BREAKING: FLIGHT BEING HELD IN SEA-TAC FOR POSSIBE SMALLPOX!

Fox News

[Patriot]

Developing......

[abner]

Bumping for home.

[rwfromkansas]

And they give no evidence. They ignore the fact that Ashcroft is not allowing law enforcement officials to use the gun registry to search for terrorist links. Yet, they whine and complain about the fact that there will be military tribunals for non-citizens who do not even live in this country. They complain about people being detained on INS violations. They never give any damn support for their lies and I am getting extremely fed up.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"The U.S. needs an island somewhere big enough for an airport for jumbo jets a hospital for something just like this instead of landing on the mainland...that way if it was something like this it could be contained "

Good idea. How about Cuba?

[tallhappy]

Hi Penny,

check out post # 139 and see specifically this:

Virus titers in saliva are highest the first week of infection, but infectivity can last up to 3 weeks (until the scabs fall off).

The pox and scabs that occur later are most infectious because they are the most concentrated. But it is also in the saliva and those levels are highest at asymptomatic times.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Sorry. I live in Mass. now. (yuck). I was raised in Cincy. On Cottonwood Drive in Brentwood. Good luck with the van, though.

[zog]

--that is a right "classy" idea there....

[Penny1]

Who's letting whom go?

I'm not seeing anything that says anyone is being let off the plane. I think they're just saying that the guy in question doesn't appear to show any symptoms, so everyone should just take a deep breath and wait for the further tests, etc.

-penny

[abner]

The crew did an initial evaluation and determined the individual "did not have any symptoms of active contagious smallpox," said airport spokesman Bob Parker.

From the updated KOMO article.Here

[ElisabethInCincy]

penny there is update at the link they all are being let go

[Lady GOP]

Time to head for the hills...?

[Lucas1]

ROFL

[Kozak]

Interesting. If no one is presenting symptoms, how would the caller know? As for how we'd find out, the MDs would probably test for smallpox antibodies...

Nope. don't develop antibody till later in the course of the illness. ehre is no test for smallpox antigen (actual virus proteins ), diagnosis is still clinical. If they think this is a credible threat they will have to quaranteen everybody till incubation period is over.

[dixiechick2000]

LOLOLOL

[Poohbah]

To quote Winnie the Pooh...

"Oh, BOTHER!"

[tejas]

What about us senile citizens? Seems to me, I remember getting a vaccination for this in the sixties. Ok, just thought I would ask.

[John H K]

I hate to say it but I'm not the only one, but it does seem that people are almost HOPING for the next big disastrous terrorist attack; why, I can't quite figure out. But when there's something or the rumor of something and its debunked or shown to be not real, people seem to get awfully upset, instead of relieved.

[DB]

And if you're wrong a few million die.

Hardly a reasonable gamble.

[Ridin' Shotgun]

Do you know, is there such a thing as 'weaponized small pox' and if so, do you know how it differs from the natural variety?

[TomB]

You two are absolutely correct regarding the transmission of smallpox. According to the CDC:

Because smallpox can only be transmitted from the time of the earliest appearance of rash, early detection of cases and prompt vaccination of all contacts is critical.

Also, an interesting piece of information from an aricle from Fox News:

The researchers cite the last case of naturally occurring smallpox in October 1977 as further evidence of the difficulty for one person to infect others. Of the 161 persons who had contact with the infected person, 12 unvaccinated persons had face-to-face contact. None of the 12 became ill with clinical cases of smallpox.

Unfortunately, there are some around here needlessly trying to scare people. Smallpox is a relatively easy disease to identify, and it is only contagious once the rash appears.

[Penny1]

penny there is update at the link they all are being let go

Ahhhh, I see.....lovely.

As you said earlier, they misdiagnosed anthrax too.... several times....

-penny