ANTHRAX ATTACKS: A TIME LINE OF DANGER
June 2001––The U.S. government launches the “Dark Winter” experiment, which tests its response to a biological attack. The experiment, which used smallpox as the mock weapon, revealed weaknesses in the system: limited supplies of antibiotics and vaccines, quickly filled hospitals, and conflicts between state and federal government about panic control and quarantines.
11 September 2001—Terrorists linked to al Qaeda attack the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.
18 September 2001—Letters to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and the New York Post are postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey. These letters were later recovered and contained anthrax spores.
22 September 2001—Johanna Huden, a New York Post editorial assistant, shows symptoms of cutaneous anthrax. She is diagnosed on October 19.
28 September 2001—The 7-month-old son of an ABC producer visits ABC's New York building, where he may have contracted anthrax.
1 October 2001—AMI mail clerk Ernesto Blanco is hospitalized and diagnosed with pneumonia. The 7-month-old child is admitted to a New York hospital with a high fever and a sore on his elbow. His tissue samples are sent to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
4 October 2001—Robert Stevens, a photo editor for AMI, is diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, the first diagnosed case of anthrax in the United States since 1978. Stevens dies in a Florida hospital the next day. Investigators presume that he contracted the disease from a natural source.
7 October 2001—Investigators discover anthrax spores on Steven’s keyboard at AMI and in Ernesto Blanco’s nose. The AMI building is shut down.
9 October 2001—Letters containing anthrax, addressed to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, are postmarked in Trenton, NJ.
12 October 2001—Erin O’Connor, an assistant at NBC, is diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax.
13 October 2001 —The letter sent to Brokaw at NBC tests positive for anthrax.
15 October 2001—An aide opens the Daschle letter, releasing the anthrax spores. Ernesto Blanco is diagnosed with inhalation anthrax. The 7-month-old child is diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax.
16 October 2001—Two postal workers at the Brentwood Mail Center in Washington, D.C., report fatigue, fever, and muscle pain. Both are later diagnosed with inhalation anthrax.
17 October 2001—Thirty-one people in Sen. Daschle’s office reportedly test positive for anthrax exposure. FBI investigators discuss links between the Daschle and Brokaw letters, which featured almost identical handwriting.
18 October 2001—Jyotsna Patel, a Hamilton Township postal worker is hospitalized and later diagnosed with inhalational anthrax.
19 October 2001—Norma Wallace, a Hamilton Township postal worker, is hospitalized. The FBI announces that it has found an unopened anthrax letter addressed to the editor-in-chief at the New York Post.
22 October 2001—Joseph Curseen becomes the second Brentwood Mail Facility employee to die of inhalation anthrax. The first, Thomas Morris Jr., died a day earlier.
26 October 2001—Traces of anthrax are detected in the State Department, the Supreme Court and its mail center in Maryland, and the mail centers of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
31 October 2001—Kathy Nguyen, an employee of the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, succumbs to pulmonary anthrax. Authorities are still unsure of how the woman contracted the disease.
9 November 2001—The FBI releases a criminal profile providing characteristics about the person who may be responsible for the attacks. The report states that the suspect is most likely male, working alone and domestically. The CDC releases a mortality report about the 22 confirmed and suspected anthrax cases.
16 November 2001—FBI investigators continue to search through quarantined mail and discover the Sen. Leahy letter that contains anthrax spores.
21 November 2001—Ottilie Lundgren becomes the fifth person to die of inhalation anthrax.
11 December 2001—The CDC calls a meeting to discuss the anthrax attacks. A September 2001 Canadian study is publicly disclosed that reports unopened envelopes containing anthrax may pose health risks to mail handlers. The CDC received information on the study via email on October 4, 2001 but the email was not opened.
25 February 2002—A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. begins to issue subpoenas to laboratories across the country requesting samples of the Ames strain of anthrax.
2 July 2002—Nicholas Kristof writes an editorial in the New York Times describing the man, named “Mr. Z,” who is the person responsible for the anthrax attacks. According to Kristof, the FBI was provided with Mr. Z’s true identity in October. Based on the description, it would appear that Steven Hatfill, a former Fort Detrick employee who works with infectious diseases, is Mr. Z.
13 July 2004—Hatfill sues the New York Times for defamation. He also sues the Justice Department and several government officials.
27 June 2008—The court rules in favor of Hatfill in his suit against the government and wins a settlement worth nearly $6 million. Later, Hatfill is fully exonerated by the Justice Department.
29 July 2008—Bruce E. Ivins, a Fort Detrick scientist suspected in the attacks, dies after taking an overdose of medication two days earlier. His death is ruled a suicide. After years of investigations, the FBI begins the process of closing the case soon after Ivins’ death.
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