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I've wondered that myself, and there appears to be little or no information out there on it. Perhaps we effectively extinguished cowpox along with smallpox, and didn't realize we were letting ourselves in for more problems later?

Here's some information on INFLUENZA mortality. The US did NOT lose 20,000 to flu last year, incidentally. This information is not from the 2000-2001 season, however.
HOW SERIOUS IS INFLUENZA HERE IN THE UNITED STATES?

Influenza and pneumonia (the most common complication of influenza) combined are the fourth leading cause of death among American women, and the fifth leading cause of death among all Americans over the age of 65. (More than 90% of the deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza were among individuals age 65 or older.)

In the United States:

The total number of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza has increased 104%, from 45,030 in 1979 to 91,871 individuals in 1998. In 1998, pneumonia caused 90,147 deaths and the 1,724 influenza deaths represented an increase of 139% from the 720 deaths seen in 1997. An estimated 200,000 – 500,000 Americans visit their doctor for respiratory diseases.

In 1999, pneumonia and influenza cost the US economy $25.6 billion in care and absenteeism.

In 1996, the National Health Interview Survey estimated that there were 90 million cases of influenza, 62.3 million episodes of the common cold, 12.1 million episodes of acute bronchitis, 4.8 million episodes of pneumonia, and more than one million hospitalizations nationwide.

I think if the terrorists are willing to do smallpox to us, despite the risk to their own people (yeah, like they care a lot about them), it is because the economic cost of normal flu, cold, and pneumonia season is already substantial enough to affect a weakened economy.

This is from http://www.texaslung.org/Influenza/01-02flu_update.htm. I would have posted better information but the sites I really wanted won't load. GRRR AOL.

There is still cowpox in America. I know, I have handled cows, and had this brief outbreak of pustules on my hands. In fact, smallpox is apparently a mutant form of cowpox, or camelpox or some other similar animal viral infection, that happened to become extremely virulent and largely affects only humans. Apparently it appeared only a few hundred years ago, did its devastation on an ignorant population, and was finally cornered and driven into near oblivion, existing as of today only as spores in a repository somewhere (hopefully, not in al-Qaeda's arsenal).