"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> In discussions with a friend last night I was told that she
> had heard a news report that some of the smallpox samples
> in Russia had gone missing. Google and Altavista searches
> don't seem to locate anything on this (for me).
>
> I've got an older (1990) medical textbook that says the
> samples were supposed to be in Moscow. A more recent
> web page discussing various bioterrorist threats
> seemed to suggest they were stored at a poorly guarded
> facility in Novisibirsk (if my memory serves correctly).
>
> News discussions on television seem to suggest that the
> old vaccinations may have only had a protective life of
> 10 years (so if you are my age and think you are protected
> you may not be).
An 'expert' on CNN last night said that there is no use in conducting
mass immunizations ahead of time to help prevent any possible outbreak
from spreading, on the logic that some 1 in a million people have
mortally allergice reactions to the vaccine, and that people that are
HIV positive also cannot be vaccinated. Frankly I don't see the logic.
Just immunize everybody who isn't HIV positive that wants it, and test
people for the allergy before you vaccinate. They are putting all of us
at risk simply because of a risk to a few percent of the population.
They don't realize that by immunizing the rest of us, this reduces the
chance that those unimmunized will ever be exposed in the event of an
outbreak.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:14 MDT