Straight talk on anthrax

Considering the utter unfamiliarity of the terrain the nation has been on since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has navigated well in a time of crisis, anger and uncertainty. The exception, which the administration itself now properly admits, has been anthrax.

There is no need to retrace every misstep, but the journey clearly has been from blithe reassurance to appropriate concern. The anthrax mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle’s office was not, as it was first described, a common variety easily treated with antibiotics – it is a highly refined, extremely potent strain that seems designed to disperse easily and rapidly through the air. The lack of information sharing between scientists and law enforcement is not a glitch but a severe breakdown.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge set the record straight at a Thursday press conference with some much-needed bluntness. The germs are a deadly weapon and he is taking charge of coordinating the counterattack.

Mr. Ridge’s blunt talk comes at a crucial time. The appearance of a life-threatening case of inhalation anthrax in a State Department mailroom worker who had never been in the Washington postal facility that handled the Daschle letter raises the awful possibility that this anthrax can contaminate ordinary mail that comes in contact with it during processing. This raises the possibility that entire neighborhoods served by even slightly contaminated mail facilities may be at risk, that the national mail stream may be potentially deadly and that the widespread distribution of antibiotics may be necessary.

Rather than be seen as cause for panic, these possibilities should serve to establish priorities. Mail-handling machinery may have to be modified so that the killer spores are not squeezed through tiny gaps in sealed envelopes. Detection and irradiation equipment may have to be installed at every mail-processing center in the postal system. The purchase of massive quantities of antibiotics may be necessary to meet the formidable public health challenge that lies ahead.

All this will take money and comes just as Congress prepares to reconcile House and Senate versions of a $100 billion economic stimulus package. The differences between the two versions are not merely differences in opinion on how best to revive the economy, but expose severe cracks in the spirit of bipartisanship that was forged on Sept. 11. Mr. Ridge’s address will not make anthrax threat vanish, but it does reassure the American public that the threat is being taken as seriously as it deserves to be.

It may even remind Congress that it has more important things to do than argue about who gets what amount of tax breaks.