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Posted on 07/08/2002 4:15:00 AM PDT by kattracks
Klalit HMO Chairman Dan Michaeli, a former director-general of the Health Ministry, said Monday that Israel has begun stockpiling smallpox vaccine for possible future use in a biological weapons attack by a foreign power or terrorist organization.
"I know that decisions have been taken that have led to provisions for all the residents of the country," Michaeli told Army Radio in an interview. "If and when it is decided to vaccinate, I hope they will do so quickly."
A senior IDF officer said in remarks broadcast Monday on Army Radio that intelligence gathered by security forces points to the possibility that Palestinian terrorists will resort to the use of non-conventional weapons in the future. Click here for full article.
Smallpox, once a scourge that killed nearly a third of its victims and scarred the rest, was eradicated in 1979. But some countries, including Iraq and the former Soviet Union, experimented with the virus as a potential germ warfare agent.
Fearful of a smallpox attack, the U.S. government last year ordered millions of doses of smallpox vaccine - enough, in the words of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, to vaccinate "every man, women and child" in the country.
The New York Times on Sunday quoted federal officials as saying that the U.S. government will soon vaccinate around 500,000 health care and emergency personnel against smallpox. Until now, there had been plans to vaccinate just a few thousand workers, the paper said.
The paper also said that the government was "laying the groundwork to carry out mass vaccinations of the public" on the event of a mass-scale outbreak of the disease. (Click here for full story)
But a U.S. Health and Human Services Department spokesman, Bill Pierce, told Reuters the exact number of those to be vaccinated had not yet been decided.
Since vaccination was scrapped in the United States in 1972, experts assume almost no one has any real immunity any more. This means smallpox, which is highly infectious, could spread like wildfire through the population.
But the current vaccine is based on old technology and is not considered very safe. It has a high rate of side-effects, some of them deadly.
In addition, more people have suppressed immune systems now than in the 1970s, and they could be at special risk not only from the vaccine, but from people recently immunized with it.
The large numbers of unvaccinated people born in the interim have raised fears that terrorists or regimes which have experimented with biological weaponry, will try to use smallpox as a weapon of mass destruction.
For further opinions/discussion ?
they know what they're doing and they play the game to their best interest (not to Political correctness).
not to AS MUCH political correctness...
Personally, I'd like to be the first in line, with my kids, for this vaccination. Some folks want to argue the health risks. But, as every parent knows, all vaccinations carry a risk. Parents must sign a waiver for their children every time the child is given a new/updated vaccination.
I couldn't agree with you more. There is of course so much going on behind the scenes within our own govt, that if we knew only half of it, it would be very frightening to say the least. Just last week a shipment of 20,000 gas masks were delivered to Congressman etc. Hmmmmm, what do they know that we don't know ?
I have this very strong "ominous " feeling that I cannot shake, and when I get a strong " feeling" I am usually right.
They could cut down on some of the rush and panic if they would simply and quietly vaccinate everyone who comes to see a doctor or other medical professional. Even police and emt's could help with the distribution. It would be much slower than saying "On such-and-such a date, report to the armory to receive your vaccinations." This slowness would be a sort of mixed blessing, though, since it would allow the vaccination program to begin on a quiet level, and allow time for stockpiles to continue to build at the same time.
How is it possible? I thought that only America and Russia has the alive smallpox cultures.
Why not to destroy the two remaining smallpox cultures in USA and Russia instead of multiplying/increasing them to work on vaccines intended to protect us from them?
I understand that it is hard to secure honest procedure of destruction of the remaining cultures. So maybe it is enought to leave them alone and not to risk revival of the plague?
Personally, I'd like to be the first in line, with my kids, for this vaccination. Some folks want to argue the health risks. But, as every parent knows, all vaccinations carry a risk. Parents must sign a waiver for their children every time the child is given a new/updated vaccination.
If you're really willing to bet that any form of Smallpox used as a biowar agent won't be genetically modified and weaponized if it's really coming from a foreign terrorist enemy, then put all your hopes in a vaccine untested against that particular agent and from which all the possible contraindications and side effects, like blindness, ane not yet known. You and your kids should make excellent guinea pigs to determine such hazards for others, and a trip to Israel to so volunteer is as easy for you as a phone call to El Al at 800-223-6700 or 212-768-9200, or a reservation via the El Al website reservation form or through your local travel agent.
Good luck!
-archy-/-
Sheesh - I guess you forgot to take your Prozac this morning?
Saddam isn't stupid, in spite of his madness. I'll bet he would release some other bio agents for which we wouldn't be immunized.
Not that I wasn't against stopping the smallpox immunization program in the 70s. It drove me nuts when they did that. And I think it should be reinstituted.
But it doesn't seem logical that Saddam would waste his opportunity to hit us by using something we're prepared for. There are so many other deadly agents that he's capable of using. Just a thought.
but if you try to rationalize terrorism - you're only going to confuse yourself and allow the enemy time to act.
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