[gumbo]

they are telling us to “take our penicillin” - which we have been doing -- by the thousands I might add. Think about thousands of citizens taking cipro unnecessarily - when the major attack occurs the penicillin won’t work

I've wondered about that too. But would the anthrax bacteria have time to mutate into a penicillin resistant strain? Guess it depends on how long before the "major attack" were to take place.

Also, to be effective, this plan would be dependent on very large segments of the population taking antibiotics. I hope we're not there yet.

[Steve_Seattle]

"when the major attack occurs, penicillin won't work"

Is that true? People routinely take the same antibiotic at different times in their lives without loss of effectiveness. There is a danger of reduced effectiveness if an antibiotic is overused, and over time new strains of a bacteria might appear which are resistant to the antibiotic, but I never heard there was significant danger of an antibiotic becoming ineffective after a single use.