Smallpox?

[Tim May]

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