Dr. Marcy Leighton

Part of the preparation for a large-scale aerosolized release of anthrax was the recognition that we would need to give antibiotics out quickly to potentially a large number of people.

We did find a second case relatively quickly. The person who actually opened most of the letters had a lesion that was not obvious. That was the second case at NBC.

So by the end of that one day that started at 3 o'clock in the morning, we had evidence of anthrax at four other media sites in the city.

The plan was the cadets would go through, but then get back in line as new people.

We didn't want to waste true antibiotics, ciprofloxacin and doxycycline. So instead of using real medication, they just had two different kinds of M&Ms, one for cipro and one for doxies.

So I think it was a Friday. It's always a Friday. And so it was like 3 o'clock in the morning when I got a call from a friend of mine who worked at CDC. Marci, this is David. I'm calling because the director of CDC wants to talk to you. We're going to call you back in a few minutes. We'll give you a couple minutes to wake up for the call.

And I'm like, David, if you're calling me to tell me at 3 o'clock in the morning that the CDC director wants to talk to me, you're basically telling me the result is positive.

They took one look at the lesion and were convinced that it was anthrax.

We'll never forget it because we went lights and sirens while he was yelling into the microphone for cars to get out of the way.

The fact that it was a media site was really concerning to us.

So part of the response at NBC that Friday was to try and find what the source of exposure was. So that letter, there was an intensive investigation done by NYPD and FBI.

It was the first time, I think, that we were planning to do a large-scale exercise.

The consequences were quite high if something was released in a place like New York City with the potential to cause, you know, hundreds of thousands or more cases.

It's one thing to sort of talk about it and have a written plan. It's another thing to set this up quickly.