Smallpox Vaccine Articles and more, from PROVE

PROVE(Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education) ^ | Oct. 19 & 17 | various

[backhoe]

 

----- Original Message -----

From: PROVE <newsletter@vaccineinfo.net>

To: <>

Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 6:27 PM

Subject: [PROVE] Smallpox Vaccine Articles and Information

> These articles have some informative and interesting information on the
> smallpox vaccine and what our government's plans are for it's usage (for now
> anyway). At the bottom, is the CDC's most recent recommendations on the old
> version of the vaccine (published 1985).  I'm posting this to the PROVE list
> because I've received a number of requests for this type of information - so
> if you've sent me a personal request, this is your answer.  :)  Dawn
>
>
> Health Officials Review Smallpox Plan
>
> By Lauran Neergaard
> AP Medical Writer
> Friday, October 19, 2001; 9:04 AM
>
> WASHINGTON -- A single case of smallpox would trigger a federal emergency
> plan to vaccinate people close to the victim while detectives retraced the
> patient's every step over the previous three weeks.
>
> Despite the likely panic over a disease not seen in the United States in
> half a century, the government would not resort to citywide mass
> vaccinations unless absolutely necessary.
>
> The plan, obtained by The Associated Press, is a long-awaited set of
> step-by-step instructions for state health workers who would have to battle
> the highly contagious disease if bioterrorists ever unleashed smallpox.
>
> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is putting final touches on
> the plan, work that was accelerated after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in
> New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Officials say they consider the plan
> already operational, and have begun sending it to state health departments,
> who are supposed to begin the requested preparations now.
>
> Some government officials are raising the possibility of one day resuming
> routine vaccinations of Americans against smallpox, which kills three in
> every 10 victims. Mass inoculation ended in this country in 1972, almost a
> quarter-century after the disease last appeared in the United States.
>
> The government has 15.4 million doses of smallpox vaccine and hopes to buy
> an additional 300 million. "It is the intention to determine, after we have
> sufficient supplies available to commence inoculation, to make the decision
> at that time," Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Thursday.
>
> But Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Resources, said this week
> his department has no plans to implement a mandatory vaccination program and
> cited horrendous side effects as the principal reason.
>
> Chilling photographs in the CDC document show children with severe,
> sometimes fatal, vaccine side effects, which illustrates why it would be a
> difficult decision to renew routine inoculations unless smallpox were to
> reappear.
>
> "You're always hesitant to immunize people against the disease unless you're
> fairly certain that there is going to be a risk," Surgeon General David
> Satcher said.
>
> The plan makes clear that the entire populations of cities or states will
> not be vaccinated unless CDC has evidence of more than a few cases. Instead,
> CDC will carefully apportion vaccine to family, friends, co-workers and
> others in close contact with a smallpox patient, as well as health workers
> and people who come in contact with a patient in a hospital.
>
> It takes fairly close proximity, within about six feet of a person suffering
> the characteristic rash, to breathe in the smallpox virus and catch the
> disease. Quickly vaccinating those who live with or work around a patient is
> protective.
>
> But, "a single case of smallpox would require an immediate and coordinated
> public health and medical response to contain the outbreak and prevent
> further infection," the plan's opening page warns.
>
> Smallpox hasn't occurred in the United States since 1949; the world's last
> naturally occurring case was in Africa in 1977. When smallpox was declared
> eradicated in 1980, all research stocks of the virus were supposed to have
> been contained at the CDC's Atlanta laboratory and a similar lab in Russia.
> But the Soviet Union instead produced smallpox for their biological weapons
> program in the 1980s, and bioterrorism experts fear some may have spread to
> terrorist-sponsoring countries.
>
> Smallpox symptoms include fever and a pock-like rash all over the body,
> which appears seven to 17 days after exposure to the virus. People are
> contagious from the time the rash appears, particularly in that first week
> of illness, until the scabs fall off.
>
> The CDC's emergency plan would kick in when a doctor alerted state or
> federal health officials that a patient should be tested for smallpox, a
> test that can be confirmed only at CDC or at the Army's Fort Detrick, Md.
>
> If smallpox were confirmed, he or she would be quarantined immediately. CDC
> Director Jeffrey Koplan would send vaccine from the government's stockpile
> while alerting the FBI and White House.
>
