Spores on the doors
A threat that's hard to assess is a fear that's hard to keep away. The fear of the unknown is a primeval instinct of humanity. Such fears have been played upon in years past by documentaries and movies about biological warfare. The fact that some such tactic seems to have been employed by terrorists, and that some people have actually died from anthrax infection, means that there is a new cloud of unease hanging over American heads.
Of course, the likelihood of contracting anthrax is negligible, especially compared to other risks that we daily run. But that this risk, unlikely as it may be, is delivered by way of the mail and whose victims seem so random brings all within its scope of fear. The visit of the mailman certainly has a new dynamic to it these days in America. Few things could have been better calculated to unsettle the ordinary citizen than a deadly infection spread by the mail that in its early signs of contagion is practically indistinguishable from the 'flu.
