[FairOpinion]

you can't transmit anthrax from person to person - it isn't "contagious".

===

Of course, I am glad you caught that. But you sure can transmit smallpox.

I am personally much more worried about smallpox precisely for that reason. There is no way, they can inoculate everyone in time.

One of my pet issues is that the government refuses to make smallpox vaccine available, so at least those who want to, can make a personal decision to get the vaccine.

[Angelus Errare]

Do you remember that Washington Post article on al-Qaeda's WMD program? We (the general public) know from Ansar al-Islam and their experiments in Afghanistan at Darunta camp and the Pankisi Gorge that the network already has access to crude chemical and biological weapons - my guess would be that they've refined their capabilities, at least in Pankisi where they've been able to operate more or less in peace and are planning to hit us with something big.

[knak]

HHS Secretary says "vast majority" of states ready for smallpox

[dawn53]

This is somewhat off the subject of the planes, but very much on topic of bio agents.

I watched a program on Discovery Health channel tonight about outbreaks of Tularemia pneumonia on Martha's Vineyard.

Started in the summer of 2000 with 15 cases (average yearly diagnosis is 200 cases) yet they had 15 cases in one summer. They continue to have outbreaks each summer, but not as many as the first year.

They have never been able to identify the exact origin of the disease, wondering if it was ticks, or small animals.

I had not realized what a powerful bio agent it would be until it was discussed on the show tonight.

[Kozak]

One of my pet issues is that the government refuses to make smallpox vaccine available, so at least those who want to, can make a personal decision to get the vaccine.

Here's the problem. Only those who are already vaccinated can give the vaccine to others. There are a relatively small number of us in that group ( I got mine last year in the spring ). The plan to vaccinate emergency workers flopped. Some of it was because of some safety issues with the vaccine ( which I thnk were overblown by some for political reasons ). Some of it was legal, ie demands for workmans comp etc for anyone who got the vaccine and had any reaction at all.

All I know is God forbid Smallpox gets loose, because the lines are gonna be really long to get vaccinated.

[1066AD]

There was an article a few weeks ago describing a study that had concluded that, once vaccinated, resistsnce to smallpox lasts much longer than thought so maybe those who have been vaccinated at least once still have some protection.

[Dolphy]

I am personally much more worried about smallpox precisely for that reason. There is no way, they can inoculate everyone in time.

In the months following September 11 I remember reading how many vaccines the government was acquiring. That was a sobering clue to how serious they took the threat. Aren't there fairly elaborate plans on how they would quarantine areas and distribute the vaccine in an infected area?

[Cold Heart]

I recently saw an ad on TV asking for volunteers to test a new small pox vaccine. Sorry, I forgot which station, I do a lot of channel surfing.

[js1138]

Of course, I am glad you caught that. But you sure can transmit smallpox. Recent research indicates that smallpox vaccinations provide significant immunity for 50 years or more. A smallpox "epidemic" would be a major nuisance, but not and uncontrollable plague.

[RaceBannon]

Most Doctors agree, though, that if you are a person with smallpox, and you are contagious, you are also deathly ill at the same time, so, It wont be a human carrying it to spread.

I am more worried of other deliveries of this stuff by other means.

[Gamecock]

Small pox is not contagious until you have the actual eruptions on your skin. They would have to pass through our world class security </joke> with these massive eruptions on their skin.

Second point (or nit) once you have the eruptions you are not interested in moving. You are so ill you just want to die. It would be very impressive indeed for someone with a full blown case of smallpox to have the energy to board a plane.

[little jeremiah]

While it is true that anthrax cannot be spread from person to person as a contagious illness, it seems logical that if anthrax spores were somehow dispersed among the passengers they could be vectors in a sense, further dispersing the spores on their persons and luggage. That way the anthrax could spread more among a larger group of people; not as a contagion but just from further spore distribution, since the spores are so small and light, and one doesn't need that many to contract the disease.

[Axenolith]

If you were vaccinated in the past you're probably OK. An outbreak in New York in, I believe it was the 50's, spared people in contact with the infected who'd been innoculated as much as 50 years prior.

Now, if it's an engineered strain, the bets are off, and the existing vaccine wouldn't work anyway.