The media are usually blamed for fuelling health scares. As the number of anthrax cases in the United States rose last week—and as a biological attack by terrorists increasingly seemed the most likely cause—newspapers and television stations played a calming role.
The anthrax story began on 2 October when Bob Stevens, 63, a magazine picture editor working in in the American Media building in Boca Raton, Florida, walked into the JFK Medical Centre in Atlantis with fever and confusion. When news broke that he had been diagnosed as having pulmonary anthrax, public fear turned in some cases to hysteria. By Tuesday this week, there had been reports of anthrax in Florida, New York, Nevada, and Washington DC, and the number of people affected had reached double figures, of whom one—Mr Stevens—had died. A top US senator had been targeted, and the baby son of an ABC news employee has tested positive for cutaneous anthrax.
Every large circulation newspaper in America—USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, Miami Herald, and south Florida's Sun Sentinel—has covered the fast evolving anthrax stories. The usually staid International Herald Tribune devoted several pages to the anthrax scare. The reporting has included the history and previous cases of anthrax in the United States; its diagnosis, clinical varieties, prevention and treatment; its worldwide distribution; genotyping; and the cultivation of Bacillus anthracis as a biowarfare weapon by countries such as the former Soviet Union, Iraq, and Libya.
With many federal, state, and local government departments plus other experts on anthrax publishing statements and articles in the press, “information overload” might be an appropriate description of the coverage. Any doctor could learn as much about anthrax through reading a newspaper as they could through reading a medical text.
Americans have expressed confidence in their press. A recent CNN/Time poll found that 71% said that the media were acting responsibly in covering anthrax. But 47% feared that their families could be exposed to anthrax. The New York Times (13 October) said that anthrax news had created a “marketing opportunity” on the internet, and that “online advertisements promoting the availability of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin had been proliferating on the internet since the first news of anthrax cases in Florida last week” (see Website of the Week below).
In fairness to the print media, several newspapers have run editorials pointing out the rarity of actual cases of anthrax and that it is not contagious; that it is unnecessary to seek testing unless someone has worked in a place such as the American Media building; and that antibiotics are not indicated unless a person has been exposed to anthrax spores. The editorials have also warned of the dangers of taking ciprofloxacin unless it is prescribed and supervised by a doctor. The New York Times, in a section titled “A nation challenged,” ran an article titled “Anthrax real and imagined.” The Sun Sentinel offered an anthrax hotline for worried readers. The Washington Post of 10 October ran a story pointing out the rarity of anthrax, which was headlined “Anthrax affects some 5,000 people a year world-wide.” Most recover, said Martin Hugh-Jones, an anthrax expert at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The article also said that the last US case of pulmonary anthrax occurred more than 25 years ago.
In the electronic media, mixed messages pop up. Constant repetition of telecasts about anthrax to satisfy the public's need to know are heightening anxiety and could be likened to throwing petrol on a fire. Although the source and genotype of both the Florida and New York B anthracis have yet to be established, vice president Dick Cheney said on CNN that he advised proceeding as if anthrax was caused by terrorism. President Bush and other prominent politicians like New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Florida governor Jeb Bush, the president's brother, have tried in televised interviews to reassure Americans fearful of more bioterrorism attacks.
Television anchors like Dan Rather (of CBS) and Tom Brokaw (of NBC) have done their best to keep the evolving anthrax story in context, repeatedly emphasising that anthrax is not contagious. Because of the possibility of transmitting anthrax spores in letters or packages, television and newspaper warnings have gone out advising the public to be wary of opening any unrecognised letters or parcels and to call the police or FBI if in doubt.
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TINA FINEBERG/AP PHOTO
Anthrax fears have led to a run on gas masks