Posted on 05/01/2003 10:42:41 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Ring around the rosy.
Bubonic plague creates reddish welts on the neck.
Pocket full of posies.
Medieval people thought putting flowers in their clothes staved off death.
Ashes, ashes.
Houses of the dead sometimes were torched.
We all fall down.
Entire families perished.
Some historians believe the common children's rhyme may have been an attempt by children to cope with the long-ago horrors that swept Europe from about 1300 to about 1600. In the first five years that the plague ravaged Europe, it killed at least 25 million people. Millions more succumbed in the pandemic's later waves - dwarfing today's SARS outbreak.
Epidemics create chaos. They wreck human societies, discredit governments, change history. It's a harsh lesson we're having to relearn, even today.
SARS may have done the world a favor by showing how unprepared governments are for a new contagion. It should shake our politicians out of their dangerous complacency. Every U.S. city is more vulnerable to bioterrorism than most political leaders want to admit.
We know much more about contagious diseases than medieval folk did. Scientists have developed near- miraculous vaccines and treatments for diseases that only a few decades ago meant almost certain death. Yet just when we think we've got Nature figured out, a new microscopic bogeyman comes along. Unlike medieval times, when germs spread between villages only as fast as people could travel by horse, in today's world, jet travel enables modern plagues to jump continents in a day.
SARS originated in rural China, but has caused at least 11 suspected cases in Colorado. "One of the things we've learned is just how many people in Colorado travel to China," an astounded public health official said. Colorado, like the rest of the world, was put at risk because the Chinese government wouldn't reveal the epidemic's true extent early on - much as medieval villages often tried to hide a plague outbreak.
Like SARS, many new viral diseases originate in rural China, where traditional agricultural practices still put large numbers of chickens, pigs and humans in close quarters, enabling viruses to jump from poultry to pigs to people. All it takes to ignite a pandemic is for a rural farmer to visit a nearby city and rub elbows with an urban businessman, who gets infected, then climbs aboard an airliner and takes the disease anywhere in the world.
The lessons of medieval plagues underscore the vulnerability of dense human populations to new infections - and humans live in close quarters in both industrial and developing nations. The Black Death provides a classic example.
Most historians believe the Black Death was bubonic plague, because scholars of the time described red welts on victims' necks. But some scientists think the Black Death was an Ebola strain, because it turned victims' internal organs into a mushy mess much like Ebola does. Ebola's calling card. Scientists still aren't sure where the Ebola virus hides between lethal outbursts. If Black Death was Ebola, there's no guarantee it won't return, and there may not be a cure if it does.
Unnerving? Yes. But it's not the only mystery in the history of disease. The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic killed up to 40 million people worldwide, including more than 600,000 in the United States. Some victims felt healthy in the morning, fell ill at noon, and died by sundown. Scientists haven't identified that virus, so there's no vaccine for it - or any reason it couldn't return.
But SARS and Spanish Flu were natural outbreaks. Imagine how quickly a viral disease could spread if intentionally released.
Disease as a weapon of mass destruction isn't new. The plague may have entered Eastern Europe in the early 1300s when Tartars besieging the town of Caffa catapulted diseased corpses into the walled city. The illness infected the defenders, who fled and took the virus home with them.
Five centuries later, on a steamship docked on the upper Missouri River, one crewman fell sick with smallpox. The captain probably knew how contagious smallpox could be, but he still bartered with local Indian tribes, leaving behind trade blankets contaminated with the virus. The resulting epidemic almost obliterated the Mandan tribe.
Smallpox is contagious with casual contact, lives a long time outside its hosts and lingers on common objects such as blankets. It kills 30 percent of its victims, but the toll is higher in populations never previously exposed to it - which describes almost everyone alive today: The last natural smallpox case was in 1979, and the vaccine given to people decades ago probably has lost its effectiveness. So if smallpox reappears, the toll might be devastating. Just one smallpoxcase anywhere in the world today would be a disaster for humanity.
