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 e're
watching history in the making. Bar none, this is our nation's single
greatest mass hysteria. It's the reaction to the 1938 War of
the Worlds radio broadcast times 1,000. Nobody, it seems, wants
to be the last kid on the block to call 911 to report a suspicious
powder.
The hysteria
is grounding airplanes and emptying out subways, office buildings,
and even police stations. The passengers and crew of one commercial
jet were detained for three hours because one passenger said a man
had dispersed a powdery substance in the ventilation system. The
"powder" was confetti from a greeting card.
Pudding mix,
powder from a doughnut, and even dirt on lettuce, has brought in
the hazmat teams
Across the
U.S. and Canada, police departments, fire departments, and official
health authorities are working around the clock to deal with false
threats, while real crimes occur and real buildings burn.
If you depicted
America in a painting right now, it would be Edvard Munch's "The
Scream."
And regardless
of whomever has been mailing the real anthrax, be they domestic
or foreign terrorist, you can bet Osama bin Laden is laughing.
Time out! We
need a moratorium on histrionics. We need a bit of perspective and
a bit of information.
Here's some
perspective.
In contrast
with the one anthrax death reported, each week about 800 Americans
die in motor-vehicle accidents. About a fourth of those would have
survived had they merely thought to buckle their safety belts.
This winter,
about 20,000 Americans will die of flu that they would have survived
had they merely gone to a clinic to receive a $15 vaccination.
Now here's
a bit of information.
There has,
as of this writing, been one confirmed death from anthrax, almost
a dozen other infections, and over 30 additional exposures. (The
death of two postal workers in Washington, DC has not been confirmed
as anthrax related at presstime.)
"Exposure"
means just that. It can be nothing more than a single anthrax spore
swabbed from nasal hairs. It takes thousands of those spores to
penetrate the lungs to kill.
Why did that
first man die? Mainly because he was the first. While anthrax can
be naturally acquired, it's so rare that neither the victim nor
his doctors had any clue at first as to his ailment. By the time
they found out, it was too late. Likewise, the word is now out that
postal workers are at special risk.
Assuming the
two postal workers in D.C. did die of anthrax poisoning, they also
became infected before it was realized that mail handlers were at
special risk, before postal facilities across the nation began taking
special precautions to reduce employee risk.
But let's look
step-by-step at your worst-case scenario.
First, assume
you receive a letter in the mail with powder. It's almost certainly
a very unfunny hoax. All of the anthrax-laden letters so far have
been mailed to those in high-profile positions. No offense, but
you probably don't qualify.
Some of the
hoaxers, predictably and pathetically, have actually been sending
powder to themselves to get the 15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol promised
them.
But let's assume
the powder in your letter is indeed anthrax. You don't know that
yet, but you've called poison control and while they test the substance
they put you on antibiotics just in case. Despite what you've probably
heard, this need not be scarce Cipro. Many antibiotics will work
fine. Now your chance of sickness, much less death, is practically
nil.
Let's say you
hesitated to call the authorities. Infection with anthrax isn't
like receiving a cobra bite. You've still got somewhere around a
48-hour window to start taking antibiotics.
Let's say you
never take antibiotics. You'll still probably be fine, because the
easiest way to contract anthrax is through tiny cuts in the skin
but this method of exposure almost never causes death.
But remember,
we're playing worst-case scenario. That means you accidentally breathed
the powder into your lungs. This probably would kill you, except
that you've started taking antibiotics within the first two days
of exposure.
That's it.
That's your risk. That's why we're all running around doing the
headless-chicken routine. Or so it seems.
Actually, polls
show that despite the media's 24/7 blasts of fear, which are somewhat
understandable since by and large they ARE the intended targets,
most of us aren't as worried as we're being told we are.
Most of us
are going about living our lives and are not throwing away our mail
willy-nilly because we're convinced an al Qaeda operative forged
Aunt Martha's handwriting.
Nonetheless,
for this hysteria to start to die down we need a heavy dose not
of Cipro but of perspective and facts. On average, it takes about
three reassuring stories to counter each scary one.
We also need
assurance from public health authorities from the top of the federal
government down to community clinics.
And we need
it from our elected leaders. Yet it is they who provided us one
of the most shameful episodes of the entire hysteria by closing
down the House of Representatives after receiving a single letter
with anthrax.
Contrast that
with Winston Churchill's reaction to very real threat of German
invasion in 1940.
What was left
of his nation's once-proud army had just been evacuated from Dunkirk,
leaving behind their best weapons. The small island nation stood
alone against the most powerful fighting machine in world history.
Everyone knew the next target of this juggernaut was Britain.
But Prime Minister
Churchill took to the airwaves, giving one of the most stirring
speeches in recorded history. With each word, with each syllable,
with each breath he reassured a frightened nation, calling on them
to display their best qualities and not their worst.
"We shall
go on to the end," he said. "We shall defend our Island,
whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
Today, America
is threatened. And whereas the Germans offered Britain a negotiated
peace, none is available to us. We are locked in a struggle with
an enemy that has stated clearly its aim to make us miserable and
to kill us. Our enemy is cunning, but actually possesses few weapons
other than terror itself.
Whatever the
messages our media and our Congress send, we the people must act
with the resolve that Mr. Churchill saw in his people and is characteristic
of our people. Like Britains in 1940, we possess a steely resolve.
It's time to show it. It's time to show that we must not and will
not give our enemies precisely what they seek.
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