[texasbluebell]

bttt

[CobaltBlue]

It is a dilemma. If Saddam knew that everybody in Israel and the US were vaccinated, wouldn't that make him less likely to use smallpox as a weapon? Potentially, that could save the lives of millions of people living in countries which had not stockpiled smallpox vaccine.

[Dog Gone]

Install high-tech devices, such as electronic noses, in public places such as airports and subways to detect signs of immune system activation in people who are exposed but not yet sick.

Say what? Does such a device exist?

What happens if it detects someone? Do you immediately arrest them and wrap them in a plastic bubble and move them to a detention camp?

What is being suggested here?

[Thud]

ping

[Virginia-American]

Do you-all drug warriors think the gov't has the right to prevent people from using this drug? Or are they totally out to lunch?

PS I have no problem with the gov't forcing vaccinations. But preventing them?

[joesnuffy]

Gonna be a lot of people absent from school and work not to mention in the ERs the day they decide to innoculate the whole kit & Kaboodle...
Better get at it asap...
and oy... what doctor bills....

[sam_paine]

Q: If it makes sense to vaccinate everyone AFTER a potential attack, why doesn't it make sense if the attack really is at all possible to do the vaccinations now as a precaution?

Either we need to prepare for an outbreak or we don't. I thought the reason the vaccine was tucked away was because the potential of the disease outbreak had been eradicated. If the disease is back, bring back the vaccine!!!!

[eno_]

Who the hell are these people? They are talking sense, and speaking the truth. It must be stopped!

[jd777]

The CDC is third world.

[AzJP]

Dr. Jane Orient was one of, if not the, first doctor to read, analyze, critique, and friggin' blast at Hillary's so-called health-care scheme. She did that very well.

kj

[Dark Wing]

ping

[vannrox]

ABSOLUTELY

IF a Bio-Attack will occur, you can be assured that the points of attack will be multiple (thus forcing a number of "islolation and containment" rings.

Further that the attacks will be staged. Meaning that the "natural" waves of attack will be confused. As different points of insertion at different times make idolation rings ineffective.

Also this is against a no longer immune citizenary. In the past, the attacks would only have a 30% effective rate of fatality, primarily because the grade of Smallpox is "natural" AND that the population has been exposed to less-than-lethal variations in the past. This is no longer true.

The grades of Military smallpox are designed in two very awlful ways. The first is that they are now extremely fatal. Death rates exceeding 95% can be expected. Further, once the individaul contacts the germ, that is it. They are doomed. But most frightening is the horrible fact that the military grade has been developed to create a slow and painful and agonizing death that would linger over time. Three weeks of painful blisterings that are immune to pain relieving drugs. Expect it.

[Gritty]

There may other reasons the public may not be afforded the chance of getting the vaccine before the first cases erupt;

(**adjusting tin foil hat**)

Perhaps there isn't nearly enough vaccine available and won't be and we don't want to admit it?

Or, maybe the vaccine has proven a failure in testing and if given, this will be revealed when there are no telltale symptoms of the vaccination "taking"?

Or, as 'vannrox' stipulates, the vaccine is ineffective against the military variant and releasing it will allow the bad guys to get it, analyze it, and deduce it is ineffective? If Saddam got a Soviet variant and has cultured it, this may be the case. We probably haven't developed a vaccine effective against all possibilites.

(**tin foil hat: ...off**)

[The Great Satan]

The feds' post-attack vaccination plan makes perfect sense. It makes sense for responding to an anthrax attack, though -- not a smallpox attack. Smallpox is a stalking horse for anthrax. Can't talk about anthrax too much -- people would connect the dots. Ergo, we prepare for anthrax while talking about smallpox.

Amusingly, the CDC director gave the game away the other day, with a slip of the tongue in an interview with PBS. See GETTING READY.

[Henchman]

Yup, de doctaz iz correct! However, the vaccine manufacturers will SELL it for use BEFOREHAND, I bet. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Cicero]

I've said this all along. If there's a smallpox attack, then the government will need to go to universal vaccination, whether we like it or not.

In the meantime, vaccine should be released to doctors and hospitals through the usual channels. The more citizens who voluntarily vaccinate their families beforehand, the less quickly the disease will spread.

I would vaccinate my family. This isn't the anthrax vaccine, which is dangerous and probably useless. It's a widely tested, safe vaccine with side effects that would be extremely rare except in AIDS patients and the like. And even AIDS patients would be much safer if the general population were vaccinated.

It's disgusting that Bush is letting this panel handle matters exactly the way clinton would have done.

[Jim Noble]

Ok, here's my (slightly) well-informed comment:

The only reason to vaccinate doctors and nurses now is that it is a necessary war measure (I agree that it is).

That being the case, "peacetime" ideas of risk don't count. The latest from the top is that they want all of us vaccinees to take three weeks off (as if such a thing were possible) because of the remote possibility that a patient with unsuspected immune deficiency would be infected by vaccinia from a doctor or a nurse.

At no time when vaccination was routine did vaccinees take five minutes off, much less three weeks. This absurdly inflated risk scenario is not apposite to the task-if we are at risk of attack, and if the risk is so great that we need to preemptively immunize the front line doctors (me, for example), then creating scenarios to eliminate any risk is inappropriate.

And, yes, I think you all should get it also.