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.''
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I am so mad right now, I could scream. I am mind boggled at the way we are handling this. They have "experts" all over the TV telling us how to react if we think we are exposed! As if now we are supposed to act like being exposed to a weapon of mass destruction is just one of many new dangers facing us now in this new world since September 11th...this is insane.
They aren´t going to be mailing this crap out anymore. My god who is runnung the show over there? If we keep just reacting to their actions we are all going to be dead...They must have enough of this stuff that they considered flying with a crop duster. How are they going to spin it when 5 million people in a handful of big cities or towns are all diagnosed? How are people going to decontamiate themselves then? How far are your two million 60 day doses going to go then? What good are they going to be when it´s too late for those people that have unknowingly been exposed?
Bush should be in a war-room right now-giving the order. Not on some junket to those Chicom bastards who are probably behind this in some manner anyway.
The rest of the world's protestations are not important. US security is.
Cipro's not the only thing you can take for this! One expert on tv last night said he doesn't know why they keep talking about cipro, because doxicyline is maybe even better, according to him. And we have LOTS of doxicyline...
I'd hate to see how you react to a real threat. Ease up, this is not the satan bug.
Expect the people who are doing this to be dead soon. Unless they are in full biohazard gear when they post the envelopes(a dead giveaway I presume) odds are they are getting a dose themselves. I'd check New Jersey health providers for middle eastern sickies.
The 200 taking cipro are for good reason.
Reports are coming that the Capitol will be shut down until [atleast] Tuesday. Traces of anthrax are said to be in the tunnels of the Capitol. (Gallagher on radio, now).
Gird up!
Last week, press reports mentioned a "lab in Iowa", whatever that means.
Look on the bright side. Taxes won't increase and any more of our liberties won't be taken away for almost a week.
Actually, I think they thought it was their new cocaine sample. Hey, try this, it will take you somewhere you've never been before.
Two things come to mind...
Daschle will not be jumping ship on the war effort right away.
> Also Lieberman is going against all presciption for the unwashed by taking Cipro. He is always running his socialist mouth about the little people, the ones no one cares about. Want to bet he went to the Senate medical staff, for free, and got the Cipro for free. Damned hyprocrite....
Thompson made his public remarks just before donning a tall floppy hat and leaving to drive around the National Mall in a little red toy truck, honking a bulb horn wildly while the U.S. Marine Corps band played the theme from the Bozo show.
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The LIEBERMAN PARADIGM at work... |
I'm not so sure about that . . . I find this the second, perhaps worse, act of war against our nation, and being that weapons grade Antrax (as it is now being reported) generally only can come from a government or nation, this attack upon Senate staffers is an act of war, something I believer that Daschle will support 100 percent.
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