[jz638]

There was a worry that the Iraqis had smallpox as part of a bioweapons program. They started trying to vaccinate soldiers but the vaccines were so old and differently formulated from modern vaccines that the rumor was they were nearly as likely to give you smallpox as they were to innoculate you. The plan died out rather quickly, not sure if anyone actually ever got a vaccine.

[familyop]

"There was a worry that the Iraqis had smallpox as part of a bioweapons program. They started trying to vaccinate soldiers but the vaccines were so old and differently formulated from modern vaccines that the rumor was they were nearly as likely to give you smallpox as they were to innoculate you."

I was vaccinated by the Army for it--the same vaccine that I received as a child. It introduces cowpox--not smallpox. The cowpox is what vaccinates a person against smallpox.

The one blister caused by the vaccination is a cowpox blister. Then it usually leaves a tiny scar for a long time. The Army vaccination still worked fine.

[familyop]

I might have been incorrect about “cowpox,” having assumed that from school history as a child. There was the vaccination in the early 1960s (school) and 1989 (Army), though. The latter was similar to the first: a quick poke with a very short needle (no injection). The blister and tiny scar followed.