There is a vacine for smallpox right? NT

[StageLeft]

NT

 

[nateholtrop]

XP

 

[Viper GTS]

Yes, there is...

But is that the one they quit giving because they thought they'd eradicated it?

[EDIT]Found a few sites on google that say smallpox vaccinations are no longer being administered.[/EDIT]

Viper GTS

 

[MrBond]

Yep. They've stopped giving it to people though though, because for all intents and purposes, they've eradicated it. Russia and the US CDC have samples, but neither side will get rid of it because it'd make such a deadly germ warfare tool. It's a case of us not wanting to destroy it, because the other guy might not and vice versa.

 

[glen]

Right, but only folks who are around 28 or older ever had it.
They will have a small scar on their arm near their left shoulder.
Small pox does not exist outside of the laboratory anymore.

 

[TripleJ]

Yeah, Smallpox only exists in high security labs for research purposes. Do you mean Chicken pox?

 

[StageLeft]

No I mean smallpox. Apparently there are rumors that iraq and north korea also have smallpox in their labs. I was reading about bio warfare and due to the grossly inadequate bio-fighting capabilities of the US smallpox would be a terrible thing if it was released here if somebody got their hands on it.

 

[TripleJ]

Well that's just made my day! I don't quite think things are bad enough at the moment. How about some chemical warfare people? Smallpox for the masses! Now we're talking.

 

[StageLeft]

sorry triplej. CNN people said that chemical warfare on the US wouldn't be as effective because the US is well prepared for it, so that is a bonus. Bio warfare very much sucks. I would say a severe biolgical attack is scarier than a nuke in fact.

 

[Aelus]

Rumor is, that the russion army genetically engineered a virus which combines the way smallpox and ebola infects the human body. So if you have 5 people out of 1000 who are immune against one of those, there's 25 people in a million who are immune against both. which makes that if you have a 200 million population, about 5000 people will survive. And that's discounting the effects the diseases will have who are formed in the bodies of decaying corpses, so in reality, chances to survive in a city are extremely slim, only a village which is completely shut off might survive.

Aelus

 

[shifrbv]

Skoorb - I disagree with this. I've seen people on C-SPAN and PBS talking about how the US is ill-equipped to deal with this stuff. One guy on PBS said that last year only $100 million was approved for training and combatting chemical and biological agents. He said we needed more like $4-5 billion. We weren't even prepared last year for flu season.

As for the small pox vaccine, there are many older people who got it and do have a scar on one of their upper arms. However, there was a new method administered in the early 70's which didn't leave the scar. I was given this new vaccination and don't have the scar.

 

[glen]

How can a country use bio warfare and not end up eventually infecting themselves?

 

[StageLeft]

Can't find link now but officials are more concerned with a bio attack than chem. I agree more money needs to be spent!

How can a country use bio warfare and not end up eventually infecting themselves?

With difficulty, but the terrorists wouldn't care.

 

[rahvin]

<<How can a country use bio warfare and not end up eventually infecting themselves?>>

You can't, that's the problem with them. A rerelease of smallpox into the world would be more catastrophic to the developing world than it would ever be to the developed world. Small pox vaccine is simply the Cowpox virus, give the drug companies 6 months and they could have enough to vaccinate the entire nation. The US keeps 12million vaccinations on hand, that should be enough to contain (along with quarantine measures) any outbreak till additional vaccine could be cultured.

Anthrax is the weapon of choice for biological warfare, it's can be airborne, can be transmitted easily (in mutated form) and dissapates quickly without hosts.

 

[mithrandir2001]

<< Can't find link now but officials are more concerned with a bio attack than chem. I agree more money needs to be spent! >>


That's the biggest problem. There are COUNTLESS areas that might be better off with more funding, but the allocation pool is finite and we are forced by our limited resources to make choices. Start spending more money on biowarfare prevention, more money on airport security, more money on intelligence, etc. and there's less for other things and you KNOW the AARP will be out there banging their canes for Prescription Drugs For Seniors(TM). Causes, causes, everywhere, but only so much money available to give.