I think a better comparison is to another major risk we take every day, which is getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, something which kills 35-40k peop

I think a better comparison is to another major risk we take every day, which is getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, something which kills 35-40k people in the US annually. In fact, 3600 Americans lost their lives in car accidents in September, 2001, about 20% more than were killed in terrorist attacks in the US at that time. Assuming a nuclear attack kills half a million people (small nuclear warhead detonated, for example, in a port), you'd have to have one of those in the US ever decade before it would be significantly more of a risk than being behind the wheel of a car. And Anthrax? How many people died as a result of the Anthrax attacks in 2001? How scared are people of that? Heck how many people died when the USSR released weaponized anthrax over a small population repeatedly? There are many risks which aren't worth worrying about.