 |
Anthrax Found in Florida
Tuesday
October 9, 2001
They have been relentlessly digging dirt on the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Is it a coincidence that an office building, the headquarters to most of America’s tabloids, has been hit by the deadly anthrax virus?
|
Three of Amy Persenair's co-workers have been exposed to anthrax and one, photographer Bob Stevens, is dead. The FBI is combing the office building for clues and suspects foul play. Amy says, “It is scary. It is weird. It's kind of surreal."
According to a published report, one theory is that the tabloids received a strange love letter addressed to Jennifer Lopez. Mysteriously, the letter contained a small Star of David and a "soapy, powdery substance,” which raises the frightening possibility terrorists could use the U.S. mail as a weapon. The FBI is downplaying this theory, but friends of the victim aren't so sure.
Bob Stevens' neighbor Louis Selliti says, “If it is terror related, it definitely happened to the wrong person."
Louis is nervous. He lives just one mile from the airstrip where suspected hijacker Mohamed Attah took flying lessons. He worries that Bob's job as a photographer for “The Sun" made him a target. Now 743 of his co-workers are getting tested for anthrax. They too, must feel like targets. One worker says, “I kind of feel like a pariah now to the community. I don't want to even tell people where I work."
People in southern Florida are nervous. There's been a huge run on the antibiotic cipro, which is used to treat anthrax.
To give you an idea how unusual this outbreak is, there have only been 19 anthrax deaths in America in the past 100 years. Anthrax is spread through skin contact, ingestion, or inhalation. It cannot be spread from person to person.
Retired Army Colonel David Hackworth believes biological terror is a real threat. He believes America will have to tighten up its ports. He says, “We take six million shipping containers in each year, but less than 2% are inspected. The terrorists could be bringing in barrels of anthrax."
Whether this outbreak is a vendetta against the tabloids or the work of terrorists, it serves as a dramatic reminder of things we took for granted just a few weeks ago.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
