The nation’s anthrax scare is deepening, spreading across New York and Washington and out into other areas of the country.

Thursday, October 18, 2001

The nation’s anthrax scare is deepening, spreading across New York and Washington and out into other areas of the country. This is the kind of dastardly scheme that puts the ‘terror’ in ‘terrorism.’

But experts agree that sending anthrax spores in envelopes is not an effective way to spread mass destruction, and a look at the results so far seems to confirm it. Few of the diagnosed anthrax cases so far are serious. Only one man, the first to be diagnosed, has died. Logic suggests that with a full alert in place and antibiotic production rising, it’s not likely many, if any, others will be in serious danger.

Yet the plot managed to disrupt our democratic process by forcing the evacuation of the U.S. House of Representatives. It has injected fear into the news media. And despite long odds that an average American would be targeted, it has caused most everyone who opens mail to think twice before ripping open anything they don’t immediately recognize.

This is the terror that whoever is behind the plot was hoping for. Using the news media as a target makes it transparent: The intent all along was not mass death, but mass fear. Who better to spread fear to every corner of the nation than a ubiquitous mass media?

The only way to battle this tactic is for Americans to realize that the threat, although it must be taken seriously, is not dire. Anthrax is nothing to be toyed with, but compared to the incredible destruction wrought on Sept. 11, the current biological threat pales.

Americans truly need not worry excessively about the anthrax scare. Doing so only plays into the hands of those who plotted this scheme.