If the spores were hampered in germinating by the silica coatings it was a small effect. The paper only speculates that this may have increased the time a large colony took to grew - and even then only slightly.
The thrust of the paper is that EVERY sample they worked up used a silica COATING. The authors stated that the study was intended to simulate the biowarfare agent used in the 2001 attacks. Guess they know something Beecher and Meselson don’t.
Well, I'll have to read the paper before I can adequately respond to that. Can we assume that you haven't sent it to me because you don't want me to see it, you just want to tell people on this forum what you want them to believe about it?
I'm going to have to take a break for an hour or so do do some chores.