A smallpox emergency preparedness drill conducted last year, dubbed "Dark Winter" by U.S. authorities, found that the nation was woefully unprepared for a smallpox attack, with a just a 12 million doses of the vaccine on hand at the time.
The absolute quantity of vaccine may be "only" sixfold more, but the possibility of controling a manmade epidemic is increased more than that. If we had no vaccine, we would be 100% vulnerable to such attack, and if we had (and used) one dose per person here we would be 0% vulnerable. 100 million doses held in reserve against need provides a substantial insurance policy against severe contaigion.
The questions which arise are, first, shelf-life and second, ownership. If this stuff is good, we should buy it. Those who stored it deserve ample compensation--like, however much it would cost us to tool up and make that much protection now. Not what it cost then, and not what it cost to store since its creation. But its replacement cost, plus a fee--which might also reflect the fact that it was actually available all this time, and would have been found if we had needed it. Insurance fee . . .