Not to cuase an anthrax panic but........

[newsperson999]

ok. Before you flame me...lets discuss this..
2 postal workers are dead(and at different locations) 2 more confirmed with inhalation anthrax...maybe 9 more cases..it takes 8,000 or more spores to get sick from anthrax..
Well they didn't open the mail there they just sorted it, yet still somehow all that anthrax must have goten into the air...
The scary thing is this. How many spores got onto mail that went ot the general public?!!!
This may be much bigger then we are lead to believe. Or it may not. Please put your 2 cents in.

[freeperfromnj]

<This is just to let us know they have it.<

That's exactly right.

[Gimme]

Does anyone now that status of the second inhalation anthrax patient in Florida? How is he doing? I've missed the updates.

[DouglasKC]

I have to admit that the perfect way to spread these spores to as many houses as possible would be to empty the anthrax spores in a few key postal processing centers...specifically into a sorting machine. They would contimate every letter that came through there and then be distributed to the general public on the outsides of the envelopes.

It would be diabolical.

[Joe Hadenuf]

"Just to put some things in perspective, more people probably died from car accidents in the time it took me to type this than people have died from anthrax"

Just to give it a little more perspective, automobile accidents are as a rule, unintentional accidents. Anthrax is intentional murder or attempted murder whereas it's victims die a nasty horrid death.

There is quite a difference between car accidents and murder.

[pgkdan]

Just to put some things in perspective, more people probably died from car accidents in the time it took me to type this than people have died from anthrax, let alone have confirmed exposure.

I'm sick to death of these inane more people have died of...analogies! When terrorists start mowing people down with cars, or start hurling lightening bolts at innocent American civilians then we'll have a valid comparision.

[TexanaRED]

I just wish that someone in the government would tell me the truth. I 've waited 44 years for that moment, and I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for it to happen

We'll all die from Anthrax before the government tells the truth!

[pgkdan]

Good point... I worked as a letter carrier for 2 whole days, before I realized that the place was FULL of those who would DO ANYTHING to get paid days off, including purposely falling over anything within the post office!

That's disgusting!

[WyldKard]

Anthrax is intentional murder or attempted murder whereas it's victims die a nasty horrid death.

And it's managed to kill 3 people over about a month or so? Woooooooooo, the plague has fallen from the sky! Surely it is the End of Days!

I suspect three people at least were intentionally murdered, or attempts were made on them in the time it took me to type THIS part out.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be vigilant and alert, I'm just saying that you shouldn't flip out and cause a panic over 30 or so exposures, with only 3 deaths.

When the terrorists manage to start striking at random...THATS when I'll start worrying.

[Chesner]

I beg your pardon... I wouldn't think of lumping everyone who works in a particular profession into the same category as my left-loving, government-is-my-daddy, Hillary worshipping neighbor who happens to be a 'software engineer'. Most MD's where I am are not by any means part of the "left nincompoopery"... just the opposite... part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy...

[Joe Hadenuf]

I'm just saying that you shouldn't flip out and cause a panic over 30 or so exposures, with only 3 deaths.

Huh? flip out? What the f**k are you talking about?

[Ordie 1]

We are all in denial!! I'm guessing in about a two weeks our death toll will start challenging the WTC incident. So keep saying no one will attack us, no one will use biological weapons on us, no one, no one, no one, His name is Osma, not panicking just preparing myself to protect my family and homestead. God bless us all and keep your powder dry!(gunpowder)

[not-an-ostrich]

Those killed in car accidents were not murdered.

[not-an-ostrich]

The people who died today slipping in their bathtubs were not murdered.

[not-an-ostrich]

Deaths from heart disease, vehicle accidents and lightning are not war casualties. Surely we can post about and discuss our homeland war casualties without being accused of over-reacting. I don't hear anyone screaming in panic yet.

[DonnerT]

No Shezza it is not an act of nature nor an accident. It is the result of an act of WAR and the front lines are not over there. Though you and I find ourselves soldiers in this war, not by choice, we can however choose how we comport ourselves.

As to how Anthrax spores got so dispersed in the air at the postal facilities and why two people are suddenly dead. They were maintenance men whose job it was to keep high speed sorting machines running. There probably were more envelopes sent than have been received. It would take only one jammed envelope to release spores and the act of clearing and blowing out the usual paper dust would be enough to expose a large number of workers.

As a soldier I choose not to let the enemy terrorize me.

[jeremiah]

Money contaminated with Anthrax would be an ineffecient killer, and a poor way to transmit this disease. Now with smallpox that is a different thing. It is communicable, and will live on inert objects for a considerable length of time. Although it only kills approximatelly 30 out of every hundred infected, it is a easily spread disease. I have heard that an infected person within 6 feet of a healthy one, is enough to pass the bad dude on. Now I can see that being a reason to go to a cashless society.

[Dan Day]

"coupla hundred thousand people dead last year from heart disease... 40,000 dead on the roads... average year lightning deaths in United States: 93

And your point is? This IS MURDER....makes it a little different, doesn't it?

In one way it does, in one way it doesn't.

NOTE...

I see people talking at cross-purposes here so often that I'm going to play referee and jump in to try to clarify where people are misunderstanding each other.

There are two main issues in the anthrax cases.

1. Should we be angry and wipe the perpetrators off the face of the planet.

2. Should we panic and treat every piece of mail we get as if it were full of live rattlesnakes, and every spot of powdery substance we encounter anywhere as if it were cyanide.

As far as I can tell, none of the "you're more likely to get run over on your way to the store" posts are meant to in any way minimize point #1. However, a lot of people apparently think it must be (this current post from "goodnesswins" is an example). That's not the case.

What the "more likely to get run over" people *are* addressing is point #2. They're saying that while it's good to be prudent and vigilant about possible anthrax attacks (just as it's good to be prudent and vigilant about the movement of other cars around you while diving, etc.), there is no reason to get ridiculous about it.

Unless you work in one of the affected post offices, you are very literally far more likely to die by being struck by lightning than by finding anthrax in your mailbox, or in your driveway, on your desk at work, etc. etc.

Americans have lived with far greater risk of death from our daily automobile use, cigarettes, ordinary homicides, slippping and falling in the bathroom, even lightning or choking on your Big Mac. And yet we don't live our lives in daily fear of *those* larger risks.

So while the anthrax attacks are one more thing to worry about, they're hardly the biggest thing. It shouldn't inspire constant fear of imminent death. We need to keep it in perspective. Yes, it sucks for the very few people who have gotten it and will get it in the future, but the same is true of those who will be struck by lightning before the year is out. That's still no reason to break out into cold sweats or have nightmares over either possibility happening to you or your family or friends.

So the "statistical perspective" posts aren't meant to minimize the size of the crime committed, only the size of the widespread fear they have inspired.

[VRWC_minion]

Your assuming the postal workers who died had nothing to do with the mailings. They are prime suspects.

[WyldKard]

Thank you for this level headed post.

People seem to forget that people will be murdered through NON-Anthrax related ways in one day than have been killed thus far....so the whole "it's murder so it doesn't count" argument doesn't wash with me either.

And you are correct. I think the perpetrators should be turned into a greasy spot. However, I am not going to live my life in fear and panic. Of course, I don't think I'll be taking any trips to any federal or media buildings soon, either...

[Renatus]

Mark my word--I betcha the next thing will be hoof and mouth disease in these big cattle feedlots here in the midwest. People here are really starting to get a little edgy.