LaurieGarrett.com

DAY FORTY FIVE:

Oct. 25

The day began with unseasonably hot, steamy weather, news of another possible anthrax case and word that cirprofloxicin sales in the U.S. have doubled over the last three days.

As the war unfolds in Afghanistan the paramount Homeland Security question is, "Are the same people who planned the flying of jets into the World Trade Center on September 11 orchestrating these anthrax incidents?" It remains possible, some officials say, that these are unrelated events. But the extraordinary milling quality of the anthrax spores, coupled with their electrostatic treatment to ensure they will drift for weeks on end in the air, speak to a national scale effort. This simply cannot be stuff some wiseacre concocted in his garage. This news report, overlooked by in large when it was filed on October 12, comes to mind:

Pharmacist: Hijacker Needed Medicine
BY ALLEN BREED
The Associated Press--10/12/01
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP)

- A man believed to be one of the hijackers in the terrorist attacks visited a drug store in late August for medication to treat a burning sensation in his hands, a pharmacist says. Gregg Chatterton, co-owner of Huber Discount Drugs, said Friday the man he identified as Mohamed Atta was evasive about the cause and the pharmacist asked if he'd been exposed to cleaning fluids or gardening chemicals. ``He snickered and said, 'No, I wasn't in a garden,''' said Chatterton, who described him as "cocky.'' Chatterton said Atta was accompanied by a man the pharmacist later identified from photos as suspected hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi. The pharmacist said the second man tapped himself on the chest and said he needed cough medication. -

Is this accurate? And, if so, is it related? There has been little information for days regarding the anthrax mailed on September 8 to a physician in Nairobi, Kenya. If that sample is bona fide anthrax, and matches the strain used here in the US, the linkage between these events grows far stronger. But the FBI is being very close-mouthed.

It now appears that communication between agencies of the federal and local governments has not been smooth. There are strong indications that the CDC's jump to conclude that postal workers in D.C. were not imperiled by the mailed envelopes was partly a result of the FBI's refusal to give the health authorities full information about the type of anthrax found in Sen. Daschle's office. Unaware, apparently, that the spores were of such high quality, and particularly that they had been electrostatically treated, the CDC figured that what worked in Florida would work in DC. Wrong. In the absence of electrostatic treatment, bacilli spores stick to everything, especially plastics and rubber. They do not drift about: they cling. So it would be reasonable to assume that such normal spores would stay inside an envelope until it was opened, and then drop to a plastic surface fairly quickly unless inhaled. One scientist told me today that when he worked on dried bacilli it was hellish because, "the damned things kept sticking to my latex gloves".

Well, we can only hope that somebody in government is talking to knowledgeable microbiologists. And that they realize your average MD knows nothing about this. Even most public health disease specialists can't imagine where to turn to learn about the suspension and recirculation rates of anthrax spores. I assume the only truely scientific sources of that information are classified in the archives of the American and British WWII bioweapons programs. Or the Russians' Biopreparat files. Or the Iraqi's BW lab books.

While the scientists among you ponder that, economists may wish to dwell on an even more unfathomable question, "How is New York going to come through this without first sinking into a decade-long major depression"? That question was posed by City Comptroller Alan Hevesi yesterday, with his startling numbers brightening up everybody's breakfasts this morning. The immediate toll, in terms of the World Trade Center disaster, represents a $47 billion loss to the New York economy, Hevesi says. Over the next eight months the city will lose another $45 billion due to lost tourism, business and jobs. As of today the city is running a fiscal deficit of $1billion, which Hevesi says will grow in 2002 to $4 billion. He grimly warned New York that there will have to be massive layoffs, serious belt tightening and concessions from Gotham's notorious trade unions or the slump will last a decade.

Hevesi's numbers are reminiscent of the late 1970s in New York when Republican/Democrat chimera Mayor John Lindsay spent an already cash-poor city into bankruptcy. His successor, Democrat Abe Beame, worked with then-Gov. Hugh Carey to bail out Gotham, creating an all-powerful rehabilitation board headed by Felix Rohatyn. From 1975, when the city's economy hit rock-bottom, to 1983 Rohatyn and the Municipal Assistance Corporation, as the board was dubbed, rebuilt the economy, brick by brick, job by job, investor by investor. As part of that grim era the city waged its now famous "I Love NY" campaign, with a red heart put in place of the word "love". Now it is proposed that the same logo be used, saying, "I Love NY - Now, More Than Ever".

Guess who has been named to a new government panel that will reconstruct New York: you got it, Felix Rohatyn. The question to Mr. Rohatyn, once he's had a chance to pour over Mr. Hevesi's books, is which will prove the greater challenge, tha bankruptcy of 1975 or the terrorist assault on our lives, buildings and ultimately economy in 2001.

For the moment few New Yorkers seem to have grasped the sobering economic news. Not on a grand scale, at any rate. Their focus is on their jobs, and two city-organized Job Fairs in recent days have drawn enormous crowds. Employers are encouraged to give priority to hiring those who lost their jobs because their offices were in or around the World Trade Center, but the throngs of applicants demonstrate that the unemplyment ripples have long since expanded beyond Ground Zero.

Patriotism and defiance remain sources of solace for most New Yorkers. Where once gang grafitti covered walls now there are spray-painted pictures of the World Trade Center and American flags. Even the tough projects of the lower eastside, Clinton Hill and East New York are festooned with Old Glories. It's a way of flipping the bird at whomever hurt our city and that gesture being a popular one in Gotham, the flag has been embraced.

It's late. Time to sign off from another free association rant from Gotham. And a fair disclosure reminder: these are not news reports, but impressions.

Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett



DAY FORTY FIVE: Return to Index Oct. 25 The day began with unseasonably hot, steamy weather, news of another possible anthrax case and word that cirprofloxicin sales in the U.S. have doubled over the last three days. As the war unfolds in Afghanistan the paramount Homeland Security question is, "Are the same people who planned the flying of jets into the World Trade Center on September 11 orchestrating these anthrax incidents?" It remains possible, some officials say, that these are unrelated events. But the extraordinary milling quality of the anthrax spores, coupled with their electrostatic treatment to ensure they will drift for weeks on end in the air, speak to a national scale effort. This simply cannot be stuff some wiseacre concocted in his garage. This news report, overlooked by in large when it was filed on October 12, comes to mind: Pharmacist: Hijacker Needed Medicine BY ALLEN BREED The Associated Press--10/12/01 DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A man believed to be one of the hijackers in the terrorist attacks visited a drug store in late August for medication to treat a burning sensation in his hands, a pharmacist says. Gregg Chatterton, co-owner of Huber Discount Drugs, said Friday the man he identified as Mohamed Atta was evasive about the cause and the pharmacist asked if he'd been exposed to cleaning fluids or gardening chemicals. ``He snickered and said, 'No, I wasn't in a garden,''' said Chatterton, who described him as "cocky.'' Chatterton said Atta was accompanied by a man the pharmacist later identified from photos as suspected hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi. The pharmacist said the second man tapped himself on the chest and said he needed cough medication. - Is this accurate? And, if so, is it related? There has been little information for days regarding the anthrax mailed on September 8 to a physician in Nairobi, Kenya. If that sample is bona fide anthrax, and matches the strain used here in the US, the linkage between these events grows far stronger. But the FBI is being very close-mouthed. It now appears that communication between agencies of the federal and local governments has not been smooth. There are strong indications that the CDC's jump to conclude that postal workers in D.C. were not imperiled by the mailed envelopes was partly a result of the FBI's refusal to give the health authorities full information about the type of anthrax found in Sen. Daschle's office. Unaware, apparently, that the spores were of such high quality, and particularly that they had been electrostatically treated, the CDC figured that what worked in Florida would work in DC. Wrong. In the absence of electrostatic treatment, bacilli spores stick to everything, especially plastics and rubber. They do not drift about: they cling. So it would be reasonable to assume that such normal spores would stay inside an envelope until it was opened, and then drop to a plastic surface fairly quickly unless inhaled. One scientist told me today that when he worked on dried bacilli it was hellish because, "the damned things kept sticking to my latex gloves". Well, we can only hope that somebody in government is talking to knowledgeable microbiologists. And that they realize your average MD knows nothing about this. Even most public health disease specialists can't imagine where to turn to learn about the suspension and recirculation rates of anthrax spores. I assume the only truely scientific sources of that information are classified in the archives of the American and British WWII bioweapons programs. Or the Russians' Biopreparat files. Or the Iraqi's BW lab books. While the scientists among you ponder that, economists may wish to dwell on an even more unfathomable question, "How is New York going to come through this without first sinking into a decade-long major depression"? That question was posed by City Comptroller Alan Hevesi yesterday, with his startling numbers brightening up everybody's breakfasts this morning. The immediate toll, in terms of the World Trade Center disaster, represents a $47 billion loss to the New York economy, Hevesi says. Over the next eight months the city will lose another $45 billion due to lost tourism, business and jobs. As of today the city is running a fiscal deficit of $1billion, which Hevesi says will grow in 2002 to $4 billion. He grimly warned New York that there will have to be massive layoffs, serious belt tightening and concessions from Gotham's notorious trade unions or the slump will last a decade. Hevesi's numbers are reminiscent of the late 1970s in New York when Republican/Democrat chimera Mayor John Lindsay spent an already cash-poor city into bankruptcy. His successor, Democrat Abe Beame, worked with then-Gov. Hugh Carey to bail out Gotham, creating an all-powerful rehabilitation board headed by Felix Rohatyn. From 1975, when the city's economy hit rock-bottom, to 1983 Rohatyn and the Municipal Assistance Corporation, as the board was dubbed, rebuilt the economy, brick by brick, job by job, investor by investor. As part of that grim era the city waged its now famous "I Love NY" campaign, with a red heart put in place of the word "love". Now it is proposed that the same logo be used, saying, "I Love NY - Now, More Than Ever". Guess who has been named to a new government panel that will reconstruct New York: you got it, Felix Rohatyn. The question to Mr. Rohatyn, once he's had a chance to pour over Mr. Hevesi's books, is which will prove the greater challenge, tha bankruptcy of 1975 or the terrorist assault on our lives, buildings and ultimately economy in 2001. For the moment few New Yorkers seem to have grasped the sobering economic news. Not on a grand scale, at any rate. Their focus is on their jobs, and two city-organized Job Fairs in recent days have drawn enormous crowds. Employers are encouraged to give priority to hiring those who lost their jobs because their offices were in or around the World Trade Center, but the throngs of applicants demonstrate that the unemplyment ripples have long since expanded beyond Ground Zero. Patriotism and defiance remain sources of solace for most New Yorkers. Where once gang grafitti covered walls now there are spray-painted pictures of the World Trade Center and American flags. Even the tough projects of the lower eastside, Clinton Hill and East New York are festooned with Old Glories. It's a way of flipping the bird at whomever hurt our city and that gesture being a popular one in Gotham, the flag has been embraced. It's late. Time to sign off from another free association rant from Gotham. And a fair disclosure reminder: these are not news reports, but impressions. Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant. Laurie Garrett