One last time...to calm any remaining fears.

Alison Hess (Alison.Hess@usda.gov)
Thu, 31 Jul 1997 13:07:00 -0400

I've heard from a number of you that wish to clarify the working of this
particular virus. The bottom line sounds like: You need only be
concerned about wazzu.a if you are a WORD97/EXCEL97 user on a PC
who downloads files from the internet, attachments from E-mail, or
documents from floppies or laptops. My Emails cannot have infected you
(but then again, our scan showed we had 2 different viruses!).

My thanks to all of you who have explained this to me, and urged me to
share this to calm anyone else's fears.

Alison

Here are a few excerpts:

WAZZU.A macro virus is limited to Word 97, a Windows-based
application. While Mac users have Word Macro viruses of
their own to worry about, this is apparently not one of them. And I don't
think there's any WordPerfect macro virus. My condolences to those of
you with a full-blown Gates monkey on your back.

And, perhaps more reassuring:

"...the general info that gets put out everytime someone passes along
one of those email virus warning hoax letters on a list is that up to this
point you can't get a computer virus simply by reading an email message.
It has to be downloaded onto your machine as an executable program,
such as the macro in Word. So by opening up a Word document you had
sent to someone else as an attachment, it could transfer to someone
else's machine. As I read the info on Wazzu, I think it would have to be a
Word document you opened up in Word or Office 97. That certainly
reduces the likelihood that very many people would have picked it up
from you over an email list."