>> Just like with the smallpox found in the back if a closet. <<
That incident was a terrible and unacceptably careless mistake. Absolutely.
On the other hand, if the germs in question had somehow “escaped” into the public and had caused an outbreak, we’d be very unlikely to see a pandemic because our modern means of monitoring and control would probably have confined the outbreak before it could grow to monster proportions.
(Not to mention the fact that a lot of us still have some degree of residual immunity to smallpox, thanks to vaccinations received years ago.)
We would see a pandemic. I would be ok and the other codgers my age would be fine but anyone younger would be in trouble. I have watched the bow wave of 2 infectious diseases through a naive population in the last 10 years. H1N1 and west Nile. While neither had high death rates, the system was swamped. Something more serious will collapse the medical system in this country very quickly