26/01/2010
Biological Warfare Weekend 1
It’s now Tuesday, and the weekend is long gone, but enjoy this first, limited installment in hopes of things to come. Today’s special: anthrax.
News From Nowhere: Edward Jay Epstein expands on his recent blog post via the Wall Street Journal editorial page. The case of the 2001 anthrax letters remains unsolved.
Nevertheless, in an attempt to back up its theory, the FBI contracted scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Labs in California to conduct experiments in which anthrax is accidently absorbed from a media heavily laced with silicon. When the results were revealed to the National Academy Of Science in September 2009, they effectively blew the FBI’s theory out of the water.
Little Drummer Girl: A New Hampshire woman with gastrointestinal anthrax is improving, says the Boston Herald, but the Nashua Telegraph says she’s still too sick to speak.
On the glum side, New Hampshire’s drumming community is suffering from the stigma of infection. “The drumming culture has kind of gotten trashed,” said one Julie Corey, local drum monger. The inquisition has reached a fever pitch:
“From what I can see, most people are carrying on with their classes, their events, but are asking for information,” said Corey. One of her customers has returned an animal-skin drum because of concerns.
Gram Stainspotting: The death toll in Scotland’s anthrax outbreak is now at eight. All confirmed seventeen cases are among heroin users. One of the cases is in Germany. AFP adds that most of the victims were infected through injection, but some cases had smoked it.
Dead In The Woods: In a move sure to reinforce public confidence in the official verdict of “suicide” in the death of Britain’s most distinguished biological warfare expert, Lord Hutton has sealed the records of his inquiry until the year 2073.
Pscrutineer 
Leave a comment