Of course. And the most severe cases can be treated at a quarantine ward of a hospital.
If there is a smallpox attack, every single victime is going to be taken to a clinic or emergency room. And large numbers of people who are already sick or infirm -- and thus more vulnerable -- will inevitably be infected.
Please explain ow this would happen, since you are sick for 2 or 3 days BEFORE YOU ARE CONTAGIOUS?
You are trying to scare people. Fortunately, you aren't doing a very good job of it.
Please explain ow this would happen, since you are sick for 2 or 3 days BEFORE YOU ARE CONTAGIOUS?
I am sure that middle+ class parents are very good about getting their kids to the MD promptly when they become sick. For poor single parent households where the parent might be holding down two jobs to pay the rent and keep food on the table, I wouldn't be so quick to assume that they are going to take off work every time a kid gets sick, especially if they have no health insurance and have been told by their boss that if they are absent from work one more time, they're fired. The realitiy is that some poor kids need a lot more wrong with them than just a fever, a cough, and a rash before they are taken in for medical care. Your assumption that every single kid who contracts smallpox is immediately going to receive medical attention, and thus be promptly diagnosed, is unrealistic for large segments of our population
. You are trying to scare people. Fortunately, you aren't doing a very good job of it.
No, I'm trying to work with other people on FR to come up with a realistic threat assessment. The realistic threat assessment that our government has come up with is classified, and they won't tell us its contents. That means it is up to us to try to discern the actual situation as best as we can.
Nobody should be scared into panic or dispair. Another post above by a nurse outlined a reasonable and effective contingency plan that people can take to protect themselves and their loved ones. However, a realistic threat assessment and contingency plan must take account of the probability that it may not be wise to wait until the public authorities issue an absolutely definitive and final diagnosis and make an official public announcement. Rather, one is going to have to monitor the media and stay plugged into the grapevine, and ready to implement the contingency plan immediately upon the FIRST credible report.
Sorry, but until those 300 million doses of vaccine are available and administered, this is the best that parents can do for their children. And I am far more concerned about them than I am about whether or not YOU approve, Tom!