Letters to the Editor
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@ PartyofDog
Then again, there's the threat of national security, which has been known to scare the bejesus out of labs full of nerdy scientists before, especially those who might hate to lose any chance at future government grant money.
Anyway, I'm not convinced that an envelope full of anthrax spores needed any special processing to be deadly to those who came into immediate contact with it. I worked with a woman about thirty years ago who was a craft weaver. She and her fellow weavers used to order exotic wools and various kinds of animal hair from overseas, to add unusual textures to their designs. One day she told me that one of her friends had died suddenly -- within 48 hours of first feeling ill -- of massive respiratory failure. After some fumbling around, contacts with the National Center for Disease Control, etc., the local hospital determined that anthrax was the cause.
When they quarantined and entered his house in their hazmat suits, they found a recently opened shipment of -- as I remember the story -- angora goat wool from Pakistan, where apparently the disease is endemic. The wool was hugely contaminated with anthrax spores, and that, as they say, was that. According to the woman who told me the story, decontaminating her friend's house was a major undertaking. Fortunately, he lived alone, but for a while, all of his fellow weavers were terrified.