Government stockpiling smallpox vaccine

[XMan]

Smallpox vaccine to be stockpiled

428 million seems like a pretty darn good price to me . . . you have to wonder what they know, though, that would prompt this action.

 

[Heisenberg]

It's good to be prepared but there are far more easier ways to make biological/chemical weapons than using smallpox.

 

[Keego]

Heisenberg :Q


I'm going to live in my house and never go outside.

 

[PsychoAndy]

[paranoia] sounds like some sort of ingenious government plan *puts on tinfoil hat* [/paranoia]

Edit: Like they said, it would be pretty hard to control it if distributed in multiple places. All it takes is one person in an airport and it can spread like wildfire. Disperse a biological agent in a stadium without anyone knowing, or in somewhere like the NYC subway, and you're gonna have a nightmare. People in airports, bus stations, trains, cars, etc.

Edit #2 for below: Darn. I always get them mixed up. I'd also like to point out that people should listen to george carlin. our immune systems need practice every once in a while

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
[paranoia] sounds like some sort of ingenious government plan *puts on tinfoil hat* [/paranoia]

Dude, the tinfoil hat is so the aliens can't read your mind. You're supposed to wear the soup tureen to keep the gubment out.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: X-Man

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
[paranoia] sounds like some sort of ingenious government plan *puts on tinfoil hat* [/paranoia]

Dude, the tinfoil hat is so the aliens can't read your mind. You're supposed to wear the soup tureen to keep the gubment out.

tape the tinfoil into the tureen!

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: X-Man

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
[paranoia] sounds like some sort of ingenious government plan *puts on tinfoil hat* [/paranoia]

Dude, the tinfoil hat is so the aliens can't read your mind. You're supposed to wear the soup tureen to keep the gubment out.

tape the tinfoil into the tureen!

Damn, good idea, I never thought of that . . .

 

[Random Variable]

I read somewhere the other day that while smallpox is a highly contagious disease, it does not spread nearly as quickly as many people fear. Is that true?

 

[MajesticMoose]

anybody know why the vaccines that used to be given are no longer supposed to be effective?

 

[Heisenberg]

The incubation period for smallpox is pretty long, 7 to 17 days. You aren't contagious during that time. You become contagious after that. Smallpox is pretty easy to spread, especially in close contact, but it's not extremely contagious.

In some ways, the long incubation period for smallpox makes it harder to stop than something like Ebola, which has an incubation of hours. With Ebola it's almost immediate who has it, but with smallpox it takes so long to know that an infected person can be across the world before anybody knows anything.

Look here for more info.

 

[olds]

Us old timers got smallpox vaccinations when we were young. Ever notice that round scar on your parents arm? They stopped doing it around 1982.

 

[Random Variable]

I believe there was a smallpox oubreak in New York City in the late 1940's, and the entire city had to be vaccinated.