To the Editor:

If we worried about everything there was to worry about, we would worry ourselves right into the grave. Anthrax bioterrorism (“Nation must remain calm despite fears,” 10/19) should not be an object of anxiety, certainly not for Yalies, whom I know have better things to think about.

The math is still a bit fuzzy, but there have been fewer than 40 reported anthrax exposures, fewer than 10 contractions of the disease, and a single confirmed death. The “all spores, all the time” media coverage is self-defeating, and it’s also self-defeating for us to tune in to the coverage simply because it makes us tremble.

The media, it has been pointed out, is doing the job of spreading terror for the terrorists.

Statistically speaking, you will win the lottery before you get anthrax. For our own sakes, let’s try not to live in fear.

Aaron Goode ’04

October 24, 2001