[July 4th]

That would be a logical way to do it. Have a form that goes along with the vaccine - if it kills you, your family can't sue. I think the only reason they're not allowing vaccination for the general public is that there's a fairly high mortality rate (as medicines go) associated with the vaccine. Since there isn't currently a smallpox outbreak, the risks associated with the vaccine are outweighing the risk of infection.

[FreeTally]

The report in the other posts quoted the CDC as saying approximately 300 people would die if it was given out nationwide.

Also said that death becomes more of a possibility if the person has AIDS.

[Miss Marple]

I would like to see evidence of that "high mortality rate." Once upon a time EVERYONE got a smallpox vaccination. I have had two...once when I was a kid and once when I entered Indiana University in 1966, becaue it was REQUIRED.

All of my sisters, and my brother, and my husband, and my mother and father received this vaccination. There were no alarms about it at the time...it was considered routine.

I would venture that all freepers over the age of 40 have received the vaccination. I do not understand the sudden fear of something that was once considered a life-saving procedure.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I think the only reason they're not allowing vaccination for the general public is that there's a fairly high mortality rate (as medicines go) associated with the vaccine.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, the projected number of deaths is about one and a half days worth of traffic fatalities. Are you more afraid of being killed by a terrorist attack with small pox than you are of being killed in traffic in the next 2 days?

Neither one of them sounds likely, but either could happen. But taking the vaccine protects your neighbor, too--by reducing the payoff to the potential bioterrorist so he might be less inclined to do it.