Posted on 10/29/2019 8:48:48 AM PDT by TangledUpInBlue
Thanks for your post. I knew that since I have/had family in the military. Quite frankly, I was upset when they stopped it for civilians. It was obvious to ME that it could easily creep back in due to world travel.
NO! It can't creep back in. Smallpox was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. The last naturally transmitted case of smallpox occurred in October 1977 in Somalia. No naturally transmitted cases have been observed anywhere in the world since then. There was an accidental laboratory case in 1978 in England that prompted the WHO to get all countries to consolidate all samples of smallpox in two repositories one in Novosibirsk, Siberia, and the other in Atlanta, Georgia at CDC headquarters. Since the smallpox vaccine was the most primitive and dangerous vaccine in use in the 1970's, it was argued that since smallpox was eradicated from the Western Hemisphere in 1971, it was felt that routine smallpox vaccination of US civilians should cease in 1972. The only way to have a smallpox outbreak now is by biological warfare or terrorism.
Hate that when that happens.
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