Comments on: Smallpox vaccine alternative identified

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:40:55 +0000

Tex: Right, 1977 was the year the disease was declared dead.The first-responder vaccination program was ended more recently. I don’t know how many first responders were actually vaccinated.

By: Tex

Tex — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:15:53 +0000

Eamon, over the last ten years the rate of vaccination has gone down, and five years ago or so it was essentially stopped. I'm surprised your kids were not vaccinated (but not with smallpox .. rather, with vaccinia vaccine). Smallpox vaccination (with vaccinia) was stopped in the USA sometime in the 1970s. My first child, born in 1978, was not vaccinated. If I recall correctly, smallpox vaccinations in the US were stopped several years before the disease was declared eradicated.When I began teaching virology in 1985, my students (mostly college seniors maybe 21-22 years old)had vaccination scars. A few years later, most of the students had no idea why their parents both had scars in the same places on their arms and they never thought to ask.

By: Chris Hanson

Chris Hanson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:07:35 +0000

potential alternative to the existing smallpox vaccine that can replace the current biodefense stockpile for this lethal virus.Would those stockpiles have been options for terrorists interested in biological warfare?Could MVA develop similar risks over time?Could the two develop differences that would make MVA obsolete?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:39:58 +0000

Eamon, over the last ten years the rate of vaccination has gone down, and five years ago or so it was essentially stopped. I’m surprised your kids were not vaccinated (but not with smallpox .. rather, with vaccinia vaccine).

By: Eamon Knight

Eamon Knight — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:14:17 +0000

….it is believed that routine vaccination has kept its return from happening. Of course, if it was really eradicated then that does not make a lot of sense…“Routine” in what way? My wife and I (born late 1950s) bear the customary vaccination scar of our generation, but our kids (born mid-80s) were not vaccinated for smallpox. Is there somewhere in the world where vaccination is still done?