DAY FORTY FOUR:Oct. 24:
Today I received a post card in my home mail. It was from the US Postal Service, and it read, in part:"Starting now, you'll be served up faster, more reliable service. Some great news is in the air."
These days it seems the only thing that is in the air in the postal service is anthrax.
At Newsday office mail has all but ceased, and the level of Email has escalated so severely that our server keeps crashing. Today we received an E-memo from the CEO of the Tribune Corporation, which owns a pile of newspapers, including Newsday:
Dear Fellow Employee,
It has been six weeks since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. During that time, we have increased security at all of our business units, limited access to our facilities and revised our procedures for handling and distributing mail and packages throughout the company.
Today, we are taking another important step forward in our efforts to insure the safety of Tribune employees across the country by appointing Steve Howell as vice president/security services. Steve will be responsible for the strategic direction and leadership on matters related to the safety and security of Tribune employees, business operations and property. He will assume his new duties on November 1.
Steve has nearly 30 years of experience in the security industry. His training and background make him well suited for this important job. Prior to joining Tribune, he was assistant vice president/global security services for McDonald's Corporation, where his responsibilities included the development and execution of the company's security strategies worldwide."
The E-memo goes on to explain that Steve is a former FBI agent. In addition, CEO Madigan tells us, the company has created a terrific web site, loaded with FBI and CDC information about anthrax to which anxious employees are welcome to refer. Madigan's E-memo continues:
"As the number of people exposed to or infected with anthrax grows, many of you have continued to express concerns regarding the distribution and handling of mail and packages. I want to stress once again that there has been no direct threat to Tribune. However, each of us should be alert for suspicious looking mail, which the F.B.I. identifies as often having no return address, possibly mailed from a foreign country, containing excessive postage, or restrictive markings like "personal" or "confidential." Call the local security personnel at your business unit immediately if you receive a piece of mail that you think looks suspicious. And above all, if you feel uneasy about opening a piece of mail or a package, don't do it."
Barely had I finished reading the CEO's memo when another one arrived, this time from my NPR friend, Manoli Wetherell:
"Subject: Office Security-Special Bulletin
We've been notified by Building Security that there have been 4 suspected terrorists working at our office. Three of the four have been apprehended. Bin Sleepin, Bin Loafin, and Bin Drinkin have been taken into custody. Security advised us that they could find no one fitting the description of the fourth cell member, Bin Workin, n the office. Police are confident that anyone who looks like he's Bin Workin will be very easy to spot."
Normally --- and we're back to that concept of "normal" --- Manoli's silly memo would have brought out a chuckle or two. But just before I opened this pile of E-memos I grabbed a cup of tea from the Pinocchio Cafe downstairs. The young Puerto Rican woman behind the counter had just set the cup in front of me when a mail man dropped a small stack of letters on the counter, spun around quickly and dashed back out the door. The young woman screeched, and stepped back away from the mail. Her coworker nudged her and said, "Pick it up."
"No way! You pick it up," the cashier said. The three of us stood for a moment, staring at the mail. Then the coworker tossed a dishtowel on top of the letters, picked them up and carried them back to her boss. I was stunned by this behavior. The young cashier misread the look on my face and shared a whispered confidence: "No way I'm touching mail. I don't care if it's my bills or nothing, I ain't touching it. No way."
Still amazed by such extreme reaction to the minute anthrax threat I stepped into my office and spotted two coworkers wearing latex gloves.
Today Health and Human Services struggled to regain public faith, taking on Bayer and forcing the German company to half its "best offer" on ciprofloxicin. And thousands of postal workers in New York and Washington DC went on the drug. At several major mail processing centers, however, postal workers threatened to go on strike, and mail delivery all over the country slowed to a crawl as workers and managers debated how best to assure safety.
The safety of recovery workers down at Ground Zero is also an issue. The nation seems to have forgotten about the World Trade Center, one source of emotional paralysis having replaced another, but excavation and the search for body parts continue. My pal, Scott, is in town from California working with OSHA inspecting the stench and air pollution from the site. He assures me that, foul as the acrid air is, there is no real danger posed by any of the chemicals emitted from the site. Which does not mean that the site is safe. Thousands of workers, operating under different agencies with variant missions, are crawling all over debris, dodging heavy equipment and struggling upon a still burning, high-heat volcano. In a matter of days the first winter chills will hit, and once temperatures drop below freezing every inch of that site will be an ice-slick, slippery to the feet and chilling to the hands.
The Oct. 20, 2001 issue of the British medical journal, LANCET, has an editorial entitled, "Bioterrorism: safeguarding the public's health", Vol 358:1283, 2001. Key line:
"But few politicians in the world were prepared to admit the real possibility of bioterrorism attacks, despite knowing about Russia's massive Biopreparat programme chillingly described in Laurie Garrett's book BETRAYAL OF TRUST...."
It was gratifying to read mention of my book. But far more importantly, Lancet underscored the desperate need for serious improvements in public health, both in the US and Europe.
Speaking of Europe, it seems Sine Fein has finally decided to tell the IRA to give up their weapons. Irish Americans are fed up. The World Trade Center calamity took whatever romantic feelings they held for the hundreds years long battle with the Brits and turned them into disgust. I remember a month ago watching World Trade Center horror on CNN with my Irish-American pal, Ed, when he suddenly went into a rant against the IRA. His revulsion was obvious, though it took a few seconds for me to see the connection between the events we were viewing and his mind's leap thousands of miles across the Atlantic to Erin.
Perhaps other ethnic Americans are making similar links, losing support for terrorists in their ancestral lands. For Basque separatists, Balkan ethnic cleansers and anyone else that resorts to killing innocent civilians just to make a point.
We can hope.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.Laurie Garrett
