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Anthrax Is Primarily Psychological
Weapon Say Doctors
By Patricia Reaney
10-19-1

LONDON (Reuters) - As anthrax fears sweep the United States and spread around the world, medical experts said on Friday that the psychological damage to society could well be greater and longer lasting than any physical impact.
 
Although ostensibly meant to endanger lives, chemical and biological agents make unpredictable killers. But they are very effective in causing anxiety and social and economic mayhem.
 
"Chemical and biological weapons are quintessentially weapons of terror," said Simon Wessely, a psychologist at Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine in London.
 
"The real purpose of these weapons is to wreak destruction via psychological means -- by inducing fear, confusion, and uncertainty in everyday life."
 
Judging by the anthrax scares around the globe, the persistent images of spacesuit clad medics on television screens and cautious assurances uttered by shaken politicians to a jittery public, the psychological effects are already evident.
 
"Even if the short-term consequences of an attack with chemical or biological weapons turn out to be less than some of the apocalyptic scenarios being aired by the media, the long-term disruptions may be worse than anticipated," Wessely said in an editorial in the British Medical Journal.
 
APOCALYPTIC SCENARIOS
 
It is not clear if the anthrax-laced letters sent to news organizations, politicians and others are linked to last month's attacks on New York and Washington, which the United States has blamed on the Afghan-based Islamic militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
 
The incidents have triggered what Wessely and co-authors Kenneth Craig Hyams of the Department of Veterans Affairs (news - web sites) in Washington and Robert Bartholomew of James Cook University in Australia called "mass sociogenic illness" -- inappropriate reactions to supposed threats that add to their impact.
 
Two examples were the protective gear worn by officials at every scare site and the suggestion of using detectors for chemical warfare agents on the Washington subway system.
 
"It is possible that these alarms will in practice cause greater disruptions to transport systems than the attack itself, given the high probability that such detectors may give false alarms," said Wessely.
 
The doomsday scenarios envisioned by some experts may be greatly exaggerated. But Wessely added that the long-term disruptions to daily life could be worse than anticipated.
 
"The general level of malaise, fear and anxiety may remain high for years, exacerbating pre-existing psychiatric disorders and further heightening risk of mass sociogenic illness," he said.

 
 
 
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