Smallpox vaccine triggers few bad reactions-studies

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051206/...ZoBHNlYwM3NTE-

One hundred out of nearly 38,000 U.S. emergency workers inoculated with smallpox vaccine became seriously ill from the shot, which experts termed a relatively low rate of adverse reactions, their report said on Tuesday.

so that's one every 380 people.

So if the population of USA is 280 million, that's 736,842 serious reactions. I think terrorists would consider that a pretty good result. That's more than twin towers, and who knows how many might be left permanently damaged? And that would keep the hospital system pretty well busy, so they might consider it worth releasing some smallpox, just to achieve self inflicted vaccine collateral damage.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Okay, you mathematicians do the sums on this, and tell me the total collateral damage

But fears of a bio-terror attack employing the virus prompted the U.S. government in 2003 to create the voluntary vaccination program for so-called first responders such as police and health care workers..... Most reactions showed up within two weeks of the shot, with 21 involving inflammation of muscular tissue or a membrane around the heart, lead researcher Dr. Christine Casey wrote. Ten patients had ischemic events such as strokes that had not been seen before, two had skin eruptions and one developed inflammation of the brain.

Eighty-five patients recovered after a hospital stay, two suffered permanent disabilities, 10 had life-threatening illnesses and three died, the report published in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association said.

When you have the final figures across USA, do you think it might be worth releasing smallpox all over the place, just to achieve that?

So here'e my maths. If the whole of USA was smallpox vaccinated there would be 736,842 serious reactions which would jamb up hospitals.

Of those 154,739 would have heart inflammation,
73,685 would have skin eroptuions,
14,737 would have stroked
7,368 would have brain inflammation.
22,104 deaths

Is that what you got?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

And given this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051206/...ZoBHNlYwM3NTE-

Hospitals are not prepared to handle the patients who would arrive after a disaster or a pandemic, most states have few plans in place for coping, and the federal government has not taken charge of such preparation, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Actually I take back what I said to Mamakay.

Thinking about it from that perspective, and given that the Anthrax vaccine is so bad, it might be useful to release both, just for the hysteria and vaccine uptake value it would generate. Nothing like getting someone else to do your own deeds for you.

[mamakay]

The fear really clouds my judgment. It really does.
These dudes want to kill us.
My own gov. considers me expendible.
It's scary.
What more can I say?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

That you need to deal with the fear. That's the solution.

[mamakay]

Originally Posted by Momtezuma Tuatara

That you need to deal with the fear. That's the solution.

Except it's not.
I'm afraid because there really are thousands and thousands of folks that have a very good reason to want me dead.
War is hell.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Originally Posted by mamakay

Except it's not.
I'm afraid because there really are thousands and thousands of folks that have a very good reason to want me dead.
War is hell.

Name them.

Since when have you had cross hairs on your forehead.

The facts are:

There are more people shot with hand guns on the streets of your country than terrorists have ever killed.

Get in your car, and you have more chance of dying in the next year, than being killed by a terrorist.

Your own medical profession kills 120,000 from preventable medical error.

Given that all those things actually happen , then why are you worried about terrorist and bioterrorism?

What is the point?

What good does it do you?

Isn't it better to deal with what you can deal with, keep your health as good as possible, and get on with life today?

[Plummeting]

MT, what is the real truth about smallpox? There was a conference in St. Louis a few years ago - I think it was a CDC thing, but I don't recall exactly. And in the conference, they decided that smallpox was not the huge threat anyone thought it was, due to the fact that it is not contagious until after the rash has erupted and it is only spread by droplet spray or by direct contact with blisters. Since cough, sneezing, etc. are not symptoms of smallpox, droplet spray transmission isn't going to be all that common, and obviously no one is going to be stupid enough to touch those blisters. So in the end, they decided it wasn't really extremely contagious. (Although no one knows what changes someone may have made to weaponize it - in which case a vaccine probably won't work anyway...)

Is that information correct?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I don't know about the conference. The only information we have on smallpox was in countries where sanitation etc, was non-existent, so no, we don't know how serious smallpox would be today. But I know it would be easy to weaponise.