[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.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I think the cowpox was used by the first discoverer (forget name) in the 1700s to show smallpox could be innoculated against.

I don’t think continued using it in more advanced forms.