Melissa was reportedly launched from the alt.sex newsgroup. Now you know where corporate America spends its spare time. If these viruses had been posted in alt.business.internal-audit, we might not have heard about Melissa and Papa until the year 3000. Bad guys read the papers and respond. For people concerned with security, antivirus experts sure do have loose lips.
Users read the papers and get embarrassed.
By last Monday or Tuesday they knew they shouldn't open e-mailed Word documents. Of course not. They'd just hope nobody noticed. Sure, they're idiots. And you'll be mopping up after Melissa forever.