CDC chief chastised for poor reaction to anthrax

Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, sharply questioned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Jeffrey Koplan Tuesday about why U.S. Postal Service employees at a Washington-area mail sorting facility were not tested for anthrax exposure after evidence of exposure was found at Senate and New Jersey mail facilities. "Of course this has never come up before, but we would hope CDC would have had some plan," Harkin said. While acknowledging the loss of two workers at the Brentwood facility who appear to have died in the last few days from anthrax, Koplan said government officials were working under the assumption then that the risk of contracting the more deadly form of anthrax, inhalation anthrax, was only from opened mail. Since the Brentwood facility does not open mail but processes it, Koplan said, no immediate danger was seen. "Sometimes the information can't be used on Day 10 when you don't get it until Day 14," Koplan said. He assured senators that "no favoritism" was used in the government's apparently quick response to test and provide antibiotics to Senate aides, reporters and lobbyists who may have been exposed to anthrax found in a letter sent to Majority Leader Daschle and the rather slow reaction to rising concerns at the Brentwood facility. Koplan promised to provide the committee with a detailed list of CDC's actions to address the various areas of potential exposure since anthrax was first reported in Florida on Oct. 3. Koplan said the CDC, which is charged with responding to potential biological threats, and the public health system "is stressed through years of neglect and underinvestment." But, he assured senators that CDC was working with federal and local officials to respond quickly to emerging threats. Harkin and Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., have proposed a $2.3 billion proposal that would include funds to acquire and stockpile medicines and vaccines, $700 million to beef up state and local public health services, $140 million to expand CDC, funds for a tracking database and funds to double the inspection of imported foods.