Please do not be alarmed by this announcement. There is NO POSSIBLE WAY you can acquire a computer virus by only reading an email. It's like saying you can catch a cold from someone by talking to them on the phone. Only if you download or run an attachment to an email do you run the risk of getting an computer virus, but you can always read an email message without fear of viruses.
Scares like this come out once a year or so. Some of you may remember the "Good Times" virus hoax from a few years back. It supposedly worked the same way, but there was actually never any such virus.
Just remember: you can never do any harm to your system if you only read an email message.
You can refer to the following sites if you want to investigate further:
last updated: September 7, 1998