"The question I have about smallpox is will any smallpox used against us by an enemy be the "wild" strain which older people have been vaccinated against, or will it be a genetically engineered version for which there is no vaccine available. Maybe our new friends the Russians will be able to tell us what they whipped up in their biowarfare labs. It is quite possible that any smallpox vaccine we have in stock now would be completely worthless."
My information is no, it hasn't been that souped up. The Soviets had weaponized smallpox by no later than 1971 (i.e., made it distributable as an aerosol), as shown by the Aralsk incident. Ken Abilek, former deputy director of one of the several major Soviet biowar projects, said in his book, Biohazard, that the Soviet had also developed and produced many tons of the more persistent powdered form of smallpox. The latter is a hideous danger.
The Aralsk incident showed some evidence that the smallpox variety used was somewhat more contagious and lethal than that found in nature, but that evidence is not conclusive. The outbreak was contained through quarentine and vaccination with standard vaccines.
IMO xSoviet biowar smallpox strains are at least at the high end of the range of virulence and lethality of naturally occuring smallpox.
where did you get your information...
you seem to imply that there is no chance that there is a virulent enough strain of small pox that our vaccines can't handle...