Anthrax Vaccine Rejected

Anthrax Vaccine Rejected

By Christine Haughney
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 4, 2002; Page A13

NEW YORK, Jan. 3 -- Local postal union officials today advised mail workers in Manhattan against taking a vaccine for anthrax being offered by federal health officials, instead again calling for the city's main processing center to be fully cleaned.

"We don't want a vaccine. We want the building clean," said William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union at an afternoon news conference.

When mail sorting machines at the Morgan facility tested positive for anthrax in October after processing letters laden with bacterial spores, Smith called for the U.S. Postal Service to close and clean the entire complex. Instead the Postal Service cleaned parts of the two floors where the anthrax was found. Last month, the Postal Service retested five mail sorting machines; results from one machine came back positive.

On Friday morning, lawyers representing the union are to try to convince a federal judge to order the Postal Service to thoroughly test and clean the Morgan facility.

Union officials also are encouraging postal workers to reject the experimental anthrax vaccine offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal health officials have offered the vaccine on an experimental basis to postal workers in New York and the District as a precaution in case spores are lingering in their lungs.

But the plan has sparked controversy in New York and the District, in part because it has not been proven to be effective and may cause side effects.

"CDC doctors claim they know what they're doing. But they're guessing," Smith said.

Like many District postal workers, most employees at the Morgan facility have chosen instead to stay on antibiotics and return to work.

"People are worried," said Bill Bachmann, an electronics technician who has been taking antibiotics for 67 days. "The vaccine I think would be better off not to be offered at all."

Dennis O'Neil, a sorter on the third floor of the Morgan facility, said he has not returned to work since he heard that a machine on his floor had tested positive again for anthrax. He also said he would not take the vaccine.