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Anthrax: Former U.S. Biological Weapons Laboratory Due for DestructionThe U.S. National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, plans to tear down a former U.S. offensive biological weapons laboratory located at Fort Detrick, Md., the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 16, 2002). The laboratory, Building 470, has been unoccupied since 1969 and was officially decommissioned in 1971. Before then, however, the facility was used to produce biological agents, such as anthrax, for the U.S. offensive biological warfare program, according to the Post. The National Cancer Institute, which took over Building 470 in 1988, plans to tear down the building because it has been found to be structurally unsound. Officials said there is little risk that the building’s demolition will release any biological agents. “Since 1971, people have been going into that building,” said George Anderson, a decontamination expert with Southern Research Institute. “There is no evidence of any viable, living (anthrax) spores in the building,” he said (David Snyder, Washington Post, Feb. 9).
From February 7, 2003 issue.Anthrax: Hatfill Manuscript Prompted FBI Forest SearchesBy Mike Nartker The FBI has conducted two searches of the area, one in December and one last month. Both searches used divers to search a number of ponds in the area, according to reports. The search of the area was inspired by a section of a bioterrorism-related manuscript recovered from Hatfill’s apartment last year, said the former U.N. inspector, citing a confidential source. A section in Hatfill’s manuscript mentioned terrorists dumping equipment into ponds similar to those investigated during the December search, he said. The scene in Hatfill’s manuscript probably did not contain any sinister connotations, the former inspector said, adding the similarities were likely not intentional. “In my mind this would not be unusual,” the former inspector said in a written response to GSN. “One usually writes about what one is familiar with and this would include descriptive areas,” he added. The FBI’s use of Hatfill’s manuscript as an inspiration for new tactics in its investigation, which has progressed for more than 1 1/2 years without notable results, could indicate a sense of desperation, the former inspector said. “If the FBI is desperate, then anything might be beaten to death,” he added. The FBI refused to comment on the searches, the motives behind them, or what, if anything, was found, citing that the investigation was still in progress. The former inspector said he believed Hatfill is being “railroaded” by the FBI, which is ignoring other sources. “It appears that the FBI has decided he is the one and now are concentrating all their efforts to find the evidence,” the former inspector said. “They are barking up the wrong tree,” he added. As the FBI continues its efforts to find the person or persons responsible for the anthrax attacks, Hatfill currently lives in limbo — sitting “in his girlfriend’s apartment making fruitless calls looking for employment” and “watching CNN,” said Patrick Clawson, Hatfill’s personal friend and spokesman. Clawson said that neither he nor Hatfill knew why the FBI had conducted two searches of the section of forest near Frederick and the ponds contained within. “We don’t know why the FBI is searching those ponds ... but they can keep doing it,” Clawson said, professing Hatfill’s complete innocence in the attacks. The “FBI can keep looking till hell freezes over,” he added. The FBI might have intended the searches to be only a publicity stunt, Clawson said. They were just to fool “the American public that Johnny G-Man was on the job,” he said. For further information, see: CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)
From February 7, 2003 issue.Smallpox: No Specific Goal For Smallpox Vaccinations, CDC SaysFaced with fewer than the expected number of volunteers to receive the smallpox vaccination, a top U.S. health official said yesterday the purpose of the national vaccination campaign is to ensure preparedness, not to immunize a particular number of medical personnel (see GSN, Feb. 6). “Our goal is not achievement of a number. Our goal is achievement of a preparedness capacity,” said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We want the state and local health jurisdictions to implement this program as fast as they can but more importantly, as safely as they can,” she added. Compensation for those sickened by the vaccine remains a contentious point, but the White House is getting “closer and closer” to offering a solution, Gerberding said (Laura Meckler, Associated Press/Los Angeles Daily News, Feb. 7). “We recognize that concerns about compensation are causing people to be slow to volunteer because they’re afraid they’ll fall through the cracks,” she added. Despite the fact that 250,000 doses of the vaccine have been sent to 41 states, only 687 volunteers in 16 states have received the vaccine, according to the CDC. The program is “still very much in the early stages,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. “We are confident that more than enough health care workers will answer the call so that we are prepared to respond to protect our fellow Americans in the event of any attack,” he said (Donald McNeil, New York Times, Feb. 7). Gerberding said that there is a “basement” number of immunized personnel for the United States to be prepared for a bioterrorism attack but she did not say what that number is, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported today. “We do not have a target number of people to vaccinate. What we have is the targeted capacity to protect the American people,” Gerberding said (Marie McCullough, Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 7).
