It was a necessary evil, putting people in jeopardy in order to combat one of the most terrible scourges that ever faced mankind. Smallpox was just that - a terrible scourge. It killed up to 1/3 of those who contracted it. It left survivors scarred for life. But in order to combat it, it had to be worked with in medical laboratories.
The CDC will gladly tell you about the last case in the USA taking place in 1949. Then they happily tell you about the last naturally transmitted case of it being in Somalia in 1977. They fail to tell you though (at least on their main smallpox page) of the last known case of it. Could that be because it was caused by the possible incompetence of British lab workers? "The last known case was in Britain in 1978, when a university photographer who worked above a lab handling smallpox died after being accidentally exposed to it from the ventilation system."(source). The guy responsible for the research - he committed suicide after that but what good would that have done had thousands died - then again what good did it do for the one who died - the last one to date.
There was and is a definite threat, we were and are in jeopardy, people could have been and can be exposed to it and killed by it even when handled in lab conditions. That should have been a warning to science and to the governments of the world to destroy it all once they knew it was eradicated. So how could the government put all of us in continued jeopardy by storing it after it was otherwise eradicated. Until recently, it was believed that the only remaining samples of smallpox were stored at the CDC in Atlanta, GA in the United States and at a Russian lab in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Well, they were wrong as the government seems to be all too often.
Samples of the smallpox virus were discovered just last week and not in either Atlanta or Novosibirsk. These samples were found in sealed glass vials "packed away and forgotten in a cardboard box" in an unsecure location near Washington (DC?). They may have been there for decades and no one knows if they are still alive (source). That was the double jeopardy. First they put us in jeopardy because of necessity. Then they put us in jeopardy by way of sheer negligence.
So now that they found it, what are they going to do with it. You would imagine that since it has the potential to be extremely dangerous to all of mankind they would destroy it immediately. Of course, that reportedly is not what they are about to do with it. Yes, they plan to destroy it but first they potentially will put us in jeopardy for a third time - Triple Jeopardy! They are moving it to the Centers For Disease Control where they will attempt to determine if it is still alive and it may take up to two weeks to test it! Why on earth would they take the chance, over a two week period, that if it is alive it could escape into the lab and maybe into the atmosphere or be carried out in a human host??? Now you may think, oh no it can't be alive but smallpox can survive freeze drying. If they thought it could not possibly be alive then why bother testing it ! The government eggheads think it is possible it could be alive as witnessed by their plan to test it - get it. That means they are willing to risk an outbreak of it that could endanger mankind.
Now, you may also think - 'Oh, but the samples will be in the super secure CDC labs for testing so what threat could it pose, there is no way it could be a threat right'! WRONG. Just last month, the CDC reportedly had a major security breach with Anthrax that could have led to an outbreak. "Last month, a laboratory safety lapse at the CDC in Atlanta led the agency to give scores of employees antibiotics as a precaution against anthrax.(source) " So don't think even for a moment that if the smallpox sample they just found is still alive that it does not pose a potential threat. Also bear in mind that THERE IS NO CURE FOR SMALLPOX.
The CDC puts it this way: "There is no specific treatment for smallpox disease, and the only prevention is vaccination." (source). The CDC considers it a very serious disease, and of the four types of Variola major (the major variant of smallpox) they say this as to its lethality: "Historically, variola major has an overall fatality rate of about 30%; however, flat and hemorrhagic smallpox usually are fatal. Variola minor is a less common presentation of smallpox, and a much less severe disease, with death rates historically of 1% or less." (same source as the last one above). The major form, the one that is contracted by 90% of smallpox victims, is fatal 30% of the time. Should we trust these government types - the same type that forgot about a sample of it stored in a cardboard box for years - to be playing around with it to see if it is still alive? If you think yes we should, tell me - then what!
If it's live and gets out, we could suffer through a worldwide catastrophe since they no longer regularly vaccinate people for smallpox, at least not in the USA. Nowhere do they show smallpox vaccinations on their list of recommended immunizations for folks in the United States. While they do not currently recommend a smallpox vaccination among their schedules for children, teens or adults, the CDC claims to have enough smallpox vaccine for an emergency such as an unexpected outbreak of it. Do you believe that? I find it almost impossible to believe; heck, they could not even produce enough flu vaccine a few years back.
