“When all this was going on, there was a lot of talk about how it would have taken a biological scientist with specialized equipment to produce the fine powder.” “And no, it would not need someone with the skill of a Hatfield or Ivins.”
Any Ph.D. in microbiology can produce a crude prep that would infect someone. This material was very refined and pure. It was NOT produced by some yahoo with a blender. Everyone who is familiar with this case will tell you this stuff was professional grade.
That only raises another question, of how the anthrax mailer managed to get his or her envelopes sealed well enough that the fine powder didn’t get beaten out through the flap corners by ordinary mail handling equipment, and infect far more people than it actually did. I don’t remember seeing the marks of something like Scotch tape on the published images of the envelopes, do you?