They needn't have bothered. The point is not whether drama has dulled since Orson Welles adapted H. G. Welles's novel for radio. The programme said it was so people could prepare, but in truth nobody could do much to prepare for the sort of attack they portrayed. It started in February 1998 with a host of scare stories about biological weapons, as Washington DC mobilised voters for an air strike against the anthrax-wielding Iraq of Saddam Hussein. Then it took on a life of its own.
Anthrax hoaxes abound.
Some in the industry are undoubtedly hyping the threat so that people will pay them to help face it. Others are clearly recycled Cold Warriors who miss the way the nuclear threat made 1950s America united and docile. But most believe the threat of bioterrorism is real. Nothing wrong with that. But there was still something sinister underlying the scenario.