Knowing the track record of our government, especially the record of the current administration, and of the CDC's most recent accident with anthrax, do you trust them with this stuff? I don't trust them and I think it should be destroyed immediately. I even hesitate to trust the government to destroy it and would prefer that left to a private entity. I am willing to bet, that if this sample is live and or is a different strain than ones they already have at the CDC and or in Siberia - the government will do a couple or few things with it regardless of what they tell us:
1. They will test it to see if still viable.
2. Then will tell us it was dead and died due to improper storage, they will do that whether alive or dead.
3. They will assure us it poses absolutely no threat.
4. They will tell us it has been completely destroyed.
5. They will put it into storage at the CDC, or elsewhere, for long term study (whether believed dead or alive) if it is a strain that they did not already have in storage.
6. They will put it into long term storage if alive, even if a strain they already have, because they will be amazed by its longevity under adverse conditions and will claim a need to study it further.
7. They will consider and study its use as a biological weapon as they probably have already done for years.
8. They will put us in continued jeopardy because they think they know best but as usual are dead ass wrong.
What can we do? We can contact our elected officials immediately and demand that these samples be destroyed without a moment's delay. Some may think this is some type of paranoia but it is not. Nor is it merely hedging your bet based on the government's record of incompetency versus competency - and the government comes out about one level below as competent as a rock with lips in all too many instances. I certainly wouldn't trust a rock, even one with lips, with this stuff - so why trust the government with it.
As I said though, it is not just that, it is the fact that two very strong countries' governments resist attempts to have the virus destroyed as was first recommended by the World Health Organization in 1986. Those two governments, the ones that still have smallpox samples, probably have done more than any others in researching bio-weapons. They are the United States and Russia. They claim they need the samples to further research antiviral drugs and the like. The World Health Organization disagrees:
"Some scientists have argued that the stocks may be useful in developing new vaccines, antiviral drugs, and diagnostic tests;[84] however, a 2010 review by a team of public health experts appointed by the World Health Organization concluded that no essential public health purpose is served by the U.S. and Russia continuing to retain virus stocks." (source)
If that is true, why would the USA and Russia retain them. I think either for possible use as future bio-weapons or to possibly combat bio-weapons in the event this stuff is already in the hands of terrorists or rogue governments like North Korea. Of course, our government is not claiming that any of this is in any other hands than the governments of the USA or Russia and of course they likely would never admit to it as being a potential future bio-weapon. So, if it truly is only in the hands of the USA and Russia - why not destroy it now so no one else can ever get it as a weapon or as a disease since it would not be there to get? There has to be another reason for holding onto it and they are not telling us.
I think it should be destroyed - all of it - because it is a threat to mankind no matter how well some government, one step below the competency level a rock with lips, thinks it can store it. And let's face it folks, a government smarter than that just ain't out there.
Wikipedia has an extensive article on smallpox. It makes for interesting albeit worrisome reading. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
All the best,
GB
The CDC will gladly tell you about the last case in the USA taking place in 1949. Then they happily tell you about the last naturally transmitted case of it being in Somalia in 1977. They fail to tell you though (at least on their main smallpox page) of the last known case of it. Could that be because it was caused by the possible incompetence of British lab workers? "The last known case was in Britain in 1978, when a university photographer who worked above a lab handling smallpox died after being accidentally exposed to it from the ventilation system."(source). The guy responsible for the research - he committed suicide after that but what good would that have done had thousands died - then again what good did it do for the one who died - the last one to date.
This is not the last victim of smallpox, just an example
of one of the many to have suffered from it.
There was and is a definite threat, we were and are in jeopardy, people could have been and can be exposed to it and killed by it even when handled in lab conditions. That should have been a warning to science and to the governments of the world to destroy it all once they knew it was eradicated. So how could the government put all of us in continued jeopardy by storing it after it was otherwise eradicated. Until recently, it was believed that the only remaining samples of smallpox were stored at the CDC in Atlanta, GA in the United States and at a Russian lab in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Well, they were wrong as the government seems to be all too often.
Samples of the smallpox virus were discovered just last week and not in either Atlanta or Novosibirsk. These samples were found in sealed glass vials "packed away and forgotten in a cardboard box" in an unsecure location near Washington (DC?). They may have been there for decades and no one knows if they are still alive (source). That was the double jeopardy. First they put us in jeopardy because of necessity. Then they put us in jeopardy by way of sheer negligence.
