[Brian Kopp DPM]

I am not an infectious disease specialist. I am only a foot doctor. However, I know enough about transmission of disease to understand that if the terrorists have smallpox, we may be in the beginning stage of an attempt at causing a smallpox epidemic. What better route than by powdering (NOT injecting) Halloween candy with smallpox virus? It is a perfect example of asymmetrical warfare. Plus there are many unsubstantiated rumors about further attacks on Halloween.

[Carry_Okie]

How many people remember the correlation between small pox immunity and milk maids with cowpox? Wait until these terrorist creeps figure out that the way to infect the American public is imported food. We get about 90% of our ground beef that way. The Mexicans accept beef cattle from virtually anywhere. I'm sure all those physicians out there told the public health system and the insurers of the grocery chains about the risk when we passed NAFTA.

[whoever]

Does anyone remember how former Sec. of HHS Donna Shalala vigorously fought to have our sample of smallpox destroyed so that no vaccines could be made?

At the time, Russia had the only other known sample. Now it is assumed that a couple more terrorist nations have it.

Had the Clinton administration had their way, we would be in deep trouble now. Far deeper than we are.

[Qathleen]

Do you know what the incubation period is for smallpox?
If the candy has already been returned to the store... then someone else may have already purchased it, touched it, and become infected.
Could smallpox be spreading already?

[BJungNan]

Who is the idiot store managers that would allow this purchase to be made in the first place. They should have refused the sale.

The situation was obvious enough to call the FBI but not obvious enough to refuse the sale?

[copycat]

bin laden stated that next they would strike the "heart of America." One FReeper suggested that could mean an attack on our children...our next generation of warriors and fathers. Each person must decide for themselves, but it does not seem far-fetched to me that terrorists would try to poison our kids.

[JENINMO]

Not to make light of this (I'm glad my kids are past trick or treating age) but $35,000 worth of candy at ONE location? Do they even CARRY THAT MUCH at one location?

Here's a thought, maybe they're buying up all the candy to ruin Halloween, sort of the Grinches that stole Halloween.

[patent]

bump.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good information

To find all articles tagged or indexed using

Anthrax_Scare_List

Go here:

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC) LIST

and then click the Anthrax_Scare_List topic to initiate the search! !

[OKCSubmariner]

Iman Zihwari(Senior Bin Laden aide with Egyptian & Islamic Jihad ties) told the world several weeks ago in a video taped message that AlQaeda would make sure "America lost her money and HER CHILDREN"! Bin Laden in the same taped message described "America's mothers" as "crying". This is the famous taped message first broadcast and then not replayed at the request of the USG for concern Bin Laden might be sending hidden messages to sleeper agents in the US and around the world.

However, tonight I saw and heard on CBS 60 minutes with Ed Bradley, a CBS replay of excerpts of the video taped message and now I know for certain Zihwari said just what I quoted and as I had remebered it.

Also Sadam Hussein and Bin Laden (who are working together to train 200 AlQaeda terrorists to dissiminate biological and chemical weapons) have openly called for revenge for the deaths of children they claimed were killed in Iraq in the Gulf War and in Afghanistan during the US cruise missile attack. I doubt their claims. Their children were not targeted by the US and very few children were likely even killed by accident. But Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein may be using their false claims as justification, an excuse, to use biological or chemical weapons against America's children.

Children are America's future which Laden and Zihwari want to destroy. The children could be attacked at schools, nurseries, day care centers, Sunday schools, church, on Halloween, on playgrounds, in shopping malls,etc. But a relatively small number of children could be affected unless the terrorists find a way to widely dissiminate a biolocical or chemical weapon that children would be vulerable to.

Small pox could be put on candy wrappers or even sprayed in aerosol form (from crop dusters or helicopters) as a mist. What makes children a serious target for small pox is that most children in the US have not been vaccinated for small pox since the late 1970s or early 1980s and there is only a small supply of vaccine on hand currently in the US. The vaccine can help an infected child recover if given within three days of exposure, otherwise there is no cure and the mortality rate is high, 30-50%. I am not sure if it is also harmful to fetuses even if the mother has immunity.

