posted on October 8, 2001 01:38:56 AM
With apologies to REAMOND, who reported hearing about a second Florida case several days ago but since there was nothing about it in the news I characterized the claim as trolling. Turns out I was wrong.
Not only has anthrax been found in one of the first victim's coworkers, but investigators believe the anthrax may be coming from somewhere in the offices of tabloid newspaper The Sun, where both men worked. This is sounding more and more suspicious.
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Second anthrax case detected in Florida
Officials: Tests also show presence of rare disease at tabloid’s building
BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 8— Anthrax has been detected in a co-worker of a man who died after contracting a rare inhaled form of the disease and tests at the building where both worked have found evidence of the bacterium, authorities said.
A NASAL SWAB from the man, whose name was not immediately made public, tested positive for the anthrax bacterium, Tim O’Conner, regional spokesman for the Florida Department of Health, said Monday.
It was not yet clear if anthrax had spread to his lungs or if he had a full-blown case of the disease. The man was in stable condition at an unidentified hospital, according to both the Florida and North Carolina health departments.
His co-worker, Bob Stevens, had recently visited North Carolina. Stevens died Friday, the first person in 25 years in the United States to have died from an inhaled form of anthrax.
News that Stevens had contracted the disease set off fears of bio-terrorism, especially when it was revealed that Middle Eastern men were believed to have recently visited an airfield about 40 miles from Stevens’ home in Lantana and asked questions about crop-dusters.
O’Conner said he couldn’t say that the second case was related to terrorism. “That would take a turn in the investigation,” said O’Conner. “It’s a different aspect, we were thinking more of environmental sources.”
Stevens, 63, was a photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun. Environmental tests performed at the Sun’s offices in Boca Raton have detected the anthrax bacteria, said O’Conner.
The Sun’s offices have been closed off and law enforcement, local and state health and CDC officials were to take additional samples from the building on Monday, O’Conner said.
About 300 people who work in the building are being contacted by the Sun and instructed not come to work Monday and undergo antibiotic treatment to prevent the disease.
The FBI was helping in the search for the source of the bacterium, said Miami FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela. But “the current risk of anthrax is extremely low,” O’Conner said.
It was unclear when the final tests would tell whether or not the second man has anthrax. The bacterium normally has an incubation period of up to seven days, but could take up to 60 days to develop, O’Conner said.
“We’re waiting for additional testing to see if it will become a confirmed case of anthrax or not,” said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “I realize for the public this is going to be a very slight distinction.”
Michael Kahane, vice president and general counsel of American Media Inc., which publishes the Sun and two other tabloids, the Globe and the National Enquirer, confirmed the company closed its Boca Raton building at the request of state health officials.
“We are cooperating with the department of health and all other governmental agencies investigating this matter,” he said Monday. “Obviously are first concern is the health and well-being of our employees and their families.”
Only 18 inhalation cases in the United States were documented in the 20th century, the most recent in 1976 in California. State records show the last anthrax case in Florida was in 1974.
posted on October 8, 2001 04:33:51 AM
If they were targeted the name of the company and building probably had more to do with it than what they produce. Although if they ran one of their usual stories about Bin Laden having sex with a space alien while visiting Elvis it may have offended muslim sensibilities.
posted on October 8, 2001 05:06:07 AM
What if the spores where placed all over the paper they use, and then the papers distributed to supermarkets all over florida?
These tabloids are placed at the check out counters, the one place EVERY shopper gets within a foot or 2 of.
[ edited by Microbes on Oct 8, 2001 05:23 AM ]
posted on October 8, 2001 05:31:00 AM
That would be a classic case of unintended outcomes. Kind of like antibiotics can clear out the weak genome and make the species stronger.
posted on October 8, 2001 05:36:03 AM
Guess what town I live in.
If I hear anything more about the second anthrax case I'll post it here.
I've been worried for quite a while.
One of the apartments where the hijackers had stayed was about 8 blocks from my house. September 12th on a local TV webcam report they showed a body being taken out of the apartment in an orange , the news reporter said they didn't know if the third person (the dead one) had committed suicide or been killed by the others. No further news on that, I believe it was hushed up once the FBI heard about it. One of the other three was on one of the planes that crashed.
Seems many of the terrorists/hijackers were living in towns close by me.... the infamous Delray apartment where some of them lived is not too far from the Costco I go to.
Mohammed Atteh's attempt to rent the crop duster occurred not too far away from my sister-in-law's house she just moved to in the country.
Needless to say I'm not too happy about the anthrax case occurrences either.
posted on October 8, 2001 06:01:51 AM
Thanks deliteful, I really appreciate your kind words. The Sun building in Boca is a few blocks from the building where my husband works. All we know right now is that the building is quarantined.
posted on October 8, 2001 06:02:35 AM{{{Enchanted}}}, I thought about you as soon as I saw the name of the town. Take care and you know we are all thinking of you. This is a scary time for everyone, but when it is so close to home it makes it even worse. I am sending you special wishes at this time.
posted on October 8, 2001 06:15:47 AM
Netta! thank you so much. It's so nice to actually meet up with you today, I never seem to be out and about the same time as you anymore.
Here's a link to the website of a local paper that's quite a good newspaper, they have a breaking news link on the home page about it, for anyone who wants to read more. This paper keeps their website updated fairly well, anything new to report as they learn more should be on there pretty quickly.
I forget how to do a link here ...
<url>http://www.sunsentinel.com/</url>
One good thing about this area is that the medical support systems and hospitals are very, very good, because of the high elderly population. I'm sure the authorities are doing everything they can right now as we are posting, and are erring on the side of caution in dealing with this.