So now that they found it, what are they going to do with it. You would imagine that since it has the potential to be extremely dangerous to all of mankind they would destroy it immediately. Of course, that reportedly is not what they are about to do with it. Yes, they plan to destroy it but first they potentially will put us in jeopardy for a third time - Triple Jeopardy! They are moving it to the Centers For Disease Control where they will attempt to determine if it is still alive and it may take up to two weeks to test it! Why on earth would they take the chance, over a two week period, that if it is alive it could escape into the lab and maybe into the atmosphere or be carried out in a human host??? Now you may think, oh no it can't be alive but smallpox can survive freeze drying. If they thought it could not possibly be alive then why bother testing it ! The government eggheads think it is possible it could be alive as witnessed by their plan to test it - get it. That means they are willing to risk an outbreak of it that could endanger mankind.
 |
| We sure don't need to ever see even one more case of smallpox! Photo credit to CDC/PHIL. |
The CDC puts it this way: "There is no specific treatment for smallpox disease, and the only prevention is vaccination." (source). The CDC considers it a very serious disease, and of the four types of Variola major (the major variant of smallpox) they say this as to its lethality: "Historically, variola major has an overall fatality rate of about 30%; however, flat and hemorrhagic smallpox usually are fatal. Variola minor is a less common presentation of smallpox, and a much less severe disease, with death rates historically of 1% or less." (same source as the last one above). The major form, the one that is contracted by 90% of smallpox victims, is fatal 30% of the time. Should we trust these government types - the same type that forgot about a sample of it stored in a cardboard box for years - to be playing around with it to see if it is still alive? If you think yes we should, tell me - then what!
If it's live and gets out, we could suffer through a worldwide catastrophe since they no longer regularly vaccinate people for smallpox, at least not in the USA. Nowhere do they show smallpox vaccinations on their list of recommended immunizations for folks in the United States. While they do not currently recommend a smallpox vaccination among their schedules for children, teens or adults, the CDC claims to have enough smallpox vaccine for an emergency such as an unexpected outbreak of it. Do you believe that? I find it almost impossible to believe; heck, they could not even produce enough flu vaccine a few years back.
Knowing the track record of our government, especially the record of the current administration, and of the CDC's most recent accident with anthrax, do you trust them with this stuff? I don't trust them and I think it should be destroyed immediately. I even hesitate to trust the government to destroy it and would prefer that left to a private entity. I am willing to bet, that if this sample is live and or is a different strain than ones they already have at the CDC and or in Siberia - the government will do a couple or few things with it regardless of what they tell us:
1. They will test it to see if still viable.
2. Then will tell us it was dead and died due to improper storage, they will do that whether alive or dead.
3. They will assure us it poses absolutely no threat.
4. They will tell us it has been completely destroyed.
5. They will put it into storage at the CDC, or elsewhere, for long term study (whether believed dead or alive) if it is a strain that they did not already have in storage.
6. They will put it into long term storage if alive, even if a strain they already have, because they will be amazed by its longevity under adverse conditions and will claim a need to study it further.
7. They will consider and study its use as a biological weapon as they probably have already done for years.
8. They will put us in continued jeopardy because they think they know best but as usual are dead ass wrong.
What can we do? We can contact our elected officials immediately and demand that these samples be destroyed without a moment's delay. Some may think this is some type of paranoia but it is not. Nor is it merely hedging your bet based on the government's record of incompetency versus competency - and the government comes out about one level below as competent as a rock with lips in all too many instances. I certainly wouldn't trust a rock, even one with lips, with this stuff - so why trust the government with it.
As I said though, it is not just that, it is the fact that two very strong countries' governments resist attempts to have the virus destroyed as was first recommended by the World Health Organization in 1986. Those two governments, the ones that still have smallpox samples, probably have done more than any others in researching bio-weapons. They are the United States and Russia. They claim they need the samples to further research antiviral drugs and the like. The World Health Organization disagrees:
"Some scientists have argued that the stocks may be useful in developing new vaccines, antiviral drugs, and diagnostic tests;[84] however, a 2010 review by a team of public health experts appointed by the World Health Organization concluded that no essential public health purpose is served by the U.S. and Russia continuing to retain virus stocks." (source)
If that is true, why would the USA and Russia retain them. I think either for possible use as future bio-weapons or to possibly combat bio-weapons in the event this stuff is already in the hands of terrorists or rogue governments like North Korea. Of course, our government is not claiming that any of this is in any other hands than the governments of the USA or Russia and of course they likely would never admit to it as being a potential future bio-weapon. So, if it truly is only in the hands of the USA and Russia - why not destroy it now so no one else can ever get it as a weapon or as a disease since it would not be there to get? There has to be another reason for holding onto it and they are not telling us.
I think it should be destroyed - all of it - because it is a threat to mankind no matter how well some government, one step below the competency level a rock with lips, thinks it can store it. And let's face it folks, a government smarter than that just ain't out there.
Wikipedia has an extensive article on smallpox. It makes for interesting albeit worrisome reading. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
All the best,
GB
