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Politics : Piffer Thread on Political Rantings and Ravings -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (3984)	11/10/2001 3:28:32 PM
From: jcky	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14610

Hi Alan, Let me start by posting some links below which may answer some of your questions relating to the history, symptoms and risks of the small pox virus and its associated vaccination. seercom.com 38.232.17.254 cdc.gov As shown from the link above, the last recorded natural case of the small pox virus was in Somalia in 1977. And as you have stated, the small pox virus is highly contagious and the mortality rate is anywhere between 10 to 30 percent. For comparison, the mortality rate for the Ebola virus is roughly 90%. Assessing the odds of terrorists possessing the small pox virus will be very difficult, at best. All we can say with certainty is that both the United States, the former Soviet Union, and perhaps, Iraq, may have access to the virus. But what we can do is assess the potential risks of vaccinations, given the prior clinical knowledge, available to us. From the CDC site, we know the rate of post-vaccinal encephalitis occurs at a rate of 3 per million primary vaccinees and roughly 40% of the cases are fatal while others are left with permanent neurologic damage. Now from the last US census, the population of our country is approximately 300 million people. So if we were to vaccinate every individual in our country, roughly 900 people would suffer from post-vaccinal encephalitis and 360 people would die from their vaccinations. But this simple calculation above doesn't even take into consideration the numerous Americans who may be chronically immunosupressed from HIV, cancer, organ transplantations, tuberculosis, malnutrition, etc. Remember, this vaccination involves the introduction of an attenuated live small pox virus into its host in order to illicit an immunological response. Perhaps for some people, losing 360 innocent lives is acceptable when we consider that we just lost 5000 lives in the WTC attack or that second hand smoke kills 53,000 people each year. But quite frankly, I personally just think the risk is too high given the circumstance. And lastly, I do not have kids. I don't know how this piece of information will affect your opinion. Some may view indifference because I don't have children or some may view it as a more objective opinion given the same circumstances. But if I did have kids, I would not have them vaccinated against the small pox virus given my knowledge of the current circumstances. Remember, the small pox virus has been eradicated in the known world, except for a select few laboratories. And if Osama bin Laden really has access to the small pox virus, he probably also has access to nuclear capabilities. And there's no known vaccinations against a nuclear threat. As usual, just my humble opinion....