How The CDC Went On Terrorism Alert

By Sora Song

On the morning of Sept. 11, as the world watched the Pentagon burn and the Twin Towers crumble like pillars of salt, something unnoticed was happening in Atlanta.

Within hours of the terrorist attacks, all 1,600 employees at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control--which holds America's last store of smallpox--were evacuated from their offices while the agency's emergency bioterrorism teams were mobilized. Five teams of doctors, nurses and EMTs, including 35 epidemiologists, went to New York City to hunt for strange outbreaks of disease, a sign of a possible biological attack. Within seven hours, 50 tons of medical supplies had arrived in the city. Meanwhile, four other teams of medics had rushed to Washington, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson had put 7,000 more medical professionals on alert nationwide. The chronology of events, recorded in internal government documents, was obtained by TIME but not confirmed by HHS until last week. According to Thompson, Sept. 11 marked the first time the CDC's Health Alert System had been exercised so completely and at such an extraordinary level. "Granted," said Thompson, "we did not find any signs of bioterrorism. But we were there quickly."

--By Sora Song. Reported by Siobhan Morrissey

With reporting by Siobhan Morrissey