> Disease detectives would grill the sick person and his family about every
> step taken over three weeks before becoming ill. They also would want
> addresses and phone numbers of every person who had close contact with the
> patient.
>
> CDC then would have state health officials track down all of those people,
> vaccinate those who needed it, and do daily monitoring of whether they get a
> fever - a sign they, too, might be sick with smallpox and require
> quarantine.
>
> The plan instructs how to give the hard-to-handle vaccine. It is made with a
> live version of a virus related to smallpox, and thus can cause serious
> reactions in certain people, including people with faulty immune systems or
> those with the skin condition eczema. The document pictures a child covered
> in eczema-like lesions after contact with a recently vaccinated sibling. The
> worst reaction is a very rare - one in 300,000 vaccinated babies - but
> deadly encephalitis.
>
> _________
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/19/national/19SMAL.html
> October 19, 2001
>
> IMMUNIZATION
> Vast Uncertainty on Smallpox Vaccine
> By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
>
> WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - Dr. Marjorie Barnett, a pediatrician in Silver Spring,
> Md., is accustomed to talking to parents about immunization. These days,
> amid growing fear of bioterrorism, those conversations center not on
> hepatitis or polio, but on a disease that was wiped out decades ago:
> smallpox.
>
> "I'm getting 5 or 10 calls a day from parents who want the vaccine," said
> Dr. Barnett, who believes that smallpox vaccinations, suspended in this
> country in 1972, should resume. "I have to tell them it's just not
> available. What I am telling them now is, `Call your Congress people, call
> the White House, call everybody you know and tell them to look into this.' "
>
> One day after the federal government announced that it was laying plans to
> stockpile enough smallpox vaccine, 300 million doses, to protect every
> American if necessary, questions are quickly emerging about how that
> stockpile would be used.
>
> The vaccine carries risks. A recent analysis of six million people who
> received their first smallpox vaccinations in 1968 found that six had died
> as a result, mostly of encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Other
> adverse effects can be far more common. Even so, some patients argue that
> they should be allowed to decide for themselves.
>
> But public-health experts maintain that a mass vaccination program is
> unwise. Smallpox vaccine, they say, should be used only in the event of a
> smallpox outbreak.
>
> "The recommendation right now is no," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of
> the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, adding that the
> complications of smallpox vaccine were greater than for those vaccinations
> that are still given in childhood. "And the reason those complications were
> accepted was because of the extraordinarily devastating impact that smallpox
> could have on society."
>
> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, has a reserve of
> roughly 15 million doses of smallpox vaccine. That vaccine, which is not
> available to the public, was manufactured using a method that dates from the
> 1700's. The method involves infecting calves with a related virus, vaccinia;
> the resulting pus is used in the making of the vaccine.
>
> That process is considered barely acceptable for human vaccine today. So the
> government has contracted with a biotechnology company, Acambis, to make a
> similar vaccine using modern techniques that involve growing vaccinia in
> cells, and to deliver 54 million doses by next summer. Early next year, Dr.
> Fauci's institute will begin clinical trials of that vaccine; in the current
> climate, he predicted, there will be no shortage of volunteers.
>
> At the same time, Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of health and human services,
> says he is negotiating with four drug makers to produce enough doses to
> cover every American.
>
> The smallpox virus exists in laboratories that are overseen by the World
> Health Organization, although bioterrorism experts believe that clandestine
> stocks may exist. In any event, unlike anthrax, which is not transmitted
> from person to person, smallpox is highly contagious.
>
> The smallpox vaccine can be used not only to prevent infection but also to
> treat people within a few days of exposure to the virus, and thus contain an
> epidemic.
>
> An outbreak of smallpox in New York City in 1947 provides insight into how
> such a vaccination program would work, said Leonard A. Cole, who teaches
> science and public policy at Rutgers University and is the author of a book
> on biological warfare.
>
> The outbreak, Mr. Cole said, involved a businessman who had been traveling
> in Mexico and arrived in New York on March 10 of that year. He died in a
> city hospital after infecting several others, but city health officials did
> not detect the outbreak until April 4.
>
> The authorities then made a "crash decision to vaccinate everybody that had
> not been vaccinated since childhood," Mr. Cole said, but, with only 500,000
