Senators want better guidelines for responding to bioterrorism

Senators and public health officials today urged the Bush administration to develop a clear set of protocols for dealing with bioterrorist threats. While refraining from direct criticism of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI and other agencies dealing with the anthrax scare, the officials said many critical lessons can be learned from the events of the past few weeks. "We should acknowledge that no one anticipated the exact situation we now face," Tara O'Toole, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, told the Senate Government Affairs Committee. "But the truth is that overall, the government has done a terrible job communicating what is going on. The result is confusion among many local public health officials, which is reflected in inconsistent reaction, public frustration and skepticism about the basis for recommendations." Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., told the committee that the government needs a single, credible spokesperson on the issue, someone with a medical background. Additionally, she called on the government to set up standard protocols for deciding when to shut down a building contaminated with anthrax. Such a standard should be applied to any facility, no matter where it is located and who works there, she said. The senator referred to the fact that a mail processing plant in midtown Manhattan is still open despite traces of anthrax bacteria found in several work areas. Meanwhile, a mail processing plant in Washington has been closed for weeks, as have two congressional office buildings. At congressional hearings yesterday, Postal Service and CDC officials said they were confident that areas in the midtown Manhattan plant could be quarantined and decontaminated without disrupting work. Union officials concurred. "Each facility should be treated with the same urgency and the same procedures," Clinton said. Part of the problem, according to Sen. Max Clealand, D-Ga., is a lack of coordination among agencies. He noted two different executive orders, one making the FBI the lead agency on domestic terrorism and the other designating the Office of Homeland Security. At the same time, legislation enacted last year puts CDC on the frontline in responding to bioterrorism. The breakdown in communication was illustrated in testimony by Major General Tom Parker of the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. After examining an anthrax bacteria-laced letter sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., an Army researcher on Oct. 15 told the FBI that the anthrax was "weaponized." That statement was quickly leaked to the news media. A day later, having conducted more tests on the anthrax spores, the Army changed its terminology from "weaponized" to "professionally done" and "energetic." "The various agencies within the federal government that have responsibility in crises like these need to be reading from the same script and speaking with one voice," said Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.