The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed

From Barnes & Noble

In the wake of 9/11/01, a lethal chain of letters containing anthrax spores unleashed a reign of terror across the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. In this sobering account of the first American bioterrorist attack, Washington Post editor Marilyn W. Thompson relates the known details of the still-unsolved case (to this day, no one has conclusively identified the person or persons responsible) and assesses the Bush administration's woefully inadequate response to the threat. A cautionary tale filled with heroes and villains, breakthroughs and blunders, The Killer Strain explains what went wrong -- and why. It also tells us what we need to know…for next time.

The Denver Post

Readers looking for the identity of the perpetrator (or perpetrators) will be disappointed. Thompson is no sensationalist, so she stays away from unsubstantiated accusations and irresponsible speculation.

Readers who look for an overarching lesson should be satisfied, however. It sounds something like this: Despite extensive government and private-sector planning for terrorist attacks, despite the "bumbling responses" in late 2001, it is difficult to anticipate everything, and difficult to halt even what has been anticipated. In fairness to policymakers criticized in the wake of the deaths, who could have grasped what would occur when anthrax-laced envelopes passed through the U.S. mail system? — Steve Weinberg

Publishers Weekly

In a medical mystery that has the tension and pace of Richard Preston's The Hot Zone but lacks its satisfying sense of closure, Washington Post investigative reporter Thompson recounts the events surrounding the anthrax attacks of late 2001. Though she alludes to possible connections between the weaponized anthrax found in several letters and al-Qaida (as well as domestic scientists), Thompson's story is more about the successes and failures of the public health process than a whodunit. Ranging from the Florida offices of American Media Inc. to the halls of Congress, she uses extensive interviews to describe the behind-the-scenes responses to the appearance of anthrax-filled envelopes in the U.S. mail. What emerges isn't so harsh a condemnation as the title indicates, but rather a portrait of scientists, doctors, politicians and law enforcement officials, all trying to defuse a biological crisis while working within conflicting institutional traditions. While she valorizes the scientists working to identify the sources of the seemingly disconnected anthrax cases, Thompson seems most interested in the postal workers who were put at risk-unnecessarily, she says-in the course of their day-to-day jobs. She begins and ends with the story of Leroy Richmond, who inhaled aerosolized anthrax spores while working at the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, D.C., but survived the infection, and Thompson's book is ultimately a tribute to him and the other postal workers who were victims of what she concludes was "a preventable industrial accident exacerbated by a series of government blunders and bad judgments." 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, Gail Ross. (May 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

From the head of the Washington Post’s investigative team, a vivid account of the anthrax scare of 2001 and the government’s bumbling response to this still unsolved crime. Thompson gives her story a human face by focusing on three principal characters: Leroy Richmond, a postal worker who contracted anthrax at the Brentwood mail processing center in Washington, D.C.; John Ezzell, an anthrax specialist at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland; and Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Anticipating that any bioterrorist attack would be on a grander scale, the US was unprepared for something as simple as anthrax spores tucked into an envelope and dropped into the mail. The author reveals that while Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was issuing feel-good assurances to the public of smooth interagency cooperation, behind-the-scenes local, state, and federal authorities with competing jurisdictions and egos scrambled to establish who was in charge and how much the public should be told. The CDC’s epidemiological team ran into early conflicts with the FBI’s criminal investigators, and questions over closing down the Brentwood facility strained relations for a time between the CDC on one side and the US Postal Service and the White House on the other. Further, once the anthrax was found to be in an aerosol form requiring professional preparation, USAMRIID itself came under suspicion as a possible source of either the raw materials or the necessary technical expertise. The author’s vigorous text conveys a rousing drama of delayed responses, mistakes in judgment,and spin-doctoring as well as technical skill, personal bravery, and some good and bad luck. A can’t-put-it-down narrative: frightening, informative, and, with bioterrorism in the forefront of the news, timely.