> doses on hand, they soon ran out of vaccine. They turned to the military for
> help, and in three weeks 6.3 million New Yorkers had been immunized against
> smallpox. In the end, he said, 12 people were infected with the virus, and
> two died, including the first patient.
>
> Mr. Cole described this method of responding as "a model that we know
> works." But today's population is far more vulnerable to smallpox: many
> Americans have never been vaccinated, and even those who have been now lack
> protection because the vaccine is thought to wear off after 15 or 20 years.
>
> So some people say they would rather risk vaccination than the possibility
> of a slowly detected outbreak. Others are not so sure. "I'd want to know
> more about the side effects and the dangers to my daughter," said Elaine
> Herscher of San Francisco, the mother of a 5-year-old. "The real threat to
> her health from the vaccine could be far worse."
>
> Even if the government does amass 300 million doses, it is unlikely to offer
> them without "substantial discussion," said Dr. Thomas V. Inglesby of the
> Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
>
> Among the questions that would need to be answered: Who should be vaccinated
> first? Emergency workers? Health professionals? Children? The elderly?
>
> In the meantime, the government is also paying for research into safer
> smallpox treatments. Dr. Mark Buller, a virologist at St. Louis University,
> is part of that effort. Because he studies viruses in the pox family, he is
> one of the few Americans who have recently been immunized against smallpox.
>
> "I would not even consider having my family vaccinated," Dr. Buller said. "I
> feel I'm more likely to be hit riding my bike to work than to be hit by a
> smallpox episode in my own life."
>
> __________________
>
> From the CDC from the past (1985) on the old smallpox vaccine
>
> http://aepo-xdv-www.epo.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000205/p0000205.asp
>
> CDC WONDER
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Warning:
>
> This site is being maintained for historical purposes, but has had no new
> entries since October 1998. If you would like your search to include more
> recent articles, please visit the new prevention guidelines site,
> CDC Recommends
>
> at http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/CDCrecommends/AdvSearchV.asp.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Recommendation of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee Smallpox
> Vaccine
> MMWR 34(23);341-2
> Publication date: 06/14/1985
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Table of Contents
>
> SUMMARY
> SMALLPOX VACCINE
> SURVEILLANCE OF SUSPECTED CASES OF SMALLPOX
> MISUSE OF SMALLPOX VACCINE
> SMALLPOX VACCINATION NOT REQUIRED FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
> SMALLPOX VACCINE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR CIVILIANS
> SMALLPOX VACCINE AVAILABLE TO PROTECT AT-RISK LABORATORY WORKERS
> SMALLPOX VACCINATION OF MILITARY PERSONNEL
> CONSULTATION FOR COMPLICATIONS OF SMALLPOX VACCINATION
> REFERENCES
> POINT OF CONTACT FOR THIS DOCUMENT:
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> SUMMARY
> These revised ACIP recommendations on smallpox vaccine update the previous
> recommendations (MMWR 1980;29:417-20) to include current information on the
> changes in the International Health Regulations and the ending of
> distribution of smallpox vaccine to civilians. The basic recommendation is
> unchanged--smallpox vaccine is only indicated for civilians who are
> laboratory workers occupationally exposed to smallpox or other closely
> related orthopox viruses.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> SMALLPOX VACCINE
> Smallpox vaccine (vaccinia virus) is a highly effective immunizing agent
> against smallpox. The judicious use of smallpox vaccine has eradicated
> smallpox. At the World Health Assembly in May 1980, the World Health
> Organization (WHO) declared the world free of smallpox (1-4). Smallpox
> vaccination of civilians is now indicated only for laboratory workers
> directly involved with smallpox (variola virus) or closely related orthopox
> viruses (e.g., monkeypox, vaccinia, and others).
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> SURVEILLANCE OF SUSPECTED CASES OF SMALLPOX
> There is no evidence of smallpox transmission anywhere in the world. WHO
> has coordinated the investigation of 173 rumors of smallpox between 1979
> and 1984 (5-7). All have been diseases other than smallpox, most commonly
> chickenpox or other rash illnesses. Even so, a suspected case of smallpox
> is a public health emergency and must be promptly investigated. Assistance
> in the clinical evaluation, collection of laboratory specimens, and
> preliminary laboratory diagnosis is available from state health departments
> and CDC (telephone: (404) 329-3145 during the day and (404) 329-2888
> outside usual working hours).
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> MISUSE OF SMALLPOX VACCINE
> There is no evidence that smallpox vaccination has any value in the
> treatment or prevention of recurrent herpes simplex infection, warts, or
