Re: Anthrax addendum.

From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sun Oct 14 2001 - 10:41:08 MDT


 Alex F. Bokov <alexboko@umich.edu>

> If you were a terrorist, and you had several kilos of stolen Russian anthrax

I doubt the anthrax was stolen from the Russians.

1) The strain was garden variety and first isolated in Ames Iowa about 1950 so Russians
    are not needed, anthrax is not that hard to grow, any competent first year microbiology
    graduate student could do it. The Russians have developed much more exotic strains
    that are resistant to antibiotics.

2) If they stole the bacteria you'd think they would have also stolen something
    more valuable, a device to reliably produce an aerosol of the Spores.

I'm not going to get really worried unless a case of Smallpox occurs anywhere in the
world. That would be bad.

         John K Clark jonkc@att.net



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