[ChemistCat]

My personal plan, subject to modification, will be implemented upon the first diagnosis of smallpox anywhere in CONUS. It's a simple plan based on cutting the odds of being exposed. We'll hole up with our food storage and our books, videos, and music. I will finally have my chance to see what the homeschooling crowd enjoys. Any contact with outsiders will be curtailed, including my medical appointments. I do not expect my government to be prepared for this if it is already in play; I won't be holding my breath for effective vaccination to be available to the masses, either. I don't intend to panic, because isolation WILL work unless we're so unfortunate as to be one of the first or second waves exposed. The odds are pretty low of that being a problem. However, the "just go buy a car" crowd could really get a lot of people killed. If this happens, I'm afraid that people won't take it seriously enough.

I would really like to see the nation's colleges and high schools developing plans for distance/home-based education of students if this particular emergency develops. Merely slowing the mobility of our society would inhibit the spread of even the most virulent strains of biowar viruses.

I might add that if this happens to us, I want the terrorists repaid with interest.

[tallhappy]

There is a sizeable, cautious, but not hysterical contingent on FR that believes we may have been exposed to smallpox at some time in the last week.

75 posts and no one has addressed this statement. This would be a very significant thing if so, to understate it immensely.

Who thinks this? When, where how? etc.......

[TN4Liberty]

My plan, should I contract smallpox, is to move to the Middle East. Maybe become an Islamic mercenary. I could be the cook... fix the meals for the mujahadin. And cough a lot.

[TLBSHOW]

It will be blackpox. That is what I believe, after many nights here at FR.

[Lady GOP]

Thnx for the information. Bookmark. Hoping that the vaccination will reach us before this does. There are so many bad things, worse than anthrax that we will have to deal with.

[alloysteel]

A widespread die-back of the US population is not an impossible scenario. Kind of like Stephen King's novel, "The Stand". Naked evil comes out to walk the world, in the diminished remaining population, as the pitiful remnants try to piece together a civilization.

[LizM]

I thought smallpox would be almost impossible for the terrorist to get because only two labs (USA & Russia) have the virus and the security is very tight? I'm just wondering how they would get ahold of it and how would they transmit the virus? So, I'm hoping this is one of those stories that is just getting blown out of proportion. Anyway, it is a scary thought. Hope they could isolate any outbreak and vaccinate people close to the victims to contain it.

[Nogbad]

From a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, by Mrs. Whelan, president of the American Council on Science and Health

Smallpox is not immediately contagious.

A person infected with smallpox does not become contagious until he or she is too sick to be walking around.

If you are wondering if the guy next to you on the subway has smallpox and decide to hold your breath between stops just in case, you are worrying needlessly.

In the first 12 days or so after infection, the patient feels fine and is not contagious.

On or about the 12th day, there is a spike in fever, and the, after a couple of days, the appearance of a rash-the highly visible “pox”- which is the signature of smallpox.

The beginning of the onset of the rash signals communicability.

By this time, the patient is bedridden, or in a medical facility, which is why most secondary infections occur at home or in a hospital, not in schools or other public places.

For this and other reasons, smallpox transmission throughout the population is generally slower than for such diseases as measles or chickenpox.

Of course, should a terrorist attempt to spread the virus by means of an aerosol release, this limitiation on vnues for infection would not be relevant.

But such means of transmission is at this point only theoretical.

It would be difficult to acquire and disseminate the virus-much more so than anthrax.

Even if there were an illicit source of smallpox, a terrorist would have to overcome sophisticated scientific and technological obstacles to cultivate it (one would need to grow the virus in eggs or animal cells) and disseminate it (putting it in the form of inhalable particles).

Theoretically, it wold be possible to have an individual “suicide vector”walk around once contagious, but one might question whether even the most devoted terrorist would be physically capable of effectively spreading the disease given the severity of the illness once it become communicable.

[zog]

-correct, you stay home, cease having contact with other humans, no exceptions. That's about it if you really want to be safe. Millions of city people just willy nilly "bugging out' to the country will not find a welcome wagon, if it's a big hit with a human to human communicable disease. I hope everyone always has at least a months worth of provisions-including more water than you think you need-stored up wherever they live. And lotsa batteries, and blankets, etc. All that stuff is doable, even in a small apartment. A big attack will fizzle out if no one spreads it beyond the original infected ones.

