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Every single manufacturer of the smallpox vacine is making it now. There will be enough for the entire nation by next summer. Until then they have about 100 million doses. I don't think we have anything to worry about right now. I had 2 or 3 of them when I was a kid, none of them 'took', I never got the scar like everyone else did.

There will be enough for the entire nation by next summer.

That does no good if the small pox has already been released. Next summer is far too late and the survivors won't need the vaccine because they'll have immunity as well as many deep scars.

"I had 2 or 3 of them when I was a kid, none of them 'took', I never got the scar like everyone else did."

I know I must've had a small pox vaccine in the 1960's but I can't remember, and I have no scar that people are speaking about - the "scar" meant the vaccine took?

I had 2 or 3 of them when I was a kid, none of them 'took', I never got the scar like everyone else did.

Me, too. What do you think it means? Bad batch of vaccine, or inherited immunity?

And if there isn't enough vaccine, I propose Martha Stewart be placed in charge of homeland defense; She could show us how she gathers vaccinia from her infected dairy cattle and performs vaccinations with small decorative skewers.

Welcome to Martha Stewart (if you want to keep) Living.

I don't know what year you got your vaccine but I believe that towards the latter part of the time of innoculation the strength of the vaccine had been altered or deminished so that you did not get the "pox" the earlier vaccine delivered. My mother's scar was the size of a quarter, mine is smaller than my little finger nail and my children don't have scars, but were vacinated.

Also, the smallpox vaccination was done with live bacteria, and the effect is (they said) the same as having had the disease and lasts for a lifetime. Should someone with a vaccination get the smallpox it would be a light case. So I have been told.

Quarantine is the only way to control small pox if it does surface. If the population won't quarentine the sick, then the healthy will have to quarantine themselves. If appearing in public is necessary a mask would also provide some protection. Flying during an outbreak would be really foolhardy, as the air on a plane is not conditioned, but simply recirculated. The worst colds and flu I have ever had have been immediately after a flight.