> any disease other than those caused by orthopox viruses (8). Misuse of
> smallpox vaccine to treat herpes infections has been associated with severe
> complications (9-11). Smallpox vaccine should never be used therapeutically.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> SMALLPOX VACCINATION NOT REQUIRED FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
> Smallpox vaccination is no longer required for international travel. In
> January 1982, the International Health Regulations were changed deleting
> smallpox from the Regulations (12). The International Certificates of
> Vaccination no longer include a smallpox vaccination certificate.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> SMALLPOX VACCINE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR CIVILIANS
> In May 1983, the only active, licensed producer of smallpox vaccine in the
> United States discontinued distribution of smallpox vaccine to civilians
> (13). As a result, smallpox vaccine is no longer available to civilians.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> SMALLPOX VACCINE AVAILABLE TO PROTECT AT-RISK LABORATORY WORKERS
> CDC provides smallpox vaccine to protect laboratory workers occupationally
> exposed to smallpox virus and other closely related orthopox viruses (14).
> Vaccine will be provided only for the protection of personnel of such
> laboratories. The vaccine should be administered to eligible employees
> under the supervision of a physician selected by the laboratory. Vaccine
> will be shipped to physicians responsible for vaccinating at-risk workers.
> Requests for vaccine should be sent to:
> Drug Immunobiologic and Vaccine Service
> Center for Infectious Diseases
> Building 1, Room 1259
> Centers for Disease Control
> Atlanta, Georgia 30333
> (404) 329-3356
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> SMALLPOX VACCINATION OF MILITARY PERSONNEL
> U.S. military personnel are routinely vaccinated against smallpox.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> CONSULTATION FOR COMPLICATIONS OF SMALLPOX VACCINATION
> CDC can assist physicians in the diagnosis and management of patients with
> suspected complications of smallpox vaccination. Vaccinia immune globulin
> (VIG) is available when indicated. Physicians should call (404) 329-3145
> during the day and (404) 329-2888 evenings and weekends.
> The majority of persons with such complications are likely to be recently
> vaccinated military personnel or their contacts infected through
> person-to-person spread of vaccinia virus (15-17). Such person-to-person
> spread can be extremely serious if the person infected has eczema or is
> immunocompromised.
>
> Health-care workers are requested to report complications of smallpox
> vaccination to CDC through state and local health departments.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> REFERENCES
> WHO. Smallpox eradication. Weekly Epidemiological Record 1980;55:33-40.
> WHO. Smallpox eradication. Weekly Epidemiological Record 1980;55:121-8.
> WHO. Declaration of global eradication of smallpox. Weekly Epidemiological
> Record 1980;55:145-52.
> WHO. Smallpox vaccination policy. Weekly Epidemiological Record
> 1980;55:153-60.
> CDC. Investigation of a smallpox rumor--Mexico. MMWR 1985:34;343-4.
> WHO. Orthopox virus surveillance: post-smallpox eradication policy. Weekly
> Epidemiological Record 1983;58:149-56.
> WHO Smallpox Eradication Unit. Personal communication.
> Kern AB, Schiff BL. Smallpox vaccinations in the management of recurrent
> herpes simplex: a controlled evaluation. J Invest Dermatol 1959;33:99-102.
> CDC. Vaccinia necrosum after smallpox vaccination--Michigan. MMWR
> 1982;31:501-2.
> U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Inappropriate use of smallpox vaccine.
> FDA Drug Bulletin 1982;12:12.
> Freed ER, Duma RJ, Escobar MR. Vaccinia necrosum and its relationship to
> impaired immunologic responsiveness. Am J Med 1972;52:411-20.
> WHO. Smallpox vaccination certificates. Weekly Epidemiological Record
> 1981;39:305.
> CDC. Smallpox vaccine no longer available for civilians--United States.
> MMWR 1983;32:387.
> CDC. Smallpox vaccine available for protection of at-risk laboratory
> workers. MMWR 1983;32:543.
> CDC. Contact spread of vaccinia from a recently vaccinated
> marine--Louisiana. MMWR 1984;33:37-8.
> CDC. Contact spread of vaccinia from a National Guard vacinee--Wisconsin.
> MMWR 1985;34:182-3.
> Urdahl P, Rosland JH. Vaccinia genitalis. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen
> 1982;102:1453-4.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> write to: CDC, MMWR MS(C-08)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dawn Richardson
> PROVE(Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education)
> prove@vaccineinfo.net (email)
> http://vaccineinfo.net/ (web site)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> PROVE provides information on vaccines, and immunization policies and practices that affect the children and adults of Texas.  Our mission is to prevent vaccine injury and death and to promote and protect the right of every person to make informed independent vaccination decisions for themselves and their family.
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---

