Smallpox?

Tim May tcmay at got.net
Tue Sep 25 22:31:23 PDT 2001


On Tuesday, September 25, 2001, at 08:17 PM, Harmon Seaver wrote:

>      So what's the deal with smallpox anyway? When I was a
> kid we all got innoculated against it, and it was supposed
> to be a lifetime thing. In fact, my wife, whose a RN, had to
> get it again some years ago for work, but it didn't take,
> proving that the antibodies were still active.
>      Did they stop vaccinating everyone for smallpox at some
> point?


The Web is a better place to get info than asking us to write our 
versions of encyclopedia articles. However, some basic points:

1) Schoolchildren innoculations basically stopped in 1972,  a 
combination of smallpox being eradicated and the accidental death rate 
(some fraction innoculated die).

2) Innoculations/vaccinations are _not_ lifetime...they tend to wear off 
in about 30 years. (The 1972-2001 time period is just a coincidence.)

3) Smallpox was officially declared "extinct" (eradicated) in around 
1985.  There had been no new cases seen by WHO in several years prior to 
this.

4) However, it was _not_ extinct. The U.S. kept cultures of it, and the 
Soviets had an extensive program to develop "militarized smallpox": more 
virulent and better-suited for distribution from artillery shells.

5) The Soviet facility, Biopreparat, developed several new strains of 
smallpox. Ken Alibek, now in the U.S., led the team. His book 
"Biohazard" provides the details.

6) It is unknown how many of these flasks of smallpox were smuggled out, 
or sold by the lab directors.

Now do you understand the "deal"?


--Tim May





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