Sickening Specter of a SmallPox Attack

The Washington Times ^ | 9/6/02 | House Editorial

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

It has been centuries since native North Americans were so vulnerable to the sickening sword of a smallpox attack. The first time it was so used was when Lord Jefferey Amherst, commander of the British forces in North America during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) approved sending smallpox-infected blankets and handkerchiefs to the Ottawa tribe attacking Fort Pitt. It had the desired effect — subsequent epidemics probably killed more than 50 percent of affected tribes, a consequence of Native Americans having practically no immunity to the smallpox-causing variola virus. The U.S. population now has about that same level of immunity, an unintended consequence of the extremely successful worldwide smallpox eradication campaign.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

A smallpox attack would make anthrax look tame by comparison.

[madrastex]

OOPs! When I glanced at the headline, I immediately thought this might be about the sickening Sen Specter. My mistake!!

[GunsareOK]

Voluntary vaccinations (like arming the pilots) is a no-brainer. What's taking the administration so long to decide wheter to implement both?

[CWRWinger]

What's taking the administration so long to decide wheter to implement both?

Bush has a socialist, big government mindset. He may also be waiting on approval from the UN powers that be.

[rightwingextremist1776]

HEHEHE!!!! I thought the same!!! RINOs are kinda like smallpox though!

[ravingnutter]

What's taking the administration so long to decide wheter to implement both?

The smallpox vaccine is left over from the 70's, some older, and so due to the age of the vaccine it is currently being tested by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Production has its problems as well, the FDA has found violations of quality control standards in the manufacturers, such as Merck who had their plant closed down and lost the contract due to QC violations.

As far as guns in the cockpit, Bush signed the Aviation Security Bill, which included provisions for arming pilots, but Mineta, Ridge and Magaw were obstructions in implementation, seems that is now changing, with the recent passage of H.R. 4635, the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act which orders the the TSA "to develop and implement a two-year 'demonstration period' during which a limited number of volunteer pilots would be armed". It also helped that Magaw was ousted from his post.

[Paleo Conservative]

We haven't gotten all the vaccines that have been ordered?

[claptrap]

This sounds like more liberal hogwash! Point number one:
Smallpox cannot be contracted from blankets unless you are under the blanket with someone who has smallpox! The story
the writer refrences is a lie it never happened! Therefore
the writer is a liar and should have his tounge removed in an unpleasant fashion!

[claptrap]

A smallpox attack is very improbable for your information,
a person infected with smallpox coming on an overseas flight would be quite noticably sick, and would not be ambulatory by the time their flight landed. Also small pox would be very difficult to deliver in the form of a bomb, whoever wrote this article isnt very rescourceful or bright!

[Paleo Conservative]

a person infected with smallpox coming on an overseas flight would be quite noticably sick,

Not necessarily true. Smallpox is normally spread through aerosolized virus pariticles which are inhaled. An old method of innoculation called variolination exposed previously unexposed people to the variola (smallpox) virus via an incision on the skin. The patient would then get a milder form of the disease but would become infectious to others. This method of innoculation which had a 1% fatatity rate, was used on George Washington when he was a young man and by the Continental Army during the American Revolution. If terrorists used variolination, they could easily spread smallpox while not being terribly sick themselves or facing a high risk of death.

[Timesink]

Actually, most Native Americans died purely from friendly contact with the early white settlers. Like Paleo Conservative notes above, many of those settlers were immune yet infectious. The two groups met, the Indians contracted the smallpox virus (or any of several other diseases they'd never been exposed to before), went back to their tribes, and spread it. The settlers had no clue they were spreading diseases.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Liberal hogwash? Smallpox must be a serious concern or MILLIONS of vaccination doses would not have been ordered by the government. Was it hogwash millions of us were vaccinated for smallpox years ago? Why were we vaccinated? Is it hogwash that smallpox kills roughly 30% of those infected? Is it hogwash few in America have been recently vaccinated and thus are prime targets for a sweeping epidemic?

However, it is clear that even a small release of the variola virus — say aerosols sprayed simultaneously at several major airports — would have catastrophic consequences.

This deliberate infection would require only the virus be sprayed into crowds, not carried there by those already sick with the disease.