 

----- Original Message -----

From: PROVE <newsletter@vaccineinfo.net>

To: <>

Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 9:47 AM

Subject: [PROVE] Press release re internal CDC report on thimerosal and autism

> PRESS RELEASE
>
> An announcement was made today by the law firm of Waters & Kraus, the firm
> that filed the first known lawsuit alleging that a mercury preservative in
> children's vaccines caused neurological damage to an infant ultimately
> diagnosed with autism. Waters & Kraus is leading a consortium of ten firms
> in as many states that are actively prosecuting cases of this nature (firms
> listed below).  Andy Waters, the lead attorney in the cases, announced that
> his firm is now in possession of a previously unreleased confidential report
> authored by Centers for Disease Control scientists which studied autism as a
> potential neurological injury caused by mercury in children's vaccines.
>
> A different version of the report was made public and has been cited by the
> recent Institute of Medicine study as inconclusive on the issue of whether
> the mercury-based vaccine preservative known as thimerosal has contributed
> to cause a nationwide epidemic of regressive autism and other neurological
> disorders in small children.  The confidential version of the study,
> however, clearly demonstrated that an exposure to more than 62.5 micrograms
> of mercury within the first three months of life significantly increased a
> child's risk of developing autism.  Specifically, the study found a 2.48
> times increased risk of autism - that is to say, children with the exposure
> were more than twice as likely to develop autism as children not exposed.
>
> In the United States, courts of law have generally held that a relative
> increased risk of 2.0 or higher is sufficient to substantiate that a given
> exposure causes disease.  As but one example, in the case of Cook v. United
> States, 545 F.Supp. 306, at 308 (Northern District - California 1982) the
> Court stated that, "in a vaccine case, a relative risk greater than 2.0
> establishes that there is a greater than 50% chance that the injury was
> caused by the vaccine."
>
> Waters indicated that, in many of the cases his firm has evaluated,
> including the case filed in a Texas state court on behalf of the Counter
> family, the affected child received more than 62.5 micrograms of mercury
> through pediatric vaccines in the first three months of life.
>
> The confidential report, which was obtained by the SAFEMINDS support and
> advocacy group, states:  "As for the exposure evaluated at 3 months of age,
> we found increasing risks of 'neurological developmental disorders' with
> increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal ... within the group of
> 'developmental disorders'... for the sub-group called 'specific delays,' and
> within this sub-group for the specific disorder 'developmental speech
> disorder,' and for 'autism,' 'stuttering' and 'attention deficit disorder.'"
>
> The report also contained the graph depicted below which illustrated the
> report's findings of a child's increasing risk of developing the
> neurological symptoms of autism after receiving increasing amounts of
> thimerosal.
>
> Graph 3:      Relative risk - 95 % CI  of Autism after different exposure
> levels of thimerosal at 3 months of age, NCK & GHC
> (see www.vaccineinfo.net/autismHg.htm to view graph)
>
> Waters pointed out that the confidential study's lead author, Thomas
> Verstraeten, has since left the Centers for Disease Control and is now
> employed by GlaxoSmithKline, a manufacturer of thimerosal-containing
> vaccines for many years that is a defendant in numerous suits pending
> nationwide.  "We have asked GlaxoSmithKline to provide Mr. Verstraeten's
> deposition in order to understand if conflict of interest issues may have
> played a role in the CDC's decision to keep this report confidential, and
> specifically, their failure to reveal it to the Institute of Medicine."
>
> Waters called the report's contents and the fact that it was kept from the
> public as "shocking, but unfortunately not surprising, given the political
> influence of pharmaceutical companies and the tremendous liability they face
> if they are forced to compensate thousands of families for the costs of care
> that these children require." Waters added that "no amount of money can give
> these children back the potential that they were born with, and no amount of
> money will comfort the parents that watched helplessly as their children
> literally just slipped away."  The purpose of the lawsuits his firm is
> currently prosecuting, said Waters, is "to bring to the surface the truth on
> this issue, a truth that government agencies seem unwilling to admit,
> perhaps for fear that parents will stop vaccinating their children, and to
> force the companies that profited from this disastrous mistake to shoulder
> the responsibility that so many families now bear on their own, often
> without even the aid of health insurance benefits."
>
> Media inquiries should be directed to Melissa Miles at 214-357-6244.
> Client inquiries should be directed to Victoria Gibson at 800-226-9880, or
> to the firms listed below.
>
> Other firms working with Waters & Kraus to prosecut

