Twenty-nine workers in the office of US senator Tom Daschle have tested positive for exposure to anthrax, taking the national total on Wednesday to 42. All are being treated with antibiotics. The FBI has said tests on spores sent to Daschle and NBC anchor Tom Brokaw showed the anthrax was 鈥渨eapons grade鈥�.
Anthrax scares are also continuing to increase. The FBI has responded to 2,300 scares over the past few weeks, US authorities said on Tuesday night. The vast majority have been hoaxes and US attorney general John Ashcroft has warned that the penalties for anyone found responsible for fake threats will be severe.
A man charged with a hoax that caused the evacuation of a state building in Connecticut is facing the prospect of five years in jail, Ashcroft pointed out. 鈥淚t should be painfully obvious to every American today that the threat of bioterrorism is no joking matter,鈥� he said. 鈥淭errorism hoaxes are not victimless crimes but are the destructive acts of cowards.鈥�
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Psychologists say the threat of punishment is the only real way to deter hoaxers.
鈥淭he only discouragement would be the threat of very, very clear punishment,鈥� says Leslie Carrick-Smith, a psychologist based in Chesterfield, UK, and an expert on the aftermath of disaster.
Inadequate individuals
Although there have been no confirmed anthrax attacks outside the US, discoveries of 鈥渟uspicious substances鈥� have led to the evacuation of buildings around the globe. These include a post office in Liverpool, UK, a building housing BBC studios in London and government offices across Australia.
The 鈥渞ipple effect鈥� of an incident like the first US anthrax attack on the American Media office in Florida can spread wide, says Gerard Bailes, a UK consultant forensic psychologist. 鈥淧eople do jump on a bandwagon. Sending hoaxes might be seen as a good way of creating fear or terror, which can be a buzz for some people,鈥� he says.
Carrick-Smith agrees. He says hoaxers will get pleasure from the knowledge their threats will trigger widespread panic: 鈥淭heir pay-off is arousal 鈥� stimulation 鈥� at the cost of other people.鈥�
鈥淎t the risk of over-generalising, we are often talking about people who have considerable inadequacies in their own life and who may be trying to impose their own bit of control,鈥� he adds.
New cases
On Tuesday, thirteen people had tested positive to anthrax exposure in the US. Two more people were diagnosed with the full-blown disease on Monday night, taking the number of cases to four.
A second employee at the American Media office, who had previously tested positive to exposure and was receiving antibiotics, was diagnosed with pulmonary infection. His colleague, Bob Stevens, was the first man diagnosed with anthrax and died on 5 October from the same form of the disease.
The second new occurrence is a 鈥渃utaneous鈥� anthrax infection in a seven-month old baby who had visited the newsroom of ABC television in New York. An assistant at NBC鈥檚 headquarters in New York is still being treated for cutaneous infection. While this form of anthrax is readily treatable, the pulmonary form is usually fatal if not caught early.