Henry I. Miller and Sherri Ferris

Henry I. Miller is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution; his works include the book To America’s Health: A Proposal to Reform the Food and Drug Administration. Sherri Ferris is a marriage and family therapist. In the following viewpoint, written during the 2002 anthrax crisis when five people died after opening letters contaminated with this agent, Miller and Ferris argue that public anxiety about biological terrorism causes stress and is itself a problem that must be addressed. Miller and Ferris argue that the media has caused unnecessary panic by exaggerating the threat posed by bioterrorism. They contend that doomsday scenarios involving biological weapons will most likely never come to pass, and urge Americans to manage their fears about biological weapons.

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