[backhoe]

These are 2 eletters from PROVE combined--

Rats! The 2nd file is truncated! ____-ing old PC! Click on the link for more....

[backhoe]

Not anthrax, but biowar....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for posting such Good stuff!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Maybe we need a broader category!

What name would you suggest!

[backhoe]

Thanks for the bump, & for looking.... the bleeding 2nd file got cut off, but the info should be on PROVE's site- they do cover some interesting things the "watchdog" press doesn't like to have mentioned.....

[Elenya]

In case of national emergency, all we need is a cowpoxed cow for the kids to pet: it gives you immunity from smallpox without the mercury or other nasty stuff.

But unfortunately, it would not generate as much money as vaccines, so even if a smallpox epidemics starts, I doubt we'll ever have a Pet the Cowpoxed Cow day.

[backhoe]

Yes, my wife & I were discussing today the "low-tech cow-pox" immunity idea.... which rapidly degenerated into jokes, puns, and "stuff about milk-maids" better not mentioned on a public forum....

[Elenya]

I bet, hehe!

[FITZ]

I would do the low tech cowpox immunity on my family. That one wouldn't be hard and I'd rather avoid the mercury in the government vaccine. Anthrax would be a little harder to do yourself because you'd have to make sure it was attenuated good enough but still able to get you to make antibodies.

[George from New England]

Do I have it right?

Cows do not get small pox.
Cows get cowpox.
Cowpox is a different disease than small pox.
The pus from the cow pox is used and creates (in humans) a resistance to the human small pox.
Is that right?

Is there medicine that is given to a cow that has cowpox to help it get rid of it?

[FITZ]

Yes. There are two main forms of smallpox: Variola major which is very deadly, Variola minor which isn't too deadly but leaves terrible scars, and then there is Vaccinia which can be found on cows so was called cowpox ---but I think other animals actually get vaccinia too. There's a monkeypox and some others -----they all give cross immunity so if you get one and recover, you have immunity to the others.

The reason people in the Americas died from smallpox in huge numbers---sometimes entire villages, is because they had no exposure to the minor smallpox or cowpox so they had no immunity at all. People in Africa and Asia would purposely infect themselves if they knew the minor smallpox was going around, it was risky but compared with the death rates of the serious smallpox it was worth it. Then a connection was made in England that cowpox would also give immunity but only leaves one or very few scars which made it preferable to the minor smallpox which still left many scars and thats where the vaccine began.

The vaccinia vaccine is still available but in limited quanitities, usually for people working with animals, especially research where they might encounter monkeypox or other animal poxes and the CDC has limited quantities in case of a biological warfare release of smallpox. The good thing about the vaccine is it is a live virus and causes a real infection, people could use it to infect each other like people used to do.

[FITZ]

I think cows might be vaccinated here in the US so they don't get cowpox. Once someone gets a viral infection, there's no cure, no antibiotics which would help except for bacterial infections that could make the blisters worse. They have some very expensive antivirals but those are also dangerous to use.

[whoever]

Does anyone remember how former Sec. of HHS Donna Shalala vigorously fought to have our sample of smallpox destroyed so that no vaccines could be made?

At the time, Russia had the only other known sample. Now it is assumed that a couple more terrorist nations have it.

Had the Clinton administration had their way, we would be in deep trouble now. Far deeper than we are.

[backhoe]

I vaguely recall that! Whew!