FIVE years ago this week Bob Stevens, a picture editor in Florida, died after opening a letter laced with dried anthrax spores. There were six more envelopes, four more deaths and 17 further infections from which some people have never fully recovered. Yet despite the massive investigation that the FBI insists is ongoing, the anthrax attacker is still at large. The agency has not even named a suspect. There has been one significant outcome of the attacks, though: a massive investment in biodefence by the US government – $44 billion since 2001 (see Fortress America).
Fear of bioterrorism had been…
