Deadly Delivery

Germ attacks--and false alarms--in two cities trigger new safeguards and a massive whodunit

For most of last week, it seemed as though the nation's anthrax outbreak was going to be limited to South Florida--indeed, to just a single building. The hot zone, the headquarters of tabloid publisher American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, had already been sealed off, and its employees and their families were undergoing tests for the dread bacterium. By midweek, one death and two exposures had been reported, but they appeared to be the only casualties. Despite false alarms in Ohio, upstate New York and Hawaii, it looked as though the worst was over.

Then on Friday everything changed. At about...

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