[Iris7]

I've told everyone who would listen for thirty years that stopping smallpox vaccination was nuts, because of course it will be used as a weapon if people aren't vaccinated. All I ever got was "Huh?" or "the CDC says..." and now here we are.

A nearby thread is about the quarantine plans in place here in the USA. The post had an hysterical tone, but made one good point. If whole neighborhoods of cities, or whole cities, are to be quarantined in the case of smallpox outbreak - and cities are where this would occur, if it were to - then the quarantined people will try to escape what they see as, and is, death for them and their children. It will be neccessary to stop them. Do we have troops willing to machine gun the crowds trying to escape?

[Dog Gone]

I've been vaccinated for smallpox before and I didn't die, so I'll be happy to be vaccinated again. I'd take the anthrax vaccine, too, if I could get it.

Does anybody know why the smallpox vaccine HAS to be administered the way it is? As I recall from my childhood, it was not by syringe, but by a round disk with two bigger needles and a few smaller ones. And it leaves a scar, of course.

What's the deal with that?

[kingh99]

first time small pox shows up here, there won't be much left of the middle east. people in the US will be smuugling suicase nukes into their backyard if the govt doesn't blow em all away.

[tallhappy]

It will be neccessary to stop them. Do we have troops willing to machine gun the crowds trying to escape?

You were right.

But about the above, I don't think that would be necessary.

[Numbers Guy]

I've told everyone who would listen for thirty years that stopping smallpox vaccination was nuts, because of course it will be used as a weapon if people aren't vaccinated.

The vaccine has severe side effects in a low percentage of cases. With smallpox eradicated, there was no point in having tens of thousands suffer major side effects, including death, especially when post-exposure vaccinations work.

Where the government screwed up was in not having enough doses on hand, and the blame for that rests squarely with the Clinton Administration, which took very little interest in the issue. Instead they focused on Ebola, which is scarier, but much more difficult to spread.

[texasbluebell]

I've told everyone who would listen for thirty years that stopping smallpox vaccination was nuts, because of course it will be used as a weapon if people aren't vaccinated. All I ever got was "Huh?" or "the CDC says..." and now here we are.

Well, that makes 2 of us, but nobody was listening... I'm really steamed about it and have been since about 1980 or so. And I'm absolutely furious with WHO and congress who in their great wisdom did nothing to protect us, till the last minute. Let's just hope there's enough supply soon, just in case.