Paranoid Much?

On February 26, 2006 a college freshmen discovered a powdered substance in a roll of quarters in her dorm at the University of Texas. Apparently, the freshmen’s mother had gotten her the rolls from a local bank. She had six rolls total, and only one with the suspicious powder. At first, State health officials had done a quick test and determined it was ricin. However, the F.B.I. did further testing and discovered that the powder was not ricin because it did not have the correct proteins. Nonetheless, the scare of this event created mayhem. The dormitory was evacuated and the area had to be sanitized. Also, the girl was rushed to the hospital for testing, but was later released.

The story made me think of the anthrax scare of 2001. Starting on September 18, 2001, several days after the World Trade Center attacks, anthrax had been mailed to several news media offices, and two U.S. Senators. Five people died in total from this event. This event caused panic among U.S. citizens, who became afraid to open their own mail.