Question S

[Jonetta]

Were you aware that they never discovered who tampered with the Tylenol years ago? Were you aware that they eventually discovered who launched the anthrax attack?

[Charlene]

I think so, in both instances.

[Robin]

I couldn't remember if they had caught anyone in the Tylenol case. I knew they had pin-pointed a scientist in the anthrax attack but it took a while.

[Jonetta]

I had a real bonus here. My hubby is a microbiologist, PhD with a specialty in infectious diseases. The entire time I was reading this story, he was here answering all my questions.

One thing I think you'll find interesting is at the time of the Anthrax incident, he said their entire community believed it was a breach at Ft. Detrick and they were ALL under suspicion, including the CDC. My hubby was questioned, too, because of his consulting work at the CDC and they really wanted this solved. When they finally discovered who was behind it (the first guy was erroneously targeted), the guy committed suicide about a month before they were ready to officially charge him.

Also, hubby was distressed about the passages that described the testing to determine if Maggie and crew had the Ebola virus. No such thing as a "glow" result. When he explained the actual process, I was convinced Kava took this route because the real science was too hard to grasp. He said she got the Ft. Detrick stuff right and that electron microscope. Describing Ebola with the worm references and tentacles is just not right (I had to listen to a rant about it for about five minutes). Wish I could give you his description but my brain froze after a few minutes. I'm just not that good with science.

The Tylenol scare has really bugged me since it happened. That incident almost bankrupted the maker and the world was distressed since so many of us relied on that drug. Tamper resistant packaging was created almost overnight. It's hard to conceive today that medicine was available without this added security.

[Charlene]

I thought the glow and the worms were "artistic" additions to the story, not factual. Maybe my chemistry background gray cells were rubbing against each other then :)

I remember the days before tamper resistant packaging; now we just need to trust that pharmacy workers count out capsules from larger quantities when they fill our prescriptions. Of course, that would make the criminal very easy to track down if someone was crazy enough to try tampering at that level.

[Phrynne]

I know nothing about science but the glow thing sounded quite ridiculous anyway! I'm sure she could have found a better way of describing the whole procedure.