AlQaeda terrorists who handle and spread small pox would be protected if they have been vaccinated. A world outbreak would be devestating even to Arab nations and their children via contagion, so the terrorists may not use small pox unless their populations are vaccinated.

Small pox is so virulent and contagious that only a few small pox virus particles need to land on a victim for them to be infected. This is what makes small pox an even more effective than anthrax as a bioterror weapon, the fact that it can be sprayed more easily, is contagious and requires a lower concentration for infection. Airborne anthrax may take several thousand spores to enter the lungs before a victim develops the disease. Only a very few small pox virus particles need to come in contact with any mucous membrane for an infection to occur.

Sadly there are also probably other biological and chemical weapons besides small pox which could be used against America's children. And there still is the possibility that the terrorists would use an airplane, a gasoline tanker, a toxic chemical truck,a truck bomb,radioactive waste... to single out large concentrations of children at schools etc.

Stay alert and on guard 24/7 for our children.

[griffin]

Thanks and BTTT

[RoseyT]

I think I read a post sometime in the past couple of weeks about a truckload of candy being stolen, but turning up later with none of the candy missing.
Does anyone remember this or did I dream it? I searched for the thread and can't find it.

[shezza]

Ping!

[R_Kangel]

I am reminded of the time when I was a child, one Saturday morning my father and I went out to feed our chickens and gather some eggs for the customary family weekend breakfast. I figure that we must have had at least 20-30 of them (chickens). "They sure are quiet this morning" my dad mumbled to himself with a very visibly concerned frown on his face. As we neared the coop there was kind of a foul odor hanging in the still morning air. He slowly opened the coop door. "Stay outside!" he barked as he stepped inside. There was a lot of yelling of some very angry words that I was not used to hearing coming from my fathers mouth. I ran inside to find out what was wrong. What I saw inside was not very pretty. It was very obvious that our much anticipated Saturday morning breakfast would have to wait. Suddenly I did not have an appetite any more because inside I gazed upon all of our chickens strewn about, ravaged and bloody....motionless and very very dead. "Foxes" my dad repeated over and over... "Damn foxes." I am starting to experience the same sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. Just as I did so many years ago. Only this time I seem to feel much like those poor chickens that went to rest one evening and never lived another day again. Only this time on a much much larger scale. I try pinching myself in hopes of waking myself up from this bad dream about some terrorist foxes running loose inside the only home that we have. This home that we call America, the land of the free. These foxes are here dwelling inside our country waiting to shed the blood of the innocents.

[Silly]

A SUGGESTION TO PROTECT YOURSELF ON HALLOWEEN

I am not an alarmist, and don't believe there is any significant threat to us on Hallowe'en. Most of the dithering and nail-biting is due to hysteria, and kids and parents should feel safe to go trick-or-treating.

Having said that, I'd like to suggest a way to help ease parents' fears on Hallowe'en, and I'd like your opinion of this (this is only for you hysterical types who would otherwise NOT let your kids go trick-or-treating):

Send your kids out with enough baggies for the number of houses you think they'll visit. 100 houses? 100 baggies. They're cheap. Pre-tag each baggie with a sticker.

Instruct your kids NOT to let people put candy in their large bag or pail. INSTEAD, the kids should collect the candy by hand, place it in a baggie, and mark the house number on the sticker. The kids or parents should do this in view of the homeowner, calling out the house number.

Many parents follow their kids from door to door, so the parents can do this themselves. Now you will know which house gave you what candy, and any miscreant (there are extremely few of these, by the way) giving out tainted candy will be a bit alarmed to see their candy tagged, and nervous parents will feel better.

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[Prodigal Daughter]

Thank you for this post. I showed this thread to an internal medicine doctor/aerospace engineer in my family who is interested in biowarfare and infectious diseases. His opinion is you are absolutely right. He was shocked to hear about the large purchases of candy. I don't plan to buy candy for a while no matter how well packaged it is. We don't know if they have insiders working at warehouses, transport companies or candy factories. This M.D. says he is going to tell all of his patients and colleagues and e-mail this thread around.