Posted on 11/05/2001 7:29:40 AM PST by Wild Game
Does the enemy have the virus and will we see it crop up? Or is the (smarter than anyone else) media just going crazy and and hoping for an outbreak? It was the media that kept reporting the dreaded anthrax and bingo, here it is. Is the enemy getting ideas from the press? What do you think Freepers? Smallpox can kill 30% of those infected, would the enemy use such an uncertain weapon?
Then you failed to notice that the 30% mortality rate in the experiment was theoretical and presumed no treatment of the exposed. Truth is that given an outbreak of a weapon of this kind, 30% mortality rates would not be realized. This was a theoretical outbreak with fictional fatalities.
Never did I ever extract 30% fatalities against any number. Why? Because the number was ficticious. Because my point is vaccination, without a single case of the disease will kill .01% of those vaccinated. It would be foolish to vaccinate in anticipation of a non-confirmed threat.
This is why we need to develop new vaccines that are orders of magnitudes safer and whose effects last longer. If we had vaccines that were 1,000 times safer than the current ones, it would be worthwhile to vaccinate before an outbreak occurs.
The WHO recommended in 1980 that all countries stop vaccinating their populations against smallpox because the risks of the side effects of the vaccine were greater than the risks of the effects of the disease after the erradication of smallpox.
Yes, we do need improved vaccines, including ones against more dreadful bio-weapons such as Russian Blackpox.
Agreed. I would also think the World Health Organization would have it also.
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