Smallpox

I'm very alarmed by the fact that the US are pushing for permission to genetically modify the smallpox virus. I cannot see any justification for this whatsoever given that the disease has been eradicated from the population. There's a campaign lobbying for the WHA to refuse this permission - if you want to know more, go to

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1484796,00.html or

http://www.smallpoxbiosafety.org/who/letter.php?language=english

I'm less alarmed now, but still a bit cross.

I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the box but hasn't smallpox been eradicated?

Yup.

But two labs (in the US and Russia) still have samples of the virus.

So they clearly don't need to create another vaccine if only two (presumably heavily controlled) samples exist.

So they're getting permission to create superbugs for biological warfare? How charming. I feel rather angry about it myself ma'am.

Fancy that, I never knew it had been eradicated entirely.....

Yes, the last cases were in 1978, apparently. A photographer caught it in a lab, and then her mother caught it off her. The photographer died, her mother survived, but the photographer's father had a heart attack and died after seeing her in hospital.

You are a mine of information .....I think you should open a thread called "Interesting Fact for the Day".