Well, anthrax really. But that threat is -- how shall I put it? -- a little too concrete. For now, anyway. The deconditioning will take a few more weeks. But aside from that calculated nuance, this is exactly what I've been telling everyone for the past six months. From the horse's mouth -- or rather, from the Vice-President of the United States.
First of all, it's not lethal enough. It's nasty, but it only kills ~30% in even the most virulent outbreak.
Second, the blowback potential is just too great. All we'd have to do is find a few infected folks and put them on airplanes to Damascus, Beirut, Cairo, Tripoli, Tehran, and Riyadh. And smallpox, unlike Anthrax, is not truly "assymetrical." A first world healthcare system is a hell of a lot better equipped to deal with it than a third world system.
I'm with you. Smallpox is code for anthrax.