Entertainment Headlines NBC Anchor Says He May Have Been Exposed to Anthrax
Monday October 15 9:23 AM ET
NBC Anchor Says He May Have Been Exposed to Anthrax
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NBC television nightly news anchor Tom Brokaw said Monday he might have handled hate mail
containing anthrax, which has already afflicted his assistant and possibly another NBC employee.
``I actually saw it (the letter) and I think I even picked it up at one point and so I may have been exposed. I'm not sure but I'm
confident that cipro is going to get me through this,'' said Brokaw, shaking a bottle of antibiotics.
Hundreds of people have been tested across America for anthrax. People in three states have been exposed to the bacteria.
The targets were NBC in New York, a supermarket tabloid newspaper company in Florida and a Microsoft Corp. office in
Nevada.
U.S. officials say terrorists sent the bacteria in the U.S. mail, but have not linked the letters to the Sept. 11 hijack assaults on
America.
Brokaw said his assistant was recovering physically but that it was an emotional time for her and her family.
``There is a lot of emotion in the family and I think, some anger, probably,'' he told NBC's ``Today'' show.
Brokaw said a second NBC employee who came into contact with the contaminated letter had shown possible anthrax
symptoms but that she was also recovering well.
Initially, investigators believed a letter containing white powdery material, sent from St. Petersburg, Florida, contained the
bacteria. However, the source of the anthrax was later found to be letter containing a brown, granular material.
That letter, said Brokaw, sat around for about a week along with a pile of other hate mail addressed to the news anchor, before
it was finally tested last Friday. Brokaw was informed Saturday that the letter had tested positive for anthrax.
``I will never, ever again take mail casually. I saw this letter, read it, and one of the reasons I noticed it was that there was a
misspelled word in it,'' said the anchorman.
``We have been immune to this over the years. That immunity has come to an end.''
Brokaw declined to say where the letter was post-marked. ''It's impossible for me to know where it came from. I don't, in my
gut, think it's random. I just don't,'' he said.
More than 500 people at NBC have been tested for anthrax.
``I don't diminish the fact that there has been both emotional and psychological scarring that has gone on here and we are going
to have to work to heal those,'' said Brokaw.
OFFICIALS SAY DON'T PANIC
Health authorities took to morning television shows on Monday to appeal to people not to panic over anthrax.
``We know from experience with anthrax, that it doesn't widely disperse itself,'' said Stephen Ostroff, chief epidemiologist at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
``And in all of the current situations that we're aware of, it's really mostly been confined to people who've had direct contact
with these contaminated envelopes,'' Ostroff told ABC's ''Good Morning America'' program.
Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher urged the public not to rush out to get antibiotics as a preventive measure, saying it would
do more harm than good.
``We would seriously discourage people from taking cipro unless, in fact, it is indicated, which means they have been exposed
or think they have been exposed,'' Satcher told NBC.
``If that happens we are going to really use the best weapon we have for preventing the development of a serious anthrax
disease,'' he added.
dailynews.yahoo.com |
