NYC-WTC_000230723

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

NEW York post, mondaY, October 22,2001

Standing Up to Anthrax •he final anthrax tests on Gov, Pataki's words. Nor is it the plague. ■ I Midtown offices came back negative So when The Post received hard evi- ' I yesterday, and what a relief that is. dence that it had been targeted with an­ I Now the gov has somewhere to hang thrax spores, the decision to sit tight and his hat when he's reminding New York let the experts do their tests wasn’t at all how important it is that everything get difficult. back to normal as soon as possible, Yes, simple precautions were taken to In Washington, congressional leaders minimize public-health hazards. spent the weekend agonizing about going And then it became a matter of waiting back to business as usual after an anthrax for test results. ■ scare in the House of Representatives. In the interim, we did what we do best; Both Pataki and the House leadership Publish a newspaper. headed for the hills on learning of evi- And we most emphatically chose not to . dence that anthrax spores had been dis­ contribute to the low-grade, but then- covered in their places of business — the steadily growing, public hysteria by shut­ difference being that the House had ting down our offices and shooing our cause for real concern. employees out into the streets. As did we here at The Post. Wrong call? We don’t think so. A colleague is one of several Ameri­ Those who reacted differently no cans who have contracted the disease — doubt had their reasons, as hard to dis­ apparently as the result of a concerted cern as they seem to be. effort to sow fear and confusion in the These are difficult times, Sept. 11 did wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. indeed change things — for all Ameri­ The plot apparently wasn’t meant to cans, probably forever. harm large numbers of people: If it had Certainly no American can reasonably been, anthrax wouldn’t have been the in­ feel exempt by virtue of geography from fectious agent of choice. the worldwide struggle for peace and i For the most part, anthrax is a very dif­ freedom. ficult disease to spread. It is even harder The risks need no elaboration here, ■ r r. ■ to catch — and is is extraordinarily easy Suffice it to say that if the anthrax scare ' to cure. has taught America a lesson in the value 1 1 (Indeed, out colleague was cured be- of — and the need for — leadership, it i ' ' 1 fore anyone even knew she had it.) probably will have served a useful pur- i 1 Anthrax is not smallpox, in other pose after all, 1

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NYC-WTC_000230723