Anthrax? Not. Lessons Learned? Not.

Check the story here...good video, too.

Envelopes containing the dreaded "white powder" have been found in numerous locations Sebring, Fl. Some of the envelopes were found on cars in the parking lot of a hospital, some at the town hall, others in various mailboxes throughout the area. In at least one instance, a person who found the item on their car, took it back into the hospital...a lock down and default quarantine followed...
Of course, responders in PPE and SCBA collected samples that later turned out to be "non-hazardous" to humans.
What strikes me about this situation is not the fact that someone did it...its how the public and media responded to it. We know that, of the three varieties of Anthrax, inhalational anthrax is not spread person-to-person, we also know that it is difficult to manufacture is quantity and distribute. Why, in today's culture, would you take a substance back into a hospital?

Yet, we don't seem to get the lessons from prior events. Emergency managers should be informing the media about the reality of inhalational anthrax and responders (with appropriate caution) need to be realistic about responses...not every white powder event is NIMS laden, large scale disaster event.

We knew this before 9-11-01, we knew this after 9-11-01, yet we keep reacting to white powder events as if we've never seen it before.