CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2004-12-14

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hello, I'm Dan Rather and welcome to the

[0:02] CBS Evening News online edition. Just

[0:05] ahead, bioteterrorism readiness. A

[0:08] disturbing new report shows just how

[0:10] unready most American cities are. Also,

[0:13] how safe is one of the most powerful

[0:16] cholesteroling drugs. We'll give you a

[0:19] hard look in our ongoing CBS News

[0:21] investigation and call it the library

[0:24] that never closes. We'll show you plans

[0:27] for a worldwide virtual library. It's

[0:30] all starting now on the CBS Evening News

[0:33] online edition.

[0:35] >> It's been more than 3 years since the

[0:37] 9/11 attacks, more than 3 years since

[0:40] the still unsolved anthrax attacks. And

[0:43] there are serious questions tonight

[0:45] about just how prepared this country is

[0:47] for another attack, an attack of

[0:50] bioteterrorism. A new report says that

[0:52] while some progress has been made, a lot

[0:55] more needs to be done that hasn't been

[0:57] done. On a readiness scale of 1 to 10,

[1:00] only Florida and North Carolina scored

[1:03] as high as nine. Alaska and

[1:05] Massachusetts are least prepared,

[1:07] scoring a three. CBS's Jim Stewart

[1:10] reports tonight on the continuing

[1:12] bioteterror risk. There may not be a

[1:15] better place to start an epidemic. And

[1:18] to prove it, in the closed confines of a

[1:20] Chicago hockey arena last year,

[1:22] officials staged the mock release of

[1:24] plague germs just to see what would

[1:26] happen. Within a day, they had their

[1:28] answer. First in twos and threes.

[1:31] >> I've been nauseous. I've had muscle

[1:32] aches.

[1:33] >> Then by the dozens and finally by the

[1:35] bus loads. Eventually, pretend victims

[1:37] clogged the hallways. Chicago hospitals

[1:40] were overwhelmed. The final estimate on

[1:42] dead and dying in the tens of thousands.

[1:45] And a bipartisan health group's report

[1:47] on bioteterrorism today suggested

[1:49] Chicago wouldn't be the only city

[1:51] overwhelmed. Only six states are

[1:54] prepared to distribute vaccines. The

[1:56] report found nearly 60% of all states

[1:58] don't have enough lab scientists. And

[2:00] nowhere is that knowledge causing more

[2:02] uneasiness than here, where Washington

[2:04] is about to host a repeat of the Bush

[2:06] inauguration. Bio sensors like these are

[2:09] scattered about the city, snipping the

[2:11] air constantly for deadly agents.

[2:14] Details are secret, but the general plan

[2:16] is that if they were to hit on

[2:17] something, say during the inaugural

[2:19] parade, the president would head here to

[2:22] a nondescript back door at the

[2:23] Washington Hospital Center.

[2:25] >> And then he would go in here and let me

[2:27] turn on the shower. He'd strip down,

[2:29] walk through these showers, and enter

[2:31] this airlocked room, which looks sort of

[2:33] what it once was, a storage shed with a

[2:36] dirt floor. Only now, it's one of the

[2:39] most state-of-the-art chemical bio

[2:40] treatment rooms in America. There's just

[2:42] one problem. In the worst possible

[2:45] scenario, how many people could you jam

[2:46] in here?

[2:47] >> We could put a hundred. We could put 100

[2:48] patients in here.

[2:50] >> Just 100.

[2:50] >> Just 100. And again,

[2:51] >> what if you got 500 to show up at the

[2:53] front door?

[2:53] >> That's That's a good question.

[2:55] >> And this, remember, is considered one of

[2:56] the best in the land. and it cost $1.8

[2:59] million. What we really need, say

[3:01] experts, is this, the

[3:03] counterboteterrorism emergency room of

[3:05] the future, ER1 they call it, where

[3:08] thousands of patients could be sorted,

[3:10] treated, and isolated. The first will be

[3:13] built in Washington, just around the

[3:15] corner from that converted shed. The

[3:17] only thing is construction doesn't even

[3:19] start for another 18 months. Jim

[3:22] Stewart, CBS News, Washington. In health

[3:25] news tonight, CBS News has long been

[3:27] investigating the safety of statin drugs

[3:30] taken by millions of people trying to

[3:32] lower their cholesterol. A small number

[3:35] of them suffer what they say are serious

[3:37] side effects. But are some statin drugs

[3:40] more dangerous than others? CBS's Cheryl

[3:43] Atkinson has this follow-up report.

[3:46] >> Crestor is considered the most potent

[3:48] cholesterol lowering statin drug around.

[3:51] Since Katie switched to Crestor, her

[3:53] cholesterol is much less.

[3:54] >> But does it stand out in another way?

[3:57] Serious side effects. Richard Turnbo

[3:59] took Crestor for 2 months before his

[4:01] wife Karen had to rush into the

[4:03] hospital.

[4:04] >> They even had notified Karen that she

[4:07] needed to get my children to the

[4:08] hospital if they were going to possibly

[4:11] see me because they weren't expecting me

[4:13] to pull through this. Doctors consider

[4:16] Crestor a prime suspect in a muscle

[4:18] disorder which shut down his kidneys,

[4:20] rabdtomyalysis.