If anything more comes on the local news, I will post it here, for now, I'm going back to work as I don't believe in letting this situation stop me from working and carrying on with my daily life as much as possible. My policy is to never let b'stards get ya down.
posted on October 8, 2001 06:32:57 AM
I was only thinking about you today Enchanted, so I was pleased when I saw you post as well. I agree with you about not letting it all get you down, you would be no use to anyone least of all yourself if you give in to fear, and why should you or anyone have to live in fear ... There is enough other crap going on in the world without being afraid to be alive in your own home.
Just to get off the subject a bit. When do you start your daylight saving time, it must be soon I think.
Well I must be off as it is almost midnight over here and I still have a few things to do before I can go to bed. I hope to see you again soon. Take care.
posted on October 8, 2001 06:54:23 AM
enchanted - Thanks for the news about the body being removed. You know one of the planes that crashed - I think the one in PA was a person short from what the others were.
Perhaps at the last minute one of them just could not do it. That very well could have made the difference in them being overcome.
posted on October 8, 2001 07:41:36 AM
Mmmm OK, an off-the-wall "what-if"
Wonder if one or more of these terrorist cells might have had some anthrax spores with it being part of their overall plan for the suicide hijackers to inhale part of their supply, say a few days in advance of the attacks. That way, they'd all have *known* they were walking dead men and would have little incentive to consider losing their nerve. Perhaps any spreading around of any surplus spores was something Atta considered casually, hence the inquiries about crop dusters. Then, after getting chased away by the cropduster people, they wandered into a supermarket and saw a copy of the Sun with pic of bin Laden and a headline "Arab Researchers Successfully Breed Billy Goat With Pig!" And a use for their leftover spores occurs to them....
[ edited by pyth00n on Oct 8, 2001 07:44 AM ]
posted on October 8, 2001 08:20:22 AM
I can only imagine how frightened the people who work in that building must be.
And, of course, the anxiety of those who live/work in the area.
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Gravid,
I, too, wondered why there was one less terrorist on the PA plane.
Until Enchanted mentioned it, I had heard nothing about a body being found in an apartment that housed the hijackers. That would explain why there was one less terrorist on that plane.
However, I do not think one less terrorist on the PA plane is what enabled the passengers' attempt to overtake them.
Unlike the passengers on the other 3 planes, the PA passengers had prior knowledge of just what was happening. They knew why they had been hijacked and knew they were doomed if they allowed the hijackers to proceed without resistance.
I have every confidence that if the passengers on the other planes would have had prior knowledge of what was to come, they, too, would have resisted, no matter how many terrorists were aboard and regardless their fate.
posted on October 8, 2001 08:24:05 AM
That paper published several expose' type articles during the election which attempted to publisize republican practices which have otherwise been kept very quiet..........It's all starting to make sense now.
posted on October 8, 2001 08:56:43 AM
It's starting to make sense? What do you mean krs?
I believe I read a new article recently on Yahoo that Osama bin Ladin was blaming the Jewish people of Florida for the WTC attacks because he said they were mad that Bush stole the election (paraphrasing here). I've been worried since I heard about that theory being floated by the terrorists.
Are you saying some how there is a connection between the newspaper, this area of the country and a possible plot related to both the hijackings and the last election?
There is no shortage of conspiracy theories to chew on.
There is also one theory coming out of Florida's Jewish press that Timothy McVeigh was part of the bin Laden terrorist group and that the Oklahoma City bombing was a precurser to the WTC attacks. Jess
posted on October 8, 2001 10:06:32 AM
Spaz- I thought I was hearing things the other day when I heard the report on TV. But it was not mentioned again on the air waves or print media again until today.
I'll bet the govt quashed the story. For some reason it was broadcast once and NOBODY mentioned the story again.
The media probably agreed to kill the story for a while to avoid panic.
posted on October 8, 2001 10:11:22 AM
Yes Reamond. It's most likely that the two cases are only the very tip of the iceberg and that THE GOVERNMENT has successfully squished all of the rest of the story for now. It won't be easy if they keep using those orange hazmat body bags so be especially watchful for an unusual number of bodies in basic black.
posted on October 8, 2001 10:14:16 AM
Well krs if you don't believe the media will sometimes work with the govt, then you haven't been around very long.
the first few paragraphs are what concerned me the most...
<b>Bin Laden denies terror attacks and points finger at Jews
Osama bin Laden has allegedly denied any involvement in the US terror attacks and pointed the finger at Jews.
His reasoning is that Florida's Jewish community has not forgiven President Bush for his controversial state victory in the US election, an Urdu language newspaper reports.
The interview with the accused terror mastermind appeared in the Karachi daily Ummat, believed to have close connections to Islamic groups in Afghanistan.
The newspaper says it submitted questions for bin Laden to Taliban officials and received written replies.</b>
The area that I live in has (I believe) the second highest concentration of Jewish people in the US, the first is New York City.
It does seem there was an awful lot of the terrorists living in this area. Oh, there were possibly lots of reasons why they were here, highly mobile and transient population, sufficient Arabic immigrant population so that they could blend in, great weather, let's not forget the South Florida restaurants and strip clubs they seemed to enjoy so much, the girls by the pools, hah.
Now I'll try to find a link to the news articles on the Deerfield Beach motel/apartments that the terrorists stayed in that I saw on TV. I don't save all these articles so it's hard for me to reconstruct the links.
edited to try and fix the html
[ edited by enchanted on Oct 8, 2001 11:13 AM ]
[ edited by enchanted on Oct 8, 2001 11:14 AM ]
