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Some corrections to your analysis reprinted in italics...

Smallpox vaccine is NOT made from actual smallpox, but from vaccinia. This is a strain of pox virus that mutated from the original smallpox strain in the early 1900's.

My recollection is that the smallpox vaccine was NOT based on a mutation of the small pox virus. It was instead based upon a related virus (cox pox) (but was not simply mutated in the early 1900's. The cow pox virus existed for a long-time prior.

Vaccinia does not cause any serious complication in humans, but at the same time confers immunity to small pox because of the smilarity of the antibodies between the two.

Well, I think the way most physicians and scientists would think of this is different. The issue is NOT the similarity of the antibodies. The issue IS the similarity in the protein coating of both the vaccine virus and the small pox wild-type virus.

So, while THE REAL smalpox virus may be found only in the US and the USSR, vaccinia is still available for the production of the smallpox vaccine.

Correct! However, with molecular technologies you could theoretically alter the proteinaceous coating of the virus in order to defeat the vaccine's utility. I think that is probably out of the capability of the Taliban.

Perhaps you are right vaccinia was actually a mutation from cow pox. I know cow pox was used as the first "vaccination" against small pox when Jenner rubbed the scabs from cow's utters into cuts on the arms. Perhaps I was wrong there, but I thought vaccinia was a mutant form of small pox itself.

Actually it IS similarity of antibodies BECAUSE the coat proteins are so similar. I'm not sure how familiar you are with immunology, but antibodies have to BIND to an antigen FIRST so that the immune system recognizes that the antigen is foreign (or cancer). In this way, since the same antibodies bind BOTH viruses, the body's immunological response is the same.

You're right, if one could get ahold of small pox AND had the technology, then one could alter the coat proteins. Although technically difficult, the protocols are in place for this sort of transformation. And I agree; the Taliban do not have the technology or the brains to pull this off. Thank God.

Luckily, I've been vaccinated against smallpox, but many have not. Let hope and pray this virus is NEVER unleashed in this country. And to think we actually had the gall to think we had "erradicated" smallpox from the earth. Humans can be so arrogant.