From February 7, 2003 issue.U.S. Response: Laboratories Not Prepared to Analyze ChemicalsU.S. public health laboratories are not prepared to handle many dangerous chemical weapons agents, according to a study released yesterday by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (see GSN, Jan. 24). “We have almost nothing in place if an event occurred tomorrow,” said Scott Becker, the association’s executive director. Despite extensive efforts to upgrade equipment, personnel and security, many laboratories do not have the capability to identify some of the most dangerous agents, according to the report. On a 10-point scale to measure chemical response capability, 37 laboratories rated themselves at a four or below and nine laboratories rated themselves at a five or six. Only eight of the facilities indicated that they have chemical response plans. “The big fear in the lab community is the unknown sample somebody cooked up that may contain multiple agents,” said Jim Pearson, director of Virginia’s division of consolidated laboratory services. “You could have a powder that somebody says is anthrax, and here it’s some chemical agent that blisters. It affects your staff and puts you out of business,” he added. State officials said that in the case of a suspicious illness or a mysterious gas, they would be forced to wait for results from a laboratory, the Washington Post reported. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given money to five states to test clinical samples in the case of an attack, the Post reported. Officials hope to extend that plan to 10 more states, according to Dayton Miller, associate director of the laboratory division at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, Feb. 7).
From February 6, 2003 issue.Smallpox: U.S. Immunization Plan Reformed in the Face of DissentBy David McGlinchey By Tuesday, 432 people in 11 states and Los Angeles County had received the inoculation, according to Joe Henderson, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention associate director for terrorism preparedness, who spoke yesterday at a bioterrorism conference hosted by the National Governors Association. The first phase of the plan began Jan. 24 and was to be finished by the end of this month but that schedule has now been extended, Henderson said. “We know it’s more than 30 days and we hope it’s less than six months,” he said. In a sharp departure from earlier Bush administration statements that emphasized the importance of immunized first responders, Henderson said that CDC officials are not concerned about the number of medical personnel vaccinated in the first phase as long as the vaccine is widely offered and the public is well informed. “It would be a success if no one receives the vaccine, but we offered this opportunity to all the right people,” he said. In December, Bush called for 500,000 medical emergency workers to be inoculated in the first phase of the plan, but concerns about patient compensation, screening, vaccine costs and public education have hindered the effort, state and federal health officials said. Only one-third of U.S. states are slated to begin their immunizations by mid- to late February — when the first phase of the program was scheduled to be complete — and several health departments will delay much further. New York City might wait several months before beginning immunizations, according to a U.S. official. The “issues remaining as of this morning are considerable,” said William Raub, the deputy director of the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Public Health Preparedness. Henderson said he expects another 400 people to receive immunizations by the end of the week. These numbers “don’t look like a raving success,” Henderson said. The effort should not be measured in numbers, however, but rather in readiness and in terms of “standing up a program that is safe,” he added. Henderson said the CDC smallpox education program had reached 800,000 U.S. medical care workers. Some U.S. hospitals and medical workers’ unions have refused to support the immunization campaign until compensation issues and other sticking points are resolved. Medical officials are concerned that people who are sickened by the vaccine will not be compensated because they took the vaccine voluntarily. While administration officials continue to investigate the concerns, there are no firm solutions on the table right now, according to Raub. Henderson said the problem is being addressed but Congress must deliver the solution to the compensation dilemma. “I think in the coming weeks we will see some remedy,” he said. Many state and local officials have urged the administration to slow the immunization campaign until those remedies are delivered. “Slow down, get it right. Understand what it is we are doing,” National Association of County and City Health Officials Executive Director Patrick Libbey said. The original plan called for the first phase of immunizations to be complete by the end of this month and a second phase to inoculate up to 10 million emergency workers. After the second phase is complete, officials had said they would look to offer the vaccine to the general public. The lines between those phases are blurring and the process is more of a continuum, Henderson told the conference. He maintained, however, that by mid- to late summer the United States would have a safe program in place to offer the vaccine to members of the public who insist upon immunization. Several state health officials told Henderson that many medical workers, health departments and hospitals were concerned about the plan. Officials said that unless the United States addresses a number of issues, turnout might remain low. “What if the federal government threw a vaccination party and nobody came?” asked David Engelthaler, bioterrorism coordinator for the Arizona Department of Health Services.
