On Wednesday, September 26, 2001, at 11:29 PM, Dr. Evil wrote:
I would not count on the 18th century cowpox/smallpox coupling to be valid today - viruses evolve, and that's not counting deliberate manipulations intended to produce more virulent strains.
I was thinking about this some more, and I wonder if cowpox still exists in the wild. I know that all livestock in developed countries receive certain vaccinations, and it would be logical for cowpox/smallpox to be one of them. Hmm, this also makes me wonder: if there is veterinary vaccine for *pox, could it be safe and effective for humans, or easily adapted for human use? Trivia buffs: The word vaccine comes from the Latin word vacca, meaning cow (vache in French).
Better hurry! The criminals in Washington are about to make mere _possession_ of biologicals like this illegal. Heretofore, it was illegal to possess biologicals intended for weapons use, but soon it will be a felony to merely possess broad classes of biologicals. (Of course, the lab I worked in had Hepatitus C being cultured. All it takes is a permission slip from Big Bro and your lab can militarize smallpox!) --Tim May, hurriedly dumping his biologicals in the nearby streams to get rid of them