff one envelope?
If you have seen anywhere that these staffers actually have cotracted the disease, please site your source. Thanks.
Fresh produce would be easier. Intestinal anthrax.
I would have thought that by removing the Congressman you have ipso facto de-contaminated it.
My question from UK, knowing little of Congressional politics, why Daschle? Now if it had been Condit....
Listen, I've lived over there..street level with them. #1, They would have contempt for the liberal/communists in our government, mainstream press and in our country. They would buddy up to them as a necessary evil but then strike them first because mainly the left in our country is immoral, very immoral in their eyes and weak, malable.
They would hold them in severe disrespect yet use them but now the terrorists are going for broke. They'll try to get rid of our immoral people because they hold them in such disrespect and contempt. I don't know for sure if or when bloody bill will be hit but it probably won't be too long because traitor bill is not only immoral and violates how they think people and leaders should live, but they would despise him because he was a weak leader and a weak man. They won't care if traitor bill still has some value to help them. I think that traitor bill, daschale, and the other liberal/communists need to be very very careful but once the terrorists start to really fall, once bin laden falls and the tide turns, the rest, even saddam (if still alive and not nuked like he should be) will lick their boots and try to keep them alive to cry on their shoulders, to try to preserve their own lives and power.
BUSH, you reward the attacks against Americans and the WMD attacks by openly saying that you support a country for palestinians. You have betrayed Americans because of your stance. You can't reward those who have murdered us and will continue to murder us in the future through WMD and conventional means.
These people (the terrorists, those that supported them) will only respect you if you show them strength. You are a moral man, they won't attack you for the same reasons they will the democrats, clintons, media. Showing strength is the only thing that will save us now. Track down the anthrax and as per our national policy, nuke the country and people that support it's use on America.
AND you have to tell them, "No way in H*ll will you support palestine as long as the terrorists, their threat to Americans, their attacks on America, her friends and allies are allowed to continue or continue or are capable of continuing in the form they've taken lately. These latest terrorists must all be killed if we want peace for any length of time. This includes saddam, iranians, iraqis, syrians, any and all who support and gave support to terrorists. Terrorism CAN NOT be rewarded in any way, shape or form." Though I must say Iran is certainly coming around publically. I still think the majority of their people are our friends. Hmm, I wonder if the moderates are threatening the clerics and militants' overthrow and it's scaring those still in control.
What Rudy did was right, in returning the check to Sheik Talal, according to Western thinking and standards. But to our moderate friends in the Middle East, what Rudy did was very rude. They don't completely understand how we think nor do we, how they think. To most Arabs, they let their people do as they wish when not in their country. They drink, party, date Western girls, etc. but the one rule they have about that is that they shouldn't flaunt it, it shouldn't be excessively overt. I believe a Sheik Adnan (Dodi Al Fayed's uncle) lost his government position over such actions becomming public knowledge..in his own country. He was too public, too celebrity.
Think of the difference in thinking between men and women..."Men come from Mars, women come from Venus" kind of thinking. The difference between Muslim/Arab thinking and the West is on a similar tract.
And the truth is, Sheik Talal didn't and hasn't said anything that Bush and Blair, et al, aren't saying right now, yet Sheik Talal was publically humilated for saying it. IMHO, Bush and Blair shouldn't even be saying it.
Not to mention the fact that indiscriminate use of antibiotics leads to bacterial resistance. There are some antibiotics that are virtually useless today because doctors have prescribed them for years, to people who had viral (not sensitive to antibiotics) infections.
Penicillin is cidal and destroys anthrax, whereas the tetracyclines do not kill it, only slow it.
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