Anthrax hype results in sensationalism and fear

"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America..."

On normal days, it is rare for Americans to consider these constitutional principles and even rarer for them to question their status. However, most Americans will agree that since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, it's been nearly impossibile to think of any day as "normal." Since this week's anthrax discoveries across the nation and the resulting chaos and terror, life has moved even further away from what we once knew.

Americans are terrified. We don't know what to expect. Our most fundamental rights, those that historically define our nation, have suddenly taken a backseat to Islamabad, Al Qaeda, and anthrax. The government was unable to "provide for the common defense" on Sept. 11, and domestic tranquility can't be ensured if our nation is under constant threat of attack, whether militarily or through biological terrorism.

The cover of the Sun., Oct. 14 New York Times resembled a scene out of the film "Outbreak," a medical thriller about the deadly Motaba virus becoming airborne and infecting a small California town. Doctors wearing huge astronaut-like protective plastic space suits gravely discuss the situation in small circles. Each time we turn on the television, the news warns us to exercise extreme caution when opening our mail, because it has the potential to hold a coarse white powder containing a strain of anthrax.

The anthrax cases have rattled America. It is terrifying to know that individuals are receiving seemingly ordinary letters containing the deadly pathogen that has the ability to sicken and often kill if inhaled. We are frightened that biological terrorism has become a real, personal threat. We are now at risk for contracting a dangerous bacterium, and our country doesn't have enough Cipro to treat the nation's population. Not surprisingly, most of our basic fears stem from the mishandling of the situation by the two groups Americans historically look to first in such times: the government and the media.

Erratic and contradictory information from the government has fueled fear. It is understandable that the administration must keep much of what it knows top secret, especially in a time of war, but giving the American people barely any information about the situation at their doorsteps has created extreme public alarm.

The government has made no attempt to provide a single (if short) daily update, which would at least allow citizens access to centralized, accurate information about the situation. If an effort is not made soon to set up some sort of means for the public to gain correct, updated knowledge on the anthrax status, America's problems at home will skyrocket. There will truly be no "domestic tranquility" if American citizens, confused and alarmed, begin panicking.

It's no surprise that the big-time American media are broadcasting misleading, contradictory, and premature reports of the situation at hand. It is difficult to decide whom to believe when four television news stations and three influential, well-regarded newspapers all say something different. A Minnesota infectious-disease specialist featured on a Sun., Oct. 14 CNN program paused in his discussion of biological terrorism to refer to a news story an undisclosed network had reported throughout the day. In the morning, testing done on a letter sent to an unknown company building had come back positive for anthrax. During the afternoon, a second round of tests returned negative. By the evening, the third set of tests again "confirmed" the letter as having tested positive for anthrax. Depending on when you watched television, you'd have a completely different idea of the situation.

Administration officials say they have tried to coordinate information from multiple agencies as best they can, but the contradictory reporting has caused public alarm among already terrified American citizens. The government and bioterrorism experts working to understand and control anthrax exposures say they have sought to release information about confirmed anthrax cases as quickly as possible, even when that means acknowledging how much they still do not know. The media sees this dearth of information and transforms it into a news story in any way it can, sometimes disregarding accuracy in the process.

Public fear of anthrax has skyrocketed over the past week as Americans look to the two places we have for answers, the government and the media, and find only contradiction about the dangerous bacterium. Citizen terror is mounting and will keep growing if our government, newspapers, and television networks don't immediately improve and start disseminating accurate information. While it will be a long time before we feel normalcy in life again, the government needs to realize that without "domestic tranquility," the war at home will soon be more difficult to fight than the war abroad.

Rebecca Adler is a freshman in Pierson.

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