CDC chief defends agency's handling of anthrax attacks

Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Monday defended the way his agency handled the onset of last fall's anthrax attacks.

At the start of the outbreak, government officials were criticized for poor communication with physicians and the public. Federal officials, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, were attacked for giving out information some believed would have been better coming from medical professionals, according to The New York Times.

Today, "we're all agreed that it's worthwhile early on to have a public health professional talking to the press," about bioterrorism issues, said Koplan, who announced his resignation from the CDC last month.

Koplan also disputed rumors that he threatened to resign as CDC director at the beginning of the anthrax attacks unless the CDC was allowed to talk publicly.

"That is absolutely untrue," Koplan said, adding that to have quit "in the midst of the anthrax attack would have been both unprofessional, unpatriotic and inappropriate."

Some critics have complained that the CDC is not used to the harsh and brutal tone of politics in Washington, the Times reported. The agency should be above such issues, Koplan said.

"What's most important in an investigation of an outbreak like this is not the rough and tumble of Washington politics but the rough and tumble of dealing with a dangerous infectious agent when loose in the field, and that is were we apply our attention," Koplan said. "That is the wrestling match I prefer for us to get into, not Washington politics."