No, it is not.
Well, yes and no.
Pulmonary anthrax is VERY rare. Most doctors (such as myself) have never seen it. When cases have developed in the past, the patients ALWAYS had symptoms before they were diagnosed and treated. Based on that experience, it appears that if the antibiotics are not started until the patient is "sick" (i.e. shows flu-like symptoms or respiratory failure), then, in fact the mortality rate is extraordinarily high--perhaps almost 100%. If treatment is started immediately--i.e., when the suspected exposure occurs, therefore prior to the development of symptoms, it appears that the mortality is much lower. This is based on the natural history of the disease, which requires several days for the spores to "germinate" (grow) and produce toxins in the lung and bloodstream.
In other words, it depends what you mean by "timely."
As an aside, I agree that much of the reporting of this has been substandard and uninformed. However, the response of the government has been disappointing, as well. While anthrax occurs naturally, it is not endemic in hooved animals or soil east of the Mississippi. For Tommy Thompson to suggest that drinking from a stream in North Carolina, or hanging out in the Florida swamps, could cause a case of pulmonary anthrax, was uninformed and irresponsible.
JMHO, UMMV, MOUSE