IP: Re: Does sound like Nam all over again

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: Re: IP: Does sound like Nam all over again
> From: jacobs () genehack org (John S. J. Anderson)
>
>
> David Farber <dave () farber net> writes:
>
> A bit of follow-up:
>
> > American investigators probing anthrax outbreaks in Florida and New
> > York believe they have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack - and
> > have named Iraq as prime suspect as the source of the deadly spores.
>
> I'm not sure the facts are consistent with the above hypothesis. Iraq
> is reported to have a fairly well developed biowar program and
> generally, developing antibiotic resistance in bacterial strains is
> not that difficult. Therefore, it seems likely that Iraq has
> antibiotic resistant anthrax strains.
>
> However, the anthrax strain infecting people in Florida was reported
> to be largely identical to the standard Ames lab strain (although I'm
> not sure how that was determined), and in any case it is responding to
> antibiotic treatment (again, according to reports in the major media).
>
> So, either Iraq doesn't have antibiotic-resistant anthrax strains,
> (which seems unlikely), or they elected to use antibiotic-sensitive
> strains first (which seems foolish *and* unlikely), or Iraq isn't
> behind these attacks, or at least isn't the source of the bacterial
> cultures.
>
> john.
> --
> "If my son wants to be a pimp when he grows up, that's fine with me.  I
> hope he's a good one and enjoys it and doesn't get caught. I'll support
> him in this. But if he wants to be a network administrator, he's out of
> the house and not part of my family." Steve Wozniak, http://www.woz.org


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