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5 to 15 day incubation period for the pox was normal in the '60's when smallpox was still an "active" disease. The very communicable stage starts just before the first sympotoms manifest as the infected person begins to cough and blister, soon the illness makes the patient feel and look terrible making others want to avoid the very sick person. Caugh launched viruses can reamin airborne for at least half an hour so passersby can be infected long after the carrier has left an area. Also, vaccinated people can be carriers, aka "vectors". Washing hands often, gloves, face masks, and eye protection are classic and worthwhile methods of dealing with epidemincs.

The SOBs wanting a return of a 19th Century pandemic believe that their own 3rd World culture will hardly know the difference from just another plague. They do not understand. Smallpox kills one in three.

Last week I read that TB in Russia may be approaching one in six. They have created totally drug resistant strains through incompetent public health practices, especially within their prison system. That disease will be to our hometowns soon.

We are leaving "the good old days".

I visited the villages in Wales where my pre-1863 ancestors lived. Whole villages were wiped out in days by various illnesses. The cemeteries bear witness to the cause and devastation. My great great grandparents both died from TB. That orphaned by great grandfather and his sisters. The poor economic situations under the English landowners drove my great grandfather to Liverpool until he was old enough to hire on as ship's crew to get passage to the USA. He served in the Union army from 1863 until 1865. Only 15 of his 19 children survived to adulthood. I wonder if the practice of having large families will return in the face of the return of devastating diseases?