[Vidalia]

Did you ever think about that little circular scar on your left or right arm, or the one on your butt if your parents were really vain?

Check it out with either your local doc or vet, depending upon whom you parents favoured.

Whiners show up first.......

[Vidalia]

Did you ever think about that little circular scar on your left or right arm, or the one on your butt if your parents were really vain?

Check it out with either your local doc or vet, depending upon whom you parents favoured.

Whiners show up first.......

[bjcintennessee]

Appreciate the info. Would like to know the best treatment for infected persons. Surely we know more today about proper treatment than when this disease was so devastating.

Also, isn't there some law that states that if biological weapons are used, we are justified in retaliating with nuclear weapons? If so, then why is it not even being discussed?

[TLBSHOW]

http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/04/national/04CDC.html The government has begun taking steps to cope with the possibility of a terrorist attack involving smallpox by training doctors to recognize the disease and by vaccinating small teams of experts who would rush to any part of the country to contain and treat a suspected outbreak.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is taking the steps, say they have no evidence that anyone is readying a terrorist attack using smallpox, a disease that was eradicated worldwide 21 years ago. But they say smallpox is so deadly that it is important to prepare for any attack.

The smallpox virus is known to exist only in laboratories in the United States and Russia. But germ warfare experts suspect that other countries, including North Korea and Iraq, may have secretly obtained stocks. It is greatly feared as a weapon because it is contagious and has a high death rate. And much of the world's population is susceptible.

Last week, the disease centers vaccinated about 140 members of epidemiologic teams that can be summoned at a moment's notice to examine a suspected case anywhere in the country.

This week, the centers will begin a series of training courses in smallpox for certain of its own employees and state and local health workers. Additional courses will be held over the next several weeks at the federal agency's headquarters here.

[Jack Barbara]

I would really like to see the nation's colleges and high schools developing plans for distance/home-based education of students if this particular emergency develops.

I am reminded of a study my father showed me some years ago. Back in the 60's, the Minneapolis or Saint Paul school districts went on strike for a whole year. A significant body of students missed a whole year of school. The study was done to determine the "damage to learning" done by missing a year of public education. When the comparisson was done between the students who attended school and the students who missed a year, it was determined that the students who missed a year had no measurable losses.

[blackbart1]

We are planning the same thing and luckily we have a doctor and his family who will be holeing up with us. Not to panic just prepared.

[John Jorsett]

There are close to 200 replies now, so perhaps someone else has noted this (I'm not going to read all 200 just to find out): smallpox becomes communicable only when the person is so ill that in almost all cases the person is already bedridden, too ill to walk. Secondary infections are virtualy always to caregivers like hospital personnel or family members. Also, the vaccine can be given even after symptoms begin to manifest themselves. Authorities will act quickly to isolate and treat those with symptoms, and any outbreak will not be widespread. You can see a great model for this in how outbreaks of Ebola are handled. They're quickly isolated and the transferrence does not go far. And Ebola isn't treatable and there is no vaccine, which is not the case for smallpox. Holing up in one's house is not a rational response, in my opinon. In an outbreak, you'll be offered vaccine, and you'd be better off taking it and then going about your business.

[I'm ALL Right!]

ping

[_Jim]

Hmmm ... maybe those unused Y2K rations will finaly get used up by the bunker-mentality set.

I envision a 1 month (or longer) isolation imposed by the National Guard of each state at the state borders - food service industry and transport workers will be the first to receive the vaccines - all others in non-critical roles will be restricted to their houses - food will be distributed each week by the Guard and -

- those Y2K concentration camps (as EXPOSED right here on FR!) will finally be used by those who VIOLATE the Federally mandated travel resriction orders ...

[Atticus]

If there's a smallpox outbreak, I'm heading to an Arab neighborhood. I hear they've all been vaccinated already.

[Liberty Ship]

Just saw this article:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, fearful of a bioterrorism attack similar to the anthrax scare sweeping the country, said on Sunday key front-line medical workers were being vaccinated against smallpox. Medical Workers Vaccinated Against Smallpox