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Politics : Homeland Security -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jill who wrote (164)	10/28/2001 6:52:41 PM
From: RocketMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 827

Excerpt from Peter Jennings' interview with CDC Director Dr. Jeffery Koplan: Jennings: Did you genuinely believe when you had dealt with the Florida case that anthrax could not escape from an envelope unless it was physically opened by someone? Koplan: It was hard to imagine then that with what experience we had had with anthrax that you would get enough powder out of a sealed envelope to infect someone with inhalational anthrax. Cut to this evening's CNN, in which a doctor demonstrated an envelope filled with talcum powder, sealed with scotch tape. He taps the envelope, against a black background, and the powder is seen blowing right out and through the envelope. This is talcum powder, with particles 30-40 microns wide, going through the paper's 100-micron openings, versus the anthrax spores' 1-5 micron width. Even if he believed the 8,000 spore figure, that's only a barely visible spot, and here we have a talcum fog being pushed out of the envelope with just slight tapping. Cut to a couple of weeks ago, a local interview with the DC health office, questioned as to why they didn't test or treat postal workers: "We were told by the CDC that we didn't need testing because the anthrax was in a well-sealed envelope." Can we check Koplan's medical credentials? He couldn't imagine this? Could he have relied on his scientific knowledge, if he lacked imagination?