No anthrax answers this year -- Washington Post 12/31/01

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43174-2001Dec30

No Anthrax Answers This Year

Monday, December 31, 2001; Page A16

NEARLY THREE months into the anthrax investigation, questions still outpace

the answers. Public health officials have been forced to revise their

opinions about who was at risk and how far contamination might have spread.

They announced on Dec. 20 that exposures on Capitol Hill and at the

Brentwood postal facility were much higher than previously estimated. As the

year wound to a close, the Centers for Disease Control was offering vaccines

or additional antibiotics to postal workers, Hill staff and workers in the

Florida building where anthrax claimed its first victim, but without a firm

recommendation on whether to take them.

The response has been equally inconclusive. On the Hill, where the Capitol

physician had been discussing the possibility of vaccination, about four

dozen people were inoculated. Only a few postal workers have asked for the

vaccine. Other postal workers reacted with skepticism, pronouncing

themselves reluctant to be used as guinea pigs. D.C. Health Director Ivan

Walks added to the uncertainty by recommending against the vaccine, worrying

aloud that federal authorities still were not presenting options in a way to

build public confidence.

As if that weren't frustrating enough, investigators searching for the

source of the killer mail have come up empty-handed. DNA analysis has linked

the mailed spores to a strain of anthrax that has been the subject of

research at Fort Detrick, Md., but investigators still haven't determined

how many labs may have had access to the material. That, in turn, is a long

leap to the person who might have obtained and used the deadly material. The

New York Times reported that the government spent a lot of early effort

unsuccessfully trying to find a link between Iraq and the anthrax attacks --

now White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says the powder seems likely of

domestic origin. The FBI's profile of a possible suspect hasn't led to any

arrest so far; likewise, its publication of copies of the letters.

Scientists still are analyzing the contents of the last letter found -- the

one addressed to Sen. Leahy (D-Vt.) -- but if a telling clue has

been produced, the public doesn't know about it.

The urgency of the investigation is undiminished even if the probe has faded

from the headlines, and Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge isn't briefing

every day on its progress. The anthrax attacks claimed innocent lives,

exposed grave weaknesses in the public health system and delivered a body

blow to some essential government operations. As long as those responsible

remain unidentified and at large, the most critical question hasn't been

answered -- and the deadly threat carries over into the new year.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company