Bioterror Fears Prompt U.S. to Keep Its Smallpox Cache -- Wall Street Journal
The U.S. and Russia will fight international efforts this week to set a deadline to destroy the last known stocks of smallpox, saying the deadly virus is needed for research to combat bioterrorism.
Members of the World Health Organization meet on Wednesday to begin debating the future of what is left of what was one of the world's most lethal viruses before it was eradicated more than 30 years ago: samples kept in tightly guarded freezers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a Russian government lab near Novosibirsk.
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My Comment: I always get the shivers when I read about small pox. This disease has killed and maimed hundreds of millions of people (if not more) throughout history .... its final eradication is something that should go forward.
Update: Russia, U.S. to Resist Eliminating Smallpox Strains -- Global Security Newswire
1 comment:
As a biochemist & molecular biologist I have to say that destroying the virus is really not good public policy.. you need to keep it and study it - no doubt about it.
Having said that, unless there is solid evidence or sound reason that a terrorist would use this "weapon" in the near to mid term future, I would put minimal resources into it, as the real iminent biological and/or chemical threats lie elsewhere.
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