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SMALLPOX VACCINATIONS CONSIDERED FOR ENTIRE U.S.
San Jose Mercury News ^ | 4/01/02 | Julie Sevrens Lyons & Lisa M. Krieger

Posted on 04/01/2002 7:33:38 PM PST by goody2shooz

Edited on 04/13/2004 3:29:17 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

In a major shift in public health policy that underscores government concerns about bioterrorism, federal health officials are gathering enough smallpox vaccine to inoculate the entire country and are considering a widespread vaccination campaign.

By December, according to public health leaders in Washington D.C., the U.S. government will have more than 100 million doses of the vaccine in hand, an amount they say could be effectively diluted to make the shots available to everyone in the country. An inoculation effort using the sometimes risky vaccine would be new to millions of Americans born after the United States stopped offering the shots in 1972.


(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bioterror; smallpox; vaccinations
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"We're not ready..." Who is ever ready to take on bioterrorism?
1 posted on 04/01/2002 7:33:38 PM PST by goody2shooz
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To: goody2shooz
Forced vaccinations is a bad idea. Here's what needs to be done:

1) Secure our borders
2) Eradicate as many of the terrorists as possible
3) Explain to the Muslims that if they attack us with smallpox (or any biological agent), then Mecca will cease to exist.

2 posted on 04/01/2002 7:38:11 PM PST by Mulder
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To: Mulder
Explain to the Muslims that if they attack us with smallpox (or any biological agent), then Mecca will cease to exist.

We're not gonna do that and you know it. What exactly is the point of this bluster?

3 posted on 04/01/2002 7:41:21 PM PST by AM2000
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To: goody2shooz
The government is also negotiating to buy at least 70 million doses recently discovered in a drug company's freezers.

That statement amazes me. "Gee, look what we just found in the back of our freezers...70 million doses of smallpox vaccine." And I thought I was bad. In the back of my freezer, I probably have some hamburger patties from the summer of 1998. And of course there is this package of Oncor's Salisbury Steaks that I've just never gotten around to eating.

As for the smallpox vaccine. I'd take it. And I'd encourage my wife and kids to take it too.

4 posted on 04/01/2002 7:41:43 PM PST by SamAdams76
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To: Mulder
I've been vacinated for smallpox twice, i'm not getting it again.
5 posted on 04/01/2002 7:44:31 PM PST by dalereed
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To: Mulder
"Public health leaders stressed Thursday that discussions of any vaccine campaign are preliminary, and that the decision to get the shots would be voluntary."
6 posted on 04/01/2002 7:44:45 PM PST by kayak
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To: AM2000
Could we at least do Mulders 1 & 2,or would that offend someone?
7 posted on 04/01/2002 7:45:33 PM PST by John W
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To: AM2000
We're not gonna do that and you know it. What exactly is the point of this bluster?

You're probably right about us "not going to do that".

The "point of this bluster" is to suggest that such a policy of retaliating against Mecca is probably a good deterrant, given the value the Muslims place on it.

It's obvious that the terrorists aren't rational, and can't be reasoned with. There is a word for that: barbarians. Barbarians, do however, understand fear, and the US should exploit the weirdness of their desert-demon religion to scare the hell out of them.

8 posted on 04/01/2002 7:47:46 PM PST by Mulder
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To: goody2shooz
This sounds too much like an X-Files episode in some ways. Probably some bio-nano tracking devices implanted or something. What is sad is that we have come to such a point in our history where we can never tell the government's true intention. Yes, I am paranoid :)

Look, we found all these vials of stuff, and there are terrorists running loose - HEY here is an IDEA, Just make it illegal to be a terrorist, that will prevent them from doing it. Ban smoking, all drugs, guns, and terrorists, and we will have nothing to worry about! Yeah, that will work. Everything is going to be all ok. I am going to take a shower and go to bed I think. Before I go off on (another) tangent :)

9 posted on 04/01/2002 7:49:24 PM PST by chance33_98
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To: John W
Could we at least do Mulders 1 & 2,or would that offend someone?

LOL! This is Amerika, land of the offended. Someone is always offended.

It's time that those of us who desire to be Free realize that "other people being offended" or "other people not liking it" really shouldn't get in the way of securing our Freedom.

10 posted on 04/01/2002 7:50:20 PM PST by Mulder
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To: dalereed
I've been vacinated for smallpox twice, i'm not getting it again.

If I'm to be innoculated against anything, I want it to be against the liberal/communist insanity that is destroying our country from within.

11 posted on 04/01/2002 7:51:50 PM PST by Mulder
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To: goody2shooz
Interestingly,this article does not-unless I missed it-discuss a part of the smallpox equation that was given some time in an NBC Nightly News piece a few days ago-the difficulty of mandatory quarantining(sp?) of Americans if/when this attack occurs.
12 posted on 04/01/2002 7:54:07 PM PST by John W
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To: Mulder
Amen!
13 posted on 04/01/2002 7:55:55 PM PST by John W
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To: Mulder
Barbarians, do however, understand fear, and the US should exploit the weirdness of their desert-demon religion to scare the hell out of them.

I believe you're underestimating the enemy. Suicide bombers are barbarians. The people who orchestrate the terrorist activities of the barbarian masses of the Middle East, however, are not barbarians. They are people of intelligence and cunning. And they have at their disposal, tens of thousands of unthinking and unquestioning barbarians. I wouldn't underestimate someone like that.

14 posted on 04/01/2002 7:56:18 PM PST by AM2000
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To: Dark Wing;Phil V.
This is a major policy change and its probable motivation is scary.
15 posted on 04/01/2002 7:56:30 PM PST by Thud
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To: AM2000
I know we have no idea right now how this will all end up,but,two of those "orchestrators" are Usama bin Laden and Yassir Arafat.I wouldn't give a plug nickel for their survival chances right now,cunning,intelligent or not.
16 posted on 04/01/2002 8:02:42 PM PST by John W
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To: dalereed
I have been vaccinated twice, also. Aren't we pretty safe? If we were short on vaccine, couldn't we safely wait until after the ones who have never been vaccinated are vaccinated?
17 posted on 04/01/2002 8:05:53 PM PST by chantal7
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To: AM2000
I believe you're underestimating the enemy. Suicide bombers are barbarians. The people who orchestrate the terrorist activities of the barbarian masses of the Middle East, however, are not barbarians. They are people of intelligence and cunning. And they have at their disposal, tens of thousands of unthinking and unquestioning barbarians. I wouldn't underestimate someone like that.

I agree about not "underestimating" them. That should be the case, regardless of who the enemy is.

BUT, they are clearly not as formidable as other enemies we have fought in the past (USSR, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan), nor are they as formidable as enemies we are likely to fight in the future (China perhaps)

Let face it, what technological advances have the Islamic countries made over the last 100 years? Everything they have is either stolen from us or the Soviets (who stole most of their stuff from us). I guess they "invented" the number zero a few centuries ago, and that has been their "claim to fame". Big deal. Beavis and Butthead could have invented the number "zero"

About the only time they've been able to succeed is when our stupidity exceeded their own (i.e., letting terrorists walk into our country, and banning CCW's and most LEO's from carrying on planes)

18 posted on 04/01/2002 8:08:09 PM PST by Mulder
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To: goody2shooz
I love it when government weighs my possible death with some silly statistic.
19 posted on 04/01/2002 8:13:28 PM PST by Buckeroo
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To: Buckeroo
Buck, don't be vaccinated if you don't want it. However be prepared, and rightly so, to be quarantined, voluntarily or not, if you contract small pox.
20 posted on 04/01/2002 8:17:24 PM PST by Texasforever
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