Test Results Cited in Delay of Mall Alert

[Guest guest]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401544_\

pf.html

 

[Zeppnote: Wonderful. At the very best, the country spent millions on

state-of-the-art air monitoring equipment that is capable of telling us

that we all got killed last week. At the very worst, somebody tried to

kill a lot of people, but because the people where only war protesters,

the government won't investigate.]

 

*Test Results Cited in Delay of Mall Alert*

CDC Explains Why Local Officials Weren't Told for Days About Bacterium

Detection

 

By Susan Levine and Sari Horwitz

Washington Post Staff Writers

Wednesday, October 5, 2005; B01

 

Area health officials were not notified for five days that sensors on

the Mall had detected a potentially dangerous bacterium there last month

because subsequent tests were not conclusively positive, a federal

official said yesterday.

 

The Department of Homeland Security delayed in alerting the federal

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the same reason, said

Richard Besser, who directs the CDC's coordinating office for terrorism

preparedness and emergency response. More than half a dozen sensors

showed the presence of tularemia bacteria the morning after thousands of

people gathered on the Mall for a book festival and antiwar rally, yet

the CDC was not contacted for at least 72 hours.

 

Testing never identified all the definitive markers for which scientists

were looking, and officials were wary of issuing a false alarm, Besser

said. He called the entire incident " highly unusual, " but he

acknowledged that it would prompt the two agencies to review their

protocol and the timeliness of their response " to make sure the system

doesn't have any flaws in it. "

 

" It really will cause us to look at the system and say, 'Should things

have been different?' " Besser said in a phone interview.

 

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) has suggested that the answer is yes.

In letters he sent Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Michael

Chertoff and CDC Director Julie Gerberding, he called the notification

time frame " alarming " and asked for an accounting of the procedures

triggered when the government's " BioWatch network " senses a biological

agent.

 

His questions focused on what each agency knew and when it knew it, as

well as which local and state officials were called and when. " Why

weren't these officials notified immediately following the detection? "

Davis wrote.

 

D.C. Health Director Gregg A. Pane, who learned of the situation in a

conference call Friday morning, said he would have liked to have been

involved sooner. Hours after being alerted by the CDC, he and his

counterparts across the Washington region put out an announcement for

the public.

 

" I wish they'd bring us in earlier, " he said yesterday, with the

" retrospective scope " clearly in place. " There's got to be a level of

trust and communication " among the entities and layers of government, he

said.

 

As of yesterday, local and federal health officials said they had

confirmed no cases of tularemia from the Mall gathering and, through

medical surveillance, had not found any spikes in possible symptoms.

Although the germ that causes tularemia is highly infectious, the

disease itself is not passed from person to person and can be easily

treated with antibiotics. Left untreated, it can be fatal.

 

Besser said that if the initial evaluation had revealed true positives,

the laboratory would have immediately contacted Homeland Security, which

would have immediately brought CDC and local health agencies into the

discussion.

 

Instead, as late as Thursday, CDC officials expected final testing to

disprove the presence of the bacteria. " So we didn't really think there

was a need to alert [area] public health officials, " he said.

 

In his letter, Davis requested specifics about the bacteria levels

ultimately detected and the government's plan to inform the public of

risk. " How do you monitor the thousands of people who visited the

affected areas? " he asked.

 

A Homeland Security spokeswoman did not return calls to comment on the

issues Davis raised.

 

/Staff writer Martin Weil contributed to this report./

 

 

--

If you're poor and steal during a national crisis, you're a looter.

If you're rich and steal during a national crisis, you're a Republican.

 

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

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