Tularemia Update: NO TRUE POSITIVES in Initial Tests on Mall, CDC says

"Test Results Cited in Delay of Mall Alert"
CDC Explains Why Local Officials Weren't Told for Days About Bacterium Detection

By Susan Levine and Sari Horwitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 5, 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401544.html?nav=hcmodule

Area health officials were not notified for five days that sensors on the Mall had detected a potentially dangerous bacterium there last month because subsequent tests were not conclusively positive, a federal official said yesterday.

The Department of Homeland Security delayed in alerting the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the same reason, said Richard Besser, who directs the CDC's coordinating office for terrorism preparedness and emergency response. More than half a dozen sensors showed the presence of tularemia bacteria the morning after thousands of people gathered on the Mall for a book festival and antiwar rally, yet the CDC was not contacted for at least 72 hours.

Testing never identified all the definitive markers for which scientists were looking, and officials were wary of issuing a false alarm, Besser said. He called the entire incident "highly unusual," but he acknowledged that it would prompt the two agencies to review their protocol and the timeliness of their response "to make sure the system doesn't have any flaws in it."

(snip)

Besser said that if the initial evaluation had revealed true positives, the laboratory would have immediately contacted Homeland Security, which would have immediately brought CDC and local health agencies into the discussion. Instead, as late as Thursday, CDC officials expected final testing to disprove the presence of the bacteria. "So we didn't really think there was a need to alert public health officials," he said.

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***I am not an scientist, but this article seems to be saying that the initial tests were 'false positives.' These were the tests initially conducted on the Mall filter samples...and subsequent more specific tests also appear to be negative. I'm taking this to mean that the whole Tularemia thing was a false alarm, if we believe the CDC. Is that how others here are reading this article? I'm a little confused by the way the article is written, with the paragraphs about response meshed with the main message. But it seems to me that the CDC has decided there was probably no definitive finding for Tularemia in the first place. I'm sure it was better for people to be safe than sorry, but not good if it was a scare all for nothing...seems to indicate a conflict between Homeland Security and CDC re the response?
Opinions? :shrug:

first, before CDC and local health agencies. It sounds as if DHS could withhold any information it chose to, and I don't trust them.

the lab was supposed to report to Homeland Security first, who then reports to CDC and Health Agencies. And yet it is CDC who now issues the definitive evaluation...

As far as the potential for outbreak of disease we have to rely on the CDC don't we? They have a reasonable track record. Are they funded well enough anymore, or is it like FEMA?

in recent years (as in, after Shrub took office). Among other things, the CDC ended a program that identified the most successful sex ed programs, and took down that part of its website. (Why? Because they were not abstinence-only programs.) Some of the other scandals I recall involved autism, anthrax, and obesity. The CDC seems to be minimizing public health threats these days. I'm afraid it has become a propaganda machine for BushCo.

that's a lot more than I knew before...about the CDC these days! As scary as it is to realize how this once well-respected agency has been infected by the 'profits before people' mindset...I do believe we have to KNOW what the real story is. We depend on these public health agencies and we have the right to know the truth about how they operate. We can't wait for a disaster to happen to find out re. Katrina. I know there are good people, good scientists still at the CDC...I wonder what they think of the management under Bushco.

so was this scare intentional or was it bureaucratic bungling?

Either way is scary to me.