Despite the whines showing up on other threads ("Lighten up! 50,000 people die in car accidents! 80,000 will die from heart disease this year alone!"), this is not an act of nature or an accident. This is like a sniper taking aim at whoever happens to walk innocently past. That's like saying we shouldn't have been concerned about Columbine, because ten times as many kids die of drug overdoses every day. Or that we ought not to have been shocked when Kennedy was shot--it was just one man. "Let's put this into perspective, people," is their idiotic cry.
This is a malicious act of violence against innocent people, and not to be equated with mortality rates for cancer or car accidents. And to compare them as such is asinine and ignorant.
In some respects, you are right. They should certainly be punished differently. But from a risk assesment standpoint, the comparisons make perfect sense and help to put the threat in perspective. Failing to put these things in perspective is truly "asinine and ignorant".
Awright, let's adjust the statistics accordingly. The letters were sent to particular addresses, and the postal workers were "collateral damage". Some 30,000 people are shot to death each year - that's a malicious act, many of them are not intentional targets. Muggings & rapes are often (majority?) done to arbitrary targets - far more than Anthrax victims. Heck, more innocents get the death penalty, and far more innocents are jailed, than the numbers you're worrying about.
Keep in mind too that the postal workers handle LOTS more mail than you do. Even in the extreme chance that you get a letter that Anthrax was spilled on, by the time it gets you you enough of it was probably brushed off to not be a real risk.
Yes, Anthrax is a risk. Don't open envelopes from people you don't know. Toss the junk mail without opening (would have been a waste of time anyway). Use phone & email more. And above all, avoid the most harmful effect of Anthrax: worrying about it.
I will ignore your asinine and ignorant response.
The ONLY way we are going to whip this threat is with cool heads and methodical and devestating response to the perpetrators.
Panicking will no help.
Keeping yourself up nights worrying about it will not help.
And would you please explain to me why having something "hit close to home" justifies panic? It seems to me that if there is a real threat that panic would be the last thing you would want going on.
None of the so called experts knows how anthrax can be transmitted in the postal system or if a lethal dose is possible with minimal contact to an exposed letter.
Did the letter I received from my Senator last Friday contain anthrax? I don't know. Is it coincidence that my lungs are inflamed today and I have a cough and no other symptoms? I don't know.
With the high mortality rate for pulmonary anthrax do I see a doctor now or wait? After all I don't want to appear to be an alarmist yet waiting an extra day could be too late.
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.
When you got out to your mail box, grab your mail and turn your one shoulder blade to the wind. Then sort through your mail. Any unrecognized mail sit it down outside of the house. Examine it more carefully, open it outside of the house with your shoulderblade to the wind. This will allow any anthrax spores to blow away from you.
What we are talking about here is something the size of one to 5 microns. This is the size of a dust particle, the little tiny one that seem to float in the sunlight inside your house. It takes them 5 minutes to finally settle on the furniture. A 1/2 mph wind will blow these across the street in 10 seconds. A hair is 25 microns wide. Do you understand how small one micron is?.