Posted on 05/29/2002 4:34:49 PM PDT by Gritty
The risk of dying from natural spread of smallpox is indeed less than the chance of dying from the vaccination. Obviously, he's weighing the chance of a terrorist strike using the disease, in which case the odds change quite a bit. Ring vaccination, given modern travel speeds, is unlikely to work, as I understand it.
However, I have to agree that there is a middle ground between banning the vaccine and a mass inoculation. Let people decide. Heck, if the government wants to encourage it, they can subsidize the price some, or not. Having a percentage of the population immune will actually bring benefits in slowing the transmission of the disease, thus benefitting everyone. And this way, each person gets to decide for themselves whether they think it's worth it.
Drew Garrett
Nope - you got smallpox, but the dz was usually not as terrible. Hey if you're going to get it anyway. . .
That technique is called variolination. It has about a 1% death rate and considerably milder symptoms compared to inhaling smallpox (the normal method of contracting the disease).
I disagree when it comes to smallpox. The nature of the dz is such that those who come into contact with a contagious person have two weeks before they themselves become contagious. An announcement could be made and people who knew they were in contact with the contagious person could come to a hospital and get a vaccination.
Older people (30 or older) who had been vaccinated decades before the outbreak only had fatality rates of 5% versus the 50% fatality rate of the unvaccinated in the same age group. In addition, the severity of the disease is considerably reduced in those vaccinated.
For those younger than 30, vaccination reduced fatalities to essentially zero. Among the unvaccinated, ages 0-4, 50% fatality, ages 5-14, 10%, ages 15-29, 13%. Again the severity of the disease in the vaccinated is considerably reduced compared to those unvaccinated.
Essentially, an attack with standard smallpox will leave the United States badly hurt, but not fatally, and with a population that is very likely to know someone who died or can just look in the mirror for a reminder of what happened (IIRC, one Discover channel program noted that 75% of the portraits from 18th century and earlier should have the people bearing the marks of smallpox, the artists just left them out).
The rest of the consequences are left as exercise.
We should make absolutely sure that there is sufficient vaccinations available in the event of an attack though.
You're right. My mistake... :o)
Where are you guys coming from with this? I was vaccinated before I began the 1st grade, I was vaccinated when I went into the Maritime Service, I was vaccinated when I went into the Navy and I was probably vaccinated at least a half dozen times in all my years of going to sea!
I have NEVER heard of anybody dying or even getting sick from this immuninization. The first time, you will get an itch at the site that will drive you nuts, but nothing more. After the first time, you get no reaction.
So where does this info come from that there is a risk of death from this?
There has been no resurgence in smallpox.
Why people choose to broadcast their idiocy is always a mystery....
I'd like to see a source for your information.
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