Third Broadcast Network Becomes Target of Anthrax Scare
DOBBS: The cost of dealing with the anthrax scare is rising: the government planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to increase the stockpiles of Cipro and antibiotics. Yet other bacteria are far more lethal and expensive. Kitty Pilgrim puts anthrax in perspective with a look at the numbers.</s>KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The numbers are staggering: Infectious diseases claim 100,000 American lives each year. The pharmaceutical industry is spending $4 billion this year on researching drugs for infectious diseases. Some of these diseases are extraordinarily lethal, but, unfortunately, fairly common; 500,000 patients in American hospitals get staph infections each year; 90,000 die. The bacteria that causes pneumonia and meningitis hits 10,000 infants and toddlers each year. And 5,000 die. More than 95 percent of Americans get chicken pox; 5,000 to 9,000 are hospitalized. And about 100 die. Hepatitis B kills 6,000 people a year. Even a simple flu hits 35-50 million Americans a year. And more than 20,000 die. The cost of these diseases in lives is enormous. The financial cost is also staggering. The financial toll of a severe flu season is estimated at $12 billion in medical costs and lost productivity -- the annual cost of treating ear infections: $3-$4 billion. Sexually transmitted other than HIV and AIDS cost $10 billion -- $17 billion if HIV infections are included.</s>PILGRIM: One of the biggest challenges to the pharmaceutical industry is, some strains of bacteria mutate to become drug-resistant. So a drug that works one year may be less effective the next. Now, the big conference to talk about new antibiotics and anti- virus medications had been scheduled just before September 11. That conference had to be canceled and is not slated until December. A whole new agenda may be in order -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: I think almost certainly. Kitty, thank you -- Kitty Pilgrim. Well, each day brings, it seems, another confirmed anthrax incident and more fear and anxiety among some parts of the public. With the discovery of anthrax spores in a Senate office, we're now joined by Senator Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, and a medical doctor. Senator, good to have you with us.</s>SEN. BILL FRIST (R), TENNESSEE: Good to be with you, Lou.</s>DOBBS: Senator, this anthrax -- I know you are amongst those who are working very hard to keep the public informed and, at the same time, calm. But we have a lot of anxiety here. Is it appropriately placed?</s>FRIST: Well, we have things to worry about and things we should not worry about. From the public health standpoint, from the individual out there who considers himself at risk, there's nothing to worry about. Things are going to be OK. The piece on antibiotics you just did, this anthrax is sensitive to every antibiotic: penicillin, tetracycline, doxycycline, the fluoroquinolones, as well as Cipro, the drug that you hear about today. The risk of being exposed is tiny. Yet we know that we're in a different world now. This whole potential for terrorism means we open our mail, we have to think of things a little bit differently today. If you're exposed to anthrax -- exposed to it -- it is treatable. You will be cured. You have nothing to worry about. But it does need to be diagnosed early in terms of that exposure.</s>DOBBS: Your colleague in the Senate, Senator John McCain, said it's time for everybody just to calm down. At this point, we are seeing, with nearly every passing day, a new incident of exposure -- and I want to underline that -- exposure to anthrax, and a press conference called, whether it be by a broadcast network, another media outlet, whether it be by a governor or a mayor. Is this being helpful, in your judgment, in terms of both the public security and public health, or is it being just a bit overdone?</s>FRIST: Well, Lou, this is new. Never before has the United States of America had a bioweapon, a terrorist activity -- not necessarily the September 11 terrorists -- but terrorist activity using germs and bacteria. It's the first time in the history of this country. So you're going to see a lot of interest. And that's appropriate. We need the translate that down to support of our public health infrastructure to make sure that not just anthrax, but we can diagnose smallpox, tularemia, pneumonic plague, botulinum toxins, all of the other germs and bacteria that could be used. And that's why I argue again and again, yes, we need more antibiotics, and, yes, we need more stockpiling, and, yes, we need more vaccines. But we also need to support our state and local preparedness, just like here in Washington we're having to address.</s>DOBBS: Well, your bill that you are sponsoring calling for $1.4 billion in assistance in that direction puts some $600 million, as I recall, forward for precisely that: state and local government in the public health arena. Is that correct?</s>FRIST: That's correct. We passed a bill that I worked on with Senator Kennedy called the Public Health Threats and Emergency Act. We passed it about a year ago, long before September the 11th. We estimated it would take about $1.4 billion to appropriately fill in the gaps in terms of prevention, in terms of preparedness and in terms of response. Now, part of that is stockpiling. Part of it is research and development so that we can figure out what drugs can treat things like a smallpox. And part of it is being prepared at the local level, what is called surge capacity, a little bit of what we're seeing today here in Washington, D.C., to make sure that we are prepared in terms of the number of tests, that we have the laboratories that can do those tests appropriately, and that we have people trained like myself, who is a physician, who can recognize things like anthrax and other infectious diseases.</s>DOBBS: What are the issues here in terms of informing the public and doing so responsibly and presumably calmly, is to look at the leadership, I don't know if we have this, I'd ask for it, we have a copy of the headline, Senator -- I don't know if you can see this -- if we can show that, "The New York Post" this morning showing Congressman Hastert and Congressman Gephardt and beneath it "Wimps." And Senator, you all decided to stay open for business. Did the House send the wrong message in your judgment?