Yet public health officials oppose restarting a mass vaccination program, believing they can contain an outbreak by isolating infected individuals, who only spread the virus once the telltale pustules appear. Trouble is, health officials are thinking like doctors, not terrorists. And terrorists don't need an infected person to spread disease; they just need a 21st-Ccentury version of contaminated trade blankets.
This week, an Egpytian ship's crewman died of anthrax after handling a suitcase contaminated with the bacteria. Police in Brazil, where the man died, speculate the suitcase was part of a bioterrorism plot, Fox News reported.
Ironically, anthrax is a poor weapon of mass destruction because it doesn't easily spread from person to person. Smallpox, however, jumps readily from victim to victim. can be spread, as previously noted, by inanimate objects.
Picture a madman spraying smallpox-laden liquid on the turnstiles of a football stadium before the Super Bowl. Or visualize terrorists contaminating a train car full of consumer goods - toys, pajamas, etc. Either way, within weeks, smallpox could erupt in several U.S. cities simultaneously.
A "pocket full of posies" won't save us. Better planning and prevention might.
This is the neighborhood outside our back door. When the opportunity presents itself, break out the Predators.
Well, just think about it. Lots of reasons:
A person who gets the shot can unintentionally spread smallpox to others. It can be contagous for about two weeks.
The infected spot on a person's arm can cause blindness if just a little bit gets in the eyes.
Nasty side effects: Some people get severe organ damage, some people die from it.
It's an insurance nightmare that the government doesn't want to even think about.
Having the smallpox vacine available in large quantities also means that it could be more easily acquired by terrorists. They could experiment with it and come up with something even worse.
Yikes. No thanks, I think I'll pass on getting the shot unless I really, really need it.
Pocket full of posies...Ah, perhaps to stave off death, but also to ward off some of the unpleasant smell.
I'll stop you right here. You are a victim of misinformation. The smallpox vaccine does NOT contain the smallpox virus, only a mild virus named vaccinia. This can be harmful to people with compromised immune systems, however, they had done tests and developed 100% effective bandages, that keep the virus in, so as long as you keep the bandage on, you and those around you are perfectly safe.
OK. I'll consider myself as stopped in my tracks. But I'll still wait a while before getting in line for a shot.
All of the reasons not to vaccinate that you give are very weak.
I was born in 1945 and when I grew up everyone was vaccinated against smallpox. The vaccination was always given on the outside of the arm, right near the shoulder.
My parents were both born in 1920 and they were both vaccinated. My mom had a scar the size of a quarter on her arm, my dad's scar was much smaller, but still noticeable--better vaccine.
I never saw anyone's arm who had not been vaccinated. By the time I was vaccinated the technique was better still and my scar is very inconspicuous, but everyone I ever saw in the entire US had a vaccination scar. I can still remember watching movies and seeing scars on all the actors--even extras playing primitive tribesmen.
I am certain there were side effects, and deaths, but the numbers were very low.
Like it or not, the US is a target of very evil people, and this is one of the easiest civil preparedness measures the nation could take.
You may not want to be vaccinated, and that is your right. But the medical establishment is trampling all over my right to be vaccinated if I want to be.
By the way, the vaccinations were given to kids who are always rubbing their eyes and I never even heard of anyone going blind from eye contamination, much less meeting anyone with that problem.
The vaccine is not made from smallpox, but from a related bacteria. If there is a contageous period it would not be actual smallpox that was transmitted.
This is false. The virus in the vaccination is vaccina, after which the process was named. Our parents had us get vaccinated. How many problems were there then?
Yes, the current version of the smallpox vacine is vaccina. The previous version was real smallpox in a weakened form cultured from infected cows. The problem with the old variety was that it was difficult to maintain quality standards, so it was often totally ineffective.
The new stuff sets a much higher standard for quality, but it has more side effects.
I was born in 1947. Yup, I too remember waiting in line as a second grader for that shot. And I got another one in 1966, just before going to Vietnam.
But that wasn't the same stuff that is being used today. It was real smallpox in a weaker form cultured from infected cows. It had a very low range of side effects, but it also had a lower range of effectiveness.
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