Culture

Anthrax started as a media-frenzy story when photographer Bob Stevens from Florida was the first confirmed person murdered by it. Of the three doctors who diagnosed him, Wolf and Abrams were subsequently convicted, independently, of running Oxycontin scams - while the third, Larry Bush, no relation, rode his Celebrity Scientist status all the way to Covid. In 2020, he pops up as head of an AZ trial. So Anthrax was a wild tale of intrigue from the get go - bet you'll never see it on Netflix though

To quarantine the fall-out, Bruce, personally, unfortunately, had sacrificial lamb written all over him (look away Pete) - he took his own life in July 2008 - an overdose of Tylenol - his wife found him lying on his bed in his clothes at home - the only note said Let me sleep. The FBI said it was set to execute an arrest but he'd beaten em to it. Conveniently avoiding a public trial. He was assessed as a loner acting alone. Case closed.

 

His colleague said: They seemed to harp on he was a loner. He was not a loner. …. He had a lot of friends ..

 

Indeed, 20 to 30 colleagues showed up at his 1st & 2nd death anniversaries. lvins was a weirdo though - make no mistake - had a not-so-secret fetish - known around the office - for secret initiations of Ivy-League sororities - that included stalking - breaking-and-entering. But when ya enmeshed in the closed-society of the well-off science community - hiding in plain sight - you get away with it - it's called eccentricity.

 

He also had direct access to the exact same anthrax strain and a money motive. Would it've stood up in court - line-ball call. But the real crime was pretending Bruce Ivins dropped out of the sky - it wasn't like that - he was the result of a culture. In this instance the science community - a close-knit society - unaccountable - monied-up - playing secret power shenanigans  with security organizations  - functioning with impunity.

I don’t know much about nothin - but i know that’s a recipe for corruption.