The September 11th attack
NBC anthrax case leaves New York jittery
| • | Q&A: The anthrax bacteria |
By Dunstan Prial
Associated Press
NEW YORK — New Yorkers streamed into emergency rooms after an assistant to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw was infected with anthrax, intensifying fear about bioterrorism in a city and nation already on edge.
Officials stressed it was an isolated case and no cause for alarm. They also said there was no known link to terrorism or the far more serious inhaled form of anthrax that killed a supermarket tabloid editor in Florida last week.
But the reports yesterday of the nation's fourth anthrax case since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks sent New Yorkers scurrying to hospitals in search of anthrax tests and antibiotics. They crowded into the emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital, wanting to know whether their sore throats and runny noses were symptoms, spokesman William McCann said.
"New Yorkers are nervous about terrorism at this point, and for good reason," McCann said. "I think people heard the word 'anthrax' and panic followed, but there's no reason to panic."
Panic spread to other areas as well, with people reporting suspicious packages from coast to coast.
A federal criminal investigation was launched to find the source of the anthrax at NBC, and health officials scrambled to retest the powder to see if it contained the bacteria. Initial tests had been negative, but authorities said the sample was so small they were reluctant to interpret the results.
The NBC employee contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening a "threatening" letter Sept. 25 addressed to Brokaw that contained a powder, authorities said yesterday.
The letter to NBC and another letter containing an unknown powder that arrived yesterday at the offices of The New York Times both were postmarked from St. Petersburg, Fla., and had similar handwriting, said Barry Mawn, head of the FBI office in New York.
Officials said they expect the NBC employee will recovery quickly.
During his broadcast yesterday, Brokaw thanked viewers for their concerns and spoke highly of the 38-year-old worker.
"She has been — as she always is — a rock. She's been an inspiration to us all," he said. "But this is so unfair and so outrageous and so maddening, it's beyond my ability to express it in socially acceptable terms. So we'll just reserve our thoughts and our prayers for our friend and her family."
Brokaw, who has appeared on NBC's evening newscasts for the last 18 years, later said in an interview on "Dateline NBC" that he would protectively take the anthrax antibiotic Cipro and believed most of his staff would too.
"The chances of anyone else contracting this are very low," he said. "But this is the ultimate nightmare. We just have to stay focused on what we know and not what we don't know."
NBC employees were evacuated from part of the 70-story GE Building in Rockefeller Center, which is home to "Saturday Night Live," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and Brokaw's "Nightly News."
About 10 blocks away in Times Square, employees on the third floor of The New York Times building were sent to other floors yesterday after Judith Miller, a reporter who co-wrote a recent best seller on bioterrorism, opened a letter containing a powdery substance. A spokeswoman said the substance smelled like talcum powder.
The newspaper quoted Miller as saying the letter "contained future threats against the United States."
Executive Editor Howell Raines said initial tests showed that the powder did not pose any immediate problem. Air tests for radioactive and chemical substances were negative.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said officials were investigating five or six other reports of suspicious letters or powder yesterday, but he said none appeared to be "of great concern."
"So far what we're dealing with is one case. The person is either fully recovered or on their way to full recovery," the mayor said. "That should give people some sense of comfort. ... This is treatable, and there are other antibiotics that can be used, and it is not contagious."
U.S. officials have told concerned residents that they should go about their normal business and not be alarmed by anthrax. They have also played down a link to terrorism, but Vice President Dick Cheney expressed skepticism yesterday there was no relation. "I think the only responsible thing for us to do is proceed on the basis that it could be linked," he told PBS' "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer."
News organizations across the country tightened mailroom security. The Associated Press, across the street from NBC, temporarily closed its mailroom, as did CBS. ABC stopped internal mail delivery in New York and Washington to allow a security evaluation, while CNN said it closed mailrooms in New York, Washington and Atlanta.
The Los Angeles Times building was quarantined for more than two hours yesterday after employees found a "powder-like substance" on the floor; the substance was found to be harmless.
Also yesterday, Nevada state officials conducted tests on a suspicious letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office in Reno. Initial testing indicated the presence of anthrax, but secondary tests showed the letter probably did not contain the bacteria.
The anthrax scare began last week when a photo editor for The Sun supermarket tabloid in Boca Raton, Fla., died of the inhaled form of anthrax. The American Media building where Bob Stevens, 63, worked was sealed off after anthrax was found on his keyboard.
Two other employees turned out to have anthrax in their nasal passages, but neither has developed the disease. Both are taking antibiotics, and one has returned to work. No new infections have been found.
