I find it interesting reading the report on increased levels of Francisella tularensis bacteria (which causes ‘rabbit fever’ in Washington DC the day of a major protest rally. It doesn’t sound very interesting (maybe all anti-war protesters like rabbits?) until you take a closer look at the disease that the bacteria cause: tularemia. The American Medical Association has some interesting information about tularemia as a biological weapon. If this increase in the presence of this bacteria were to have caused illness, we would already have seen the first signs of it, so it seems that we may have dodged a natural or artificial bullet on this one. The report from the the Indianapolis Star refers to the bacteria as being picked up by air sensors, so at least some aresolization has occurred. I find the speculation that this aresolization was due to dust being kicked up by the protest to be plausible (it has been VERY dry in this region lately), but I would have expected the air sensors to have picked up on this sort of thing before with protests and marches and such in Washington. Will we ever know for sure what this was all about? Probably not.