From February 6, 2003 issue.Iraq: Powell Presents BW Evidence to Security CouncilBy Mike Nartker During the last year’s council debate on U.N. Resolution 1441, which established the current inspections regime, an Iraqi missile unit deployed outside Baghdad was ordered to hide its missiles and biological warheads at various sites in western Iraq, Powell said. Many of the unit’s launchers and warheads have been hidden in groves of palm trees and have been ordered to move every one to four weeks to avoid detection, he said. Powell also presented the council with satellite photographs taken in November 2002 that showed Iraqi crews moving items out of a biological-related facility shortly before inspections were set to resume. In his presentation, Powell detailed Iraq’s efforts to develop road- and rail-mobile biological weapons laboratories. “The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors,” Powell said. “In a matter of months, they can produce a quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf War,” he said. The United States has evidence showing that Iraq has at least seven mobile biological laboratories, Powell said. The road-mobile laboratories use up to three trucks each, meaning Iraq might be able to base them in as few as 18 trucks, he said. “Just imagine trying to find 18 trucks among the thousands and thousands of trucks that travel the roads of Iraq every single day,” Powell said. The United States has learned about the existence and technical specifications of these mobile laboratories through several Iraqi defectors, including a former Iraqi major, Powell said. One such defector was a former Iraqi chemical engineer who supervised one of the mobile laboratories, and was even present during a 1998 accident that killed 12 technicians, he said. According to the defector, during previous rounds of inspections, Iraq ordered biological agent production to begin on Thursday at midnight because officials believed that inspectors would not operate on the Muslim holy day of Friday. The mobile biological laboratories are sophisticated enough to produce a number of biological agents, including anthrax and botulinium toxin, Powell said. In addition to researching numerous other diseases, including gas gangrene, plague and typhus, Iraq also worked to develop sophisticated spraying devices, he added. Powell presented to the council video obtained several years ago that showed an Iraqi F-I Mirage jet aircraft outfitted with a device to spray biological agents. “Iraq admitted to producing four spray tanks,” Powell said. “But to this day, it has provided no credible evidence that they were destroyed, evidence that was required by the international community,” he added (White House release, Feb. 5). For further information, see: Powell’s presentation slides (U.S. State Department)
From February 5, 2003 issue.Smallpox I: Millions of Personal Computers Might Find Smallpox CureThe U.S. Defense Department, research universities and leading computer companies are launching a program today to develop a cure for smallpox using the power of millions of idle personal computers, the New York Times reported. The computers, attached to a central grid, will test how a range of chemical compounds interact with an enzyme found in smallpox, called topoisomerase. Researchers hope to find a compound that blocks the enzyme and stops the smallpox virus from spreading. Volunteers can visit the project’s Web site, www.grid.org, and download a screen saver that will add that computer’s power to the smallpox effort when the machine is turned on but not in use (Steve Lohr, New York Times, Feb. 5). The combined effort of 2 million personal computers is 30 times more powerful than the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Associated Press reported. IBM servers are powering the effort and the results will be given to U.S. defense officials (Paul Elias, Associated Press/Washington Post, Feb. 5). Oxford University and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases will also be working on the project (Lohr, New York Times).
From February 5, 2003 issue.Smallpox II: Canada Reaffirms Pledge to Buy Vaccine for Entire CountryA Canadian health official yesterday said Canada would buy enough smallpox vaccine for everyone in the country, the Ottawa Citizen reported today. Ron St. John, director general of Health Canada’s Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response, said last year that Canada would purchase enough vaccine for every Canadian and he reaffirmed those comments yesterday in Winnipeg (see GSN, June 12, 2002). Canada is expected to receive 10 million doses of the vaccine by the end of 2003 but St. John did not say how long it would take to acquire the remaining 21 million doses. Canadian officials plan to vaccinate 500 epidemiologists who would be sent to the scene of a smallpox outbreak (Maria Cook, Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 5).
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