[Dave S]

I didnt really need to see this, this morning. Guess I better stock up on food and ammunition. Pretty bleak outlook and that was only phase I. Sounds like at the end of the war game it was time to nuke Mecca and Medinna, if not all three Holy Islamic cities. Hell through in Paris and Berlin too.

[SarahW]

I let my "war room" supplies get depleted.
I have enough water for maybe two or three days.

DH and I are headed for the wharehouse store tonight to restock.

[goodnesswins]

If those health care workers will NOT get the vacc...why not let the healthy people in the population who will volunteer for it have it?

[1Old Pro]

Unfortunately, this is an accurate scenario and the possibilities or probabilities of this type of threat are high.

I hear the shopping centers in Beverly Hills have no security.

[dljordan]

Why? They'll just quarantine your town and do a house to house search for food and weapons. They'll confiscate the food to feed those who were to busy watching football to get prepared. They'll confiscate the weapons to make sure you can't oppose them at a future date. Of course "Officer Friendly" will "just be doing his job" and in his mind he'll be saving America. Good luck.

[blam]

One of the funniest threads ever on FR was one started by FReeper 'Dog Gone', I think it was titled something like, "You Know You Have A Y2K Problem When:"

[Jim Noble]

>>No homeland defense plan will work without the cooperation of all Americans, especially its leading institutions. The unions and public-health officials resisting smallpox vaccination will have a lot to answer for if there is an attack and Americans remain unprepared<<

The government has sufficient authority to mandate this vaccination program, and if they think they don't, they should go to Congress to get it.

Instead, they have created a decentralized, voluntary program with an overlay of highly overblown risk disclosure in the name of "voluntary informed consent".

My impression is that the officials involved want broader smallpox vaccine coverage but they are terrified of blame should anyone be harmed.

This is no way to run a railroad.

[Damocles]

For those interested in the "Dark WInter" scenario, here's a link to the actual study. The slide show is particularly interesting (disturbing).

http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/darkwinter.html

[ccmay]

Only 1.25 million doses remain, and their distribution becomes violent.

That was then, this is now. We have something like 150 million doses available now, and more every day.

Don't panic, people. We can handle smallpox if it comes. Most people over age 35 or so who got the vaccination should have at least partial immunity. We have enough vaccine for them and everyone else, or soon will. There is a lag between exposure and disease onset and the vaccine can be given during this time.

Muslim wackos would be crazy to use smallpox as a weapon. It would run like wildfire through their own countries as well as the rest of the Turd World. The West, on the other hand, would suffer less than in the influenza epidemic of 1918.

-ccm

[RightWhale]

stock up on food and ammunition

You probably have enough duct tape and drop cloth, but better get some more.

[Nebullis]

Until there is an outbreak, the sure risk of the vaccine is greater than risk of the disease.

Be aware that the last time the world really had to deal with smallpox was in the '60's. (BTW, the last known incident of smallpox early in the '70's in Eastern Europe, was a traveler infected after a trip to IRAQ,, who spread it to 7 other people in the hospital. 300,000 people were vaccinated in the area.) Anyway, medicine has advanced a bit and there is an IV treatment for smallpox. It's one of the medicines used to treat AIDS patients. Another interesting tidbit is that the US military stopped routine smallpox vaccines after immune compromised personnel started dying from the vaccine. Hidden cases of AIDS were the cause. At that time, in the early eightees, routine testing was not a practical solution.

BTW, for many of us, who were vaccinated against smallpox as youngsters, the risk of side effects from a booster is reduced from 30/million to 1/150 million.

[Nebullis]

I have heard, however, that a hemorraghic smallpox strain developed in the former soviet union is not sensitive to vaccinia (cowpox) immunity. Currently, vaccinia is the virus used in the vaccines.

[woofie]

scary

[bonesmccoy]

Defend America.

Shoot a crow.

Newcastle Quarantine/Emergency area

[Centurion2000]

Then comes the blackmail. Newspapers receive a letter demanding the removal of U.S. forces from Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf within a week. The letter threatens a new smallpox attack, combined with anthrax and the plague, if the U.S doesn't comply. It contains a genetic fingerprint matching the smallpox strain, proving its veracity.

Then comes the response ... Riydah, Mecca, Medina, Qom and other ME cites are incinerated by the US in retaliation for the attack.