Anthrax Concerns Send Postal Workers Home (11 workers sick at National Repair Facility in Topeka)

KCTV Channel 5 Kansas City ^ | Ocotber 23, 2001 | Dr. Gianfranco Pezzino

[umbra]

The people working in the building (National Post Office Repair Facility, Forbes Field) employed by either the postal service or a private contractor, ASI Inc. had all been encouraged to contact either their own doctors or the county health department to begin precautionary treatment with anti-biotics.

10 or 11 people had exhibited flu-like symptoms Dr. Gianfranco Pezzino the state epidemologist, said his department had recieved many calls from people around Kansas expressing concern that they might be exposed to anthrax, but no cases had been confirmed.

[RightWingNilla]

I don't know. If "they" were gearing up for a major bio-attack, why would they send this stuff first and get everyone's attention up? Sure it has caused a bit of panic, but it doesnt make sense strategically.

[Clinton's a rapist]

Uh, if the terrorists' strategy doesn't make sense to you, that's because you are not thinking. It involves a simple, easily-understood military concept called "deterrence." The purpose of this campaign is to deter us from removing the regime of Saddam Hussein. All will become clear in a few weeks, maybe sooner. Trust me on that.

[rwfromkansas]

D.C., NJ, and Florida equipment was all there, with POSSIBLE, possible....contamination. They were from the plants with the anthrax.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[Dan Day]

Uh, if the terrorists' strategy doesn't make sense to you, that's because you are not thinking. It involves a simple, easily-understood military concept called "deterrence." The purpose of this campaign is to deter us from removing the regime of Saddam Hussein. All will become clear in a few weeks, maybe sooner. Trust me on that.

Care to expand on that, or are you going to leave it vague so that no matter what happens, you can claim it fits your not-really-saying-anything-of-substance "prediction"?

[RightWingNilla]

So are you saying this spate of anthrax letters is a warning to the US? I guess it is possible. I assume you think it would be inferred from the quality of the anthrax spores that the source is Iraq, since there is no mention of Hussein or Iraq anywhere in any of the letters.

[R_Kangel]

Through rain nor snow nor even sleet...... Somehow I don't think that death was even considered for the Postmans poem.

[FITZ]

had a guy on a local radio talk show that said you'd need to get about 180 F to kill the bugs...water boils at 212 F

I wonder if they're like Clostridia spores---botulism----those have to be boiled or steamed for a certain length of time before you can trust they're dead. Like canning of foods, there has to be the right amount of time over a certain temperature.

[FITZ]

Want to hazard a guess what's next?

Maybe Hollywood, I know the Muslims hate Hollywood, they think it's ruining their cultures and they think it's Zionist controlled. But if it's the American people they want to get, maybe they'll go after our food.

[Heff]

Please explain why you only open your mail in direct sunlight? Thanks

[fisherspats]

I wonder how this is going to impact the direct mail marketing companies? I for one hate to receive junk mail, however these companies are major players. We surely cannot afford to have another sector of our economy stung by this.

[LUVYA DUBYA 2000]

Trust her she knows.

[FITZ]

I for one hate to receive junk mail,

I don't mind getting junk mail, it's those bills I could do without. I wonder if I could tell them I didn't pay because I was too afraid to open them because of anthrax.

[blondee123]

soon, it will be everywhere, any mass mailing of junk mail can be from NY and just cause you don't live near NY, doesn't mean that your mail has not come in contact with tainted mail. we're just sitting ducks.

[P-Marlowe]

I have a feeling that this is the end of snail mail as we know it. I would expect that e-mail and faxes will soon replace nearly all mail and junk mail will soon be a thing of the past.

Rule of thumb. I think it is best that you don't open any mail that you aren't expecting. If you don't know who it is from, toss it.

[blondee123]

"Trust her, she knows"

if she knows, perhaps she should enlighten our leaders cause according to the news, they have no clue. sad, but true!

[RightWingNilla]

My understanding of this is that there is no chance of cross contamination between mail. You have to be near the source (original anthrax letter). Lets hope this is truly the case.

[CarolAnn]

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to the main postal facility in Kansas City for my physical so I can start working for them. So, I think this sucks. It's too close. I'm thinking I should postpone my physical until the test results come back on those workers....................>:|

[Clinton's a rapist]

As I posted earlier today, my prediction is that we will see the anthrax campaign move away from warning letters and cover notes now. Over the next few weeks, we will see surreptitious release of aerosolized anthrax in a variety of indoor public spaces (use your imagination) which will be revealed gradually as a seemingly never-ending series of "isolated incidents," as apparently random clusters of anthrax cases show up. This will virtually paralyze the American economy, although the actual number of casualties will remain below a thousand. The next phase will not involve going directly to antibiotic-resistant strains or massive aerosol releases, because (a) that could lead to premature exposure of the terrorists through accidental deaths amongst their number and (b) it could stimulate effective action to clear the terrorists by the government before a showdown with Saddam Hussein occurs, defeating the deterrence potential of the anthrax campaign. A few weeks from now, as the Taliban folds and the administration turns its attention to Iraq, the country will be in a state of almost universal panic (especially with the flu season coming on), as well as economic paralysis. In this context, the terrorists will make it clear to the US government what retaliation will be inflicted upon the US population -- something on the scale of several Hiroshimas in terms of death toll -- and the administration will be faced with the choice of whether to back down, or to attack Iraq and suffer massive suicide attacks with (most likely) Iraq's highly virulent, non-antiobiotic strain of anthrax. My guess is that, despite the widespread panic and demoralization of the public, the Bush administration will decide to launch an attack on Iraq. This will probably start off using conventional weapons, but escalate to a nuclear attack after the terrorists shoot their wad. I do expect this conflict to escalate to something on a par with World War I or World War II, in other words, although that could still be headed off if we take the necessary domestic action to catch the terrorists (unlikely given the principals involved).

In the wider context, this plan, architected by Saddam Hussein over the last ten years, is designed to achieve a radical geopolitical realignment. The hope is that Islamic fundamentalist and pan-Arabic forces will be enraged by America's attack on the Taliban, and emboldened not only by the successful attack on the WTC, but by the subsequent paralysis of the United States by left-field, unconventional warfare. New governments in Pakistan (with nuclear weapons) and Saudi Arabia (with the lion's share of the world's oil wealth) will look to Iraq, the only regional superpower, as the leader of a new Islamacist bloc that will stand at least equal with the hated "Great Satan" on the world stage. It's a crazy plan, of course, on a par with the dreams of Hitler or Tojo, but then, Saddam's that kind of guy and, statistically, this kind of cancer does appear once or twice per century, so we were about due. The end game will most likely be a crushing defeat as the United States and Israel rain down nuclear fire all over the Middle East.

So, that's my best guess right now as to how this thing will pan out. Anybody else want to stick their necks out and make a detailed forecast of how this conflict will develop and conclude? We can all check back in a couple of months and see who had the most insight.

[maestro]

Your#30)
I have been led to believe that direct UV sunlight 'kills' anthrax.
Maybe, a biologist knows for sure?