Exactly, disease knows no borders.
I thought all samples of smallpox virus had been destroyed.
Nope we have some and so do the Russians, but that’s what has been admitted to. I think I read that you could dig up graves of those who died of Small Pox and eventually find viable virus particles then grow it. The Russians at one time had dispersed weaponized Small Pox to different armouries around the country. Who knows if they got all of it back into a single location. Russia is also a kleptocracy so who knows if some of it hasn’t been soldfir enough money and to which of their allies they gave the stuff to during the cold war.
Read “The Demon in the Freezer” by Richard Preston (the guy who wrote “The Hot Zone”). It’s about smallpox and the threat of bio-terrorism post-9/11. It goes in detail about the smallpox eradication effort and what was done with the few remaining samples (basically nothing at the time of its writing). He also interviewed a bio-weapons expert who told him the ideal attack would be done with a combination of smallpox and anthrax, spread on a fine powder in the wind, which was then demonstrated as possible. That book will leave a nice warm fuzzy in your belly /s.
Only two stockpiles — CDC Atlanta and the Soviets.
“I thought all samples of smallpox virus had been destroyed.”
The Soviets and the US kept small samples to study. Some of the Soviet stuff got out apparently.
Here is the scariest article I have ever read: The Demon in the Freezer.
http://cryptome.org/smallpox-wmd.htm
I’ve been told that atlanta CDC has the smallpox virus. This was hearsay and can’t absolutely confirm.
LOL!
Two reasons:
1) Weapon potential,
2) Possible re-emergence response.