Smallpox Outbreak: What to Do

The Sierra Times ^ | Jul. 15, 2002 | by Sherri Tenpenny, DO

[madfly]

A doctor doing the job of the media and the government.
I'd be interested to know if there were any media
at the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) meeting
of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Pass this around.

[First_Salute]

I expect yellow fever, 1st, "west Nile virus," 2nd, malaria, 3rd, and smallpox, 4th.

[Anotherpundit]

I'm sorry, but following that advice looks like a good way to get yourself killed. Anyone who seriously argues that a vaccine is more dangerous than the disease is clearly ignorant of the whole theory of vaccination.

The more important thing he forgets, though, is that in a bioterror strike, we most likely wouldn't be dealing with normal smallpox; we'd be dealing with weaponized, engineered smallpox, designed for maximum contagion and lethality. The one good argument he could've made was that our current vaccines may prove too weak to handle such a weaponized variety of the disease.

[First_Salute]

"200 years ago," yellow fever was a routine summer happenin' along the eastern seaboard.

[Centurion2000]

Just wait until Blue Nile virus is dropped. Then things will get interesting.

[steve50]

If it's a modified strain the vaccination would probably be useless. I'll take my chances on quarentine

[Admin Moderator]

It was rendering fine on my machine the first time, but I ran your HTML through my browser's validator and I saw some problems with the second TABLE tag, which had a HEIGHT attribute set to XX% which is not valid. I took out the HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes for both TABLE tags since they really don't serve any purpose here.

Let me know if it fixed it. If it didn't, then I don't know what to do. Thanks, AM

[madfly]

ping

[madfly]

Yes, it's just what I was expecting to see. Thanks so much for the quick response.

[Springman]

Bump for later.

[freedomcrusader]

smallpox vaccine...with a dubious track record for success.

It wiped the disease out of natural occurrence in the entire world. Yep, that's a pretty lousy record. (/sarcasm)

[Admin Moderator]

You are welcome. Thanks, AM

[madfly]

ping

[FITZ]

You have to have the right kind of mosquitos for malaria ---but I suppose they could be brought in by the millions.

[FITZ]

I'm sorry, but following that advice looks like a good way to get yourself killed.

I know I'll take my kids up into the mountains ---or maybe some remote area in Mexico ---away from the cities until they can be vaccinated.

[max61]

"200 years ago," yellow fever was a routine summer happenin' along the eastern seaboard.

So was Malaria.

---max

[dawn53]

It wiped the disease out of natural occurrence in the entire world. Yep, that's a pretty lousy record. (/sarcasm)

You're right,it did. And most of us baby boomers had the vaccine administered, and I don't know anybody who had a reaction to it. I'm sure some did, but it must not have been widespread.

On the author's example of polio vaccine being pushed when it was still experimental, I do have a friend my age, whose parents refused on that basis, and she contracted polio and has been disabled ever since, and now deals with post polio syndrome.

[realpatriot71]

Smallpox Outbreak: What to Do

I suggest: screaming, running, yelling, panicking, etc.

[Anotherpundit]

If you can make it, go for it, but the last thing I'd want to do in a crisis situation like that was travel long distances. The only people who'll really have a prayer are those who have isolated places out in the country that are at least mildly short-term self sufficient, and can be reached in a couple hours in the event of a crisis, no more..

[TomB]

It wiped the disease out of natural occurrence in the entire world. Yep, that's a pretty lousy record. (/sarcasm)

That's the first thing that jumped out at me too.

While the article is accurate on a number of facts (i.e. when the disease becomes contagious), it should NOT be treated as authoritative.