lesions. if you inhale, then you can get fever, chills, short of breath, all that stuff. the big thing is the concern that it cannot be transmitted from one person to another person. if somebody has it, i would not be able to get it, because it has to be in the air, not contagious like that. but it is lethal, very dangerous. they re being treated and we ll wait to see what happens with this. the important points you raised. dr. siegel, i ask you, we don t want to alarm anybody, 80 is a lot of people. this is a large number. but it s not like it s going to be spreading across the city of atlanta or something, right? as david just mentioned, i wrote about this in my book false alarm after the 2001 anthrax mailings, the biggest thing is fear. anthrax is not contagious. it cannot spread beyond the people that are already exposed. the problem is the cdc has a buy ore terror rapid response unit. that s where this was. basically they re trying to
potential senders but their investigation continues. last night we herd democratic senator claire mccaskill from missouri say, her understanding was that investigators were zeroing in on someone who is known to send in the past lawmakers a lot of letters. sources have told us that authorities have a general idea where this person might be. we don t know their identity. we know now two letters, jon, one sent to senator wicker, one sent to president obama. now we re awaiting a final tests from what the fbi says is an accredited lab to confirm the initial field testing on that powdery substance. we re waiting now 24 to 48 hours to make sure it is in fact ricin. jon: flashbacks of the anthrax mailings that killed so many people in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. peter doocy in maryland. thank you. jenna: happening now , not far from maryland, secretary of state john kerry is testifying on capitol hill about u.s. security abroad including what steps have
feet. people wearing space suits, researchers, the air is filtered, they very, very rarely have a problem and they are involved in defense against bioterrorism. so they got ebola there, and other viruses there, flu and they are experimenting witness there. they are doing it very, very carefully. they have a facility if a person god forbid gets contaminated there. bill: how does a vial go missing? how is that possible? well, bill, this is the problem we saw with the anthrax mailings if you recall in 2001. i think a vial goes missing if a scientist or a helper, an aide somehow mistakes it, or it disappears or they take it. i think this needs a very serious investigation. in this case i m not worried about the public, but it s a wake up call that we really have to watch it. a lot of hands are touching things, you know, and that s why, that s the biggest risk. the biggest risk of bioterrorism
the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings. it concluded a biodefense researcher acted alone. the fbi believes lone suspect dr. bruce ivan sent anthrax-laced letters to lawmakers and news organizations, which killed five people. he killed himself in 2008 as authorities prepared to indict him. clear hold bills, that s what nato says is the strategy in taking ban marjah. afghan police are taking over security some parts, as they clear the town of militants. the offensive is noun in the seventh day, the biggest since the 2001 u.s.-led invasion of afghanistan. in haiti s prime minister says the government will take over private lands to build camps for earthquake victims. aid groups say hundreds of acres are needed to get tens of thousands of quake victims out of crowded makeshift camp in port-au-prince. haitian law provides for the takeover they re in the public