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I think that, after a little translation from the CDC bureaucrat-speak, here is what this statement really says:

"Folks, we do not have enough vaccine for even a small fraction of the population of the U.S., let alone our allies. However, if we just came out and admitted that, there would be massive public dissatisfaction- the image of the CDC would be harmed. Can't have that. So just go back to sleep, and we'll all agree to pretend that everything is under control".

You got it right. You will note from the CDC double-talk that the incubation period is 7-17 days. Then they reassure us that if given within four days of exposure the vaccination MIGHT help. Now although I was mostly educated in public california schools, I think 7 is greater than 4; that is by the time you know the disease is out there, it's too late. One puff of this stuff in an inhaler in a stadium would kill 10 to 20 thousand people in 2 weeks. And the ONLY thing you could do to stop it is vaccinate the population before the bio-attack. And that's just the primary cases.

Apparently the CDC is more than happy to sacrifice a few hundred thousand people rather than let the people make up their own minds about whether they should be vaccinated. I doubt strongly that the complications from the vaccine would be anything more than a few hundred cases of disease in those on chemotherapy and with end-stage Aids.

Infectious disease specialists say that smallpox outbreaks from a lab accident or a monkeypox mutation could be easily contained. A more pertinent question would be what about containing multiple attacks in large venues like stadiums or convention centers simultaneously? The death toll would be quite high.

Do the bad guys have smallpox? Of course they do. Anything the Russians or Chinese have, the terrorists have. After all, it was and is Russia and China who continue to support these countries like Syria and Iraq.

Personally, I will take the vaccine if it becomes available and so will my family. I, at least, have partial immunity; my kids don't.

Any freeper out there know what kinds of problems occur with the smallpox vaaccine and how frequent they are? Amazing how the government and CDC carefully omit this most vital of information from their propaganda.

Actually, if existing supplies were to be diluted 1:10 (still fully effective, NEJM 2002), we could vaccinate everyone.

I think the decision to forbid vaccine on request is irresponsible. If vaccine were available to me (and it may be available to me soon, as a probable first responder to a smallpox emergency), I would take it, and use the material from the blister fluid to inoculate my family.

The resistance to widespread vaccination by the federales has two important roots:

1) The "eradication" of smallpox is felt by the involved parties to be the leading Public Health triumph of the century just past. The fact that smallpox was "eradicated" in the sense that war was eradicated by the Kellog-Briand treaty in 1928 is lost on these people.

2) The government is deathly afraid of liability for side effects, especially from fatalities among those with undiagnosed immune deficiency diseases.

In any event, there is enough (diluted) vaccine for everyone-the refusal to allow its use is fundamentally political.