[4:22] It's a slight risk of all statins, but

[4:24] the consumer group Public Citizen has

[4:26] asked the FDA to ban Crestor, saying it

[4:29] causes so much rabdomiialysis, it's

[4:31] right up there with another statin

[4:33] already pulled from the market, Bakeol.

[4:36] and severe kidney problems while rare

[4:38] are reported with Crestor at a rate

[4:40] that's 75 times higher than the average

[4:43] of all other statins according to public

[4:45] citizen. Crestor's maker Astroenica

[4:48] insists the drug has been extensively

[4:50] studied and is as safe as any.

[4:52] >> When we look at the rates of

[4:54] rabdomiialysis, the rates of kidney

[4:56] failure with regard to Crestor, the

[4:58] rates are less than 1 in 10,000.

[5:01] They're similar rates to what we see

[5:02] with other statins that are out on the

[5:04] market. But Crestor is the only statin

[5:06] where kidney problems turned up in

[5:08] studies before its approval. The FDA

[5:10] resolved those concerns by allowing only

[5:13] lower doses of the drug to be sold.

[5:15] Still, serious adverse events have

[5:17] prompted a label change in Europe, two

[5:19] warnings in Canada, and a health

[5:21] advisory in the US. The FDA officially

[5:24] maintains CET is safe, but one FDA

[5:27] scientist has broken ranks. Crestor is

[5:30] the only statin among all the marketed

[5:33] statins that has acute renal failure.

[5:36] That is acute kidney failure.

[5:38] >> Why do you think it is that these people

[5:40] are singling out Crestor among the

[5:42] statins if Cster doesn't have unique

[5:45] concerns?

[5:46] >> I can't speak for what their motivations

[5:48] are. Cheryl, we feel that Crestor has

[5:50] been treated unfairly. That's true. We

[5:53] think it's a great drug. You know, we

[5:55] have a lot of confidence in this drug.

[5:57] Confidence backed by an estimated

[5:59] billion dollar promotional campaign. Now

[6:02] at least two PR firms are helping

[6:04] Astroynica counter bad publicity.

[6:07] Turnbo's kidneys healed after he quit

[6:09] taking Crestor, but lingering muscle

[6:11] problems have put him back in the

[6:12] hospital twice.

[6:14] >> I know my doctor today, he wouldn't put

[6:16] me back on it.

[6:18] >> Even so, his doctor hasn't stopped

[6:20] prescribing Crestor entirely. Like many

[6:22] others, he thinks the jury is still out

[6:25] and is waiting for a definitive word on

[6:27] whether Questtor is riskier.

[6:29] >> Cheryl Atinson, CBS News, Washington.

[6:32] >> There could soon be a lot more

[6:34] information available to you on the

[6:35] internet. Millions of pages of data now

[6:38] unavailable would be just a point

[6:40] andclick away through the search engine

[6:42] Google. CBS's Jim Atarrod reports some

[6:45] big libraries think the idea is long

[6:47] overdue.

[6:49] Not to say major changes in libraries

[6:51] are rare, but the last one this big was

[6:54] half a millennium ago. The printing

[6:56] press. Well, Gutenberg, meet Google.

[7:00] >> Users worldwide will be able to access

[7:03] information that was previously

[7:05] inaccessible to them.

[7:06] >> Google, the internet's number one search

[7:09] engine, isn't just for finding hot shots

[7:11] of Charize Theron anymore.

[7:13] >> It's putting the vast repositories of

[7:15] the world's great libraries a mouse

[7:17] click away.

[7:18] Google is making deals with some of the

[7:20] world's most prestigious universities to

[7:22] digitize their non-copyrighted

[7:25] collections and put them online. The

[7:28] Google project is the next big step in

[7:30] how human beings keep track of and

[7:32] distribute everything we know. For

[7:34] centuries, you had to go to the books.

[7:36] The books didn't come to you. And while

[7:38] the computer's gradually been changing

[7:40] that, the evolution's about to have a

[7:42] revolution. More than 15 million volumes

[7:45] will be scanned into the Google

[7:47] database. At a 100,000 pages a day, it

[7:49] could still take 10 years and $150

[7:52] million to complete.

[7:54] >> Big deal.

[7:56] >> Huge. Transformative.

[7:58] >> Paul the clerk who runs the New York

[7:59] Public Library loves the idea. To him,

[8:02] the library business is all about

[8:04] access. Aren't you worried that 50 years

[8:07] from now there is New York no New York

[8:09] City public library?

[8:10] >> No. I think that one has to see this in

[8:12] the same way that one saw television not

[8:16] replacing radio but supplementing it.

[8:20] >> He's got a point.

[8:21] >> After all, libraries aren't due for a

[8:23] change this big for another 500 years.

[8:27] Jim Axor, CBS News, New York. More

[8:30] stories are just a click away, but be

[8:32] sure to join me on television for the on

[8:34] air edition of the CBS Evening News. On

[8:37] Wednesday's broadcast, turning garbage

[8:39] into gold, the end product of a million

[8:42] workers nets a young entrepreneur a

[8:45] fortune. What are they making? We'll

[8:47] show you when the worm turns. For

[8:51] cbsnews.com,

[8:52] I'm Dan Rather.