</s>FRIST: I think we have to be careful and everybody is trying to play the Senate off against the House. Again, we're addressing something, this government of the United States of America, that we have not seen before. That is the use of germs and bacteria with the intent to kill, to kill people of the news media, to kill politicians today. We have to make decisions every day based on the information that's available. What the American people don't understand entirely yet and the media haven't helped with very much, is that unlike the usual crime scene, let's say a murder, where the event is over with, this continues to change. We go in, we look at an area where the anthrax exposure was. We plant cultures. Those cultures take 24 hours, 48 hours, 48 hours. You have to collect that data and make decisions at different points in time. So I'm not going to be critical of the house. In the Senate we were in session today. We got a lot of good business done at zero risk to the United States Senate. At the same time we were able to get those important surveillance cultures.</s>DOBBS: Senator, I didn't really expect that you would be, but I was curious about your thoughts on the role of leadership here particularly in this public health threat. Senator, at this point, anthrax, do you believe that we have the public health apparatus working as it should both at the local, the state and federal level, with this particular threat? I don't even -- Senator I won't even anticipate others. You raised a number of other diseases but I don't even want the move into the area of the hypothetical, this seems to be adequate now. Are we in pretty good shape?</s>FRIST: Lou, it's an important question to at least consider the others. If you don't, you can invest all the attention of the United States of America and all the money in just combating anthrax. A good terrorist simply moves down the list. So where we need to be putting the money today is in support of the infrastructure no that matter what the organism is, we can diagnose it early, we can communicate that diagnosis, we can treat it, we can cure the disease. That is where I think we need to put the resources, but to answer your question, I'm here in Washington as you know. I've spent the last 12 hours fighting this anthrax issue. Things are going beautifully. Our public health infrastructure is working, the Doctors are working hand in hand with law enforcement. It is almost like a symphony. Nobody is going to be hurt here in Washington, D.C. It's under control. It's been contained. People can relax. Things are going to be OK.</s>DOBBS: Senator, I'm going to follow your lead and I am going to move to the other diseases, specifically, you mentioned smallpox and a number of others. Is it your judgment that we are either prepared or approaching a state of preparation quickly to deal with those other potential threats?</s>FRIST: Smallpox, unlike anthrax, is contagious. And therefore I would regard it as a greater threat, that is, our vulnerability as a nation is higher but I would say the risk of it happening is lower than anthrax. Anthrax is available all over the United States of America. Smallpox, to the best of our knowledge has been eradicated from the world. There is no smallpox disease. There is a supply here under guard in the United States and also one in Russia. But for all practical purposes that is not in anybody's hands. If smallpox were to be introduced today, the vaccination you received as a child is no good. The one I received is no good. I lasts anywhere from eight to 15 years. Therefore nobody has the vaccination defenses in place today. Are we prepared? Yes, we are. Could we be better prepared? Yes. That's why the president has said we're going to increase the vaccine doses available from 10 million to 20 million within about 9 months and we will probably increase that stockpile based on the request he made yesterday on up to 40, 50 or 60 million.</s>DOBBS: Senator, you have my attention so my next question, if I may, is, can we speed that up just a little bit?</s>FRIST: Well, we sped it up. Under President Bush's initiative we have 10 million doses that can be taken anywhere in the world to a site within 12 hours. That's pretty good, the fact that we can do that sort of initiation. It's going to be -- initially, up until about a month ago, we said let's take it from 10 to 40 over 4 years. Under the direction of the president of the United States, he said no, that's insufficient. Let's do it as fast as we can and now it is going to be over 8 months. Now we are having the discussion how much do you really need? Let's get together. If you introduce small pox, do you need 15 million, or 20 or 10? That's the discussions we're having today. Nobody has answered that question. Because we're at greater risk today, based on what has happened it Washington and Florida, people say well, I don't know what you say the risk is, but I want to get as many vaccines out there if we need it. So we are probably going to get a lot more than the 40 that we have in line right now.</s>DOBBS: Senator, thank you very much. Senator Bill Frist, as always, we appreciate your insight.</s>FRIST: Thank you, Lou.</s>DOBBS: Coming up next here, book-sellers slumping after the terrorist attacks. Sales now slowly beginning to build, but the subject matter has changed. We will be telling you all about that. Secretary of State Colin Powell has led an advance team to an economic summit in China. The subject matter however, it is also shifting and we'll take a look at the support the United States is seeking in the war on terrorism, coming up next. First Let's take a quick look at what happened on Wall Street today. Blue-chips fell slightly. The Nasdaq posting a modest gain. Let's turn to Christine Romans at the New York Stock Exchange to bring us up to date -- Christine.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, they are calling it anthrax distraction and earning worries as well. But the Street moving lower here today, at least for the blue-chips. Let's take a look at some of the most actively traded issues here in Wall Street today. Sprint PCS down sharply here even as it plans to add 1.3 million subscribers in Q4. Washington Mutual, all kinds of analysts downgrading this one a day after it disclosed a loan loss provision that was greater than Wall Street expected. AOL TIME WARNER is the parent of this network and it was hitting its lowest price in two weeks extending yesterday's losses. And Texas Instruments down almost 2 bucks there. A downbeat quarterly profit report and also downbeat outlook. That had traders there a little bit worried. Overall, breadth was negative here, volume was pretty active. Traders say, Lou, it could have been worse considering.</s>DOBBS: As usual. Christine, thanks. Christine Romans and of course we will be taking a look at what happened in the other markets, particularly the Nasdaq later in the broadcast. Coming up now, President Bush in Shanghai, his first overseas trip since the September 11 attacks. We'll take a look at what the president is accomplishing in Shanghai. And the war against terrorism against the Taliban and the al Qaeda just the first step in the war against terrorism worldwide. We will be joined by a geopolitical analyst and expert who will layout the next stages of this campaign for us.