Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Intrepid1 who wrote (199677)	11/4/2001 12:29:50 AM
From: isopatch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Glad I don't live in Dallas. Dig THIS!! And we're supposed to be on "alert"? <roflmao> <Do Police Take Bioterror Calls Seriously? Reporter: Janet St. James \| Online Producer: Phil Oakley Updated: Nov 01, 2001 at 05:47PM DALLAS — Americans have been told to be on high alert. But many people who have seen or experienced something suspicious say their concerns were not treated seriously. The key could be who is determining which threats are real, which are imagined and why. It was a regular Tuesday when Laura Campa sat at her desk to open mail. “And I cut it open with my scissors,” Campa explained, “and as soon as I did, it was like this big poof of air came out and this white powder stuff went all over my desk, all over me, in my coffee and it scared me.” As the powdery substance settled on desk items, Campa called 911. What happened when police arrived left her stunned. “The officer took the package, scraped off the stuff off my desk with a paper towel, and it was all over his hands too, and just scraped it into the bag and told me that I didn't have anything to worry about because I wasn't threatened personally,” Campa said. What has her particularly concerned is that the New York City hospital worker who died from inhalation anthrax this week was not threatened either. No one, in fact has determined how she got anthrax. Yet, as Dallas investigators continue to be overwhelmed with anthrax calls, many of the samples taken from scenes are labeled non-threatening. Those items end up, not at the health department lab for testing, but the police department property room where they are being stored. Nothing sent to the property room is tested, according to police officials. The question about why all calls about threatening substances are not answered with a presumption that the material in question could be a health hazard was posed to Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Diana Watts. “That's a good question. It's hard to tell,” she answered. Campa rushed to the Baylor Emergency Room in Richardson, where she was told that unless the substance in the package was tested, she would not be either. “I'm still in shock about it. I can't believe that they were not serious about it,” Campa said. Cpl. Watts was asked how police could ease the minds of callers without testing the material taken from an incident such as the one Campa reported. “We can only respond and react to what we know and what we have,” Watts replied. Police said unless someone gets sick with anthrax, the evidence will stay locked up in the property room until it is eventually destroyed. The non-threatening items will be held for at least 90 days. Police will decide what to do with them after that. Evidence collected will not be returned to owners who want to try to get items tested themselves. What about people who would like to get tested at a hospital -- just in case? No hospital contacted was willing to do a nasal swab test on anyone except postal workers or politicians. Hospital officials said they will not do tests on ordinary citizens who do not work in high risk jobs -- not even people who are ready to pay in cash up front. It is a decision hospitals said was necessary to prevent overwhelming labs and health departments.>