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Honestly I am more concerned with the transport. If I had found the samples I would consider burning down the lab. Sorry, but the end of Smallpox is one of the

Honestly I am more concerned with the transport. If I had found the samples I would consider burning down the lab. Sorry, but the end of Smallpox is one of the greatest medical success stories ever. I am not going to be the one who reopens that particular Pandoras box.

nicoburns 5y ago
I suspect transporting sealed samples intact is much safer than burning down the lab and hoping they get anihilated.
- elzbardico 5y ago
  Nuke'em! Nuke'em from orbit! it's the only way to be sure.
  - p1mrx 5y ago
    Nuking from orbit works better if you're in orbit.
    - elzbardico 5y ago
      a matter of personal taste, Sir.
      - NaturalPhallacy 5y ago
        Fire on position!
jopsen 5y ago
Don't we have vaccines? I mean sure an outbreak would be pretty horrific. But once the pictures start circulating, I suspect vaccine hesitation would evaporate pretty quickly. Yes, yes, we should go far to avoid an outbreak, but would it really be so world ending? Wouldn't we just contain it, vaccinate widely and be done with it?
- mynameisvlad 5y ago
  I'd maybe buy this comment a few years ago. We are barely able to vaccinate against a global pandemic as it is. Our society would honestly probably crumble if you brought in a really deadly virus like smallpox to the fold.
  - blindmute 5y ago
    Smallpox is actually dangerous, and the smallpox vaccine is like 200 years old. Not even 1% of people would refuse that vaccine in that scenario.
    - mynameisvlad 5y ago
      Once again, two years ago I would have believed it. But considering a sizeable amount of people think that the Covid vaccine "allows governments to track you", "has 5G" or whatever other nonsense has permeated that discourse, I'm not as confident. Especially if it happened right now with all the controversy around the Covid vaccine, it'd surely be spun as the Covid vaccine in disguise, or the government forcing its way into tracking us all with nanotechnology.
  - throwawaylinux 5y ago
    Not for lack of people being willing to take the vaccination though. People look at risks and benefits and generally make their minds up pretty rationally, if you account that not everybody values things exactly the same as you do. Covid is really not that much of a risk if you're otherwise healthy and the vaccines are not highly effective as the smallpox one is (in fact stated definitions of vaccine had to be revised so it would not be excluded). The absolute risk reduction is just not all that high, and some people are disinclined to jump to getting new therapies without much long term data. You see the rational behavior play out when you look at vaccinations by age. 98% of people over 65 in the US have had one dose and 86% have had two. Because that's where the risk gets higher. Elderly people are not vastly better educated, smarter, less susceptible to propaganda, or lean toward political ideologies that are more inclined to take it, or have significantly easier access to it. It's just that they get more benefit from the vaccine and they understand that and act accordingly. If there was an especially transmissible smallpox epidemic killing 30% of people who contracted it and a vaccine that provided lasting immunity to 95% of people who took it, 99.something% of people would take it I bet.

nicoburns 5y ago

I suspect transporting sealed samples intact is much safer than burning down the lab and hoping they get anihilated.

elzbardico 5y ago
Nuke'em! Nuke'em from orbit! it's the only way to be sure.
- p1mrx 5y ago
  Nuking from orbit works better if you're in orbit.
  - elzbardico 5y ago
    a matter of personal taste, Sir.
    - NaturalPhallacy 5y ago
      Fire on position!

jopsen 5y ago

Don't we have vaccines? I mean sure an outbreak would be pretty horrific. But once the pictures start circulating, I suspect vaccine hesitation would evaporate pretty quickly. Yes, yes, we should go far to avoid an outbreak, but would it really be so world ending? Wouldn't we just contain it, vaccinate widely and be done with it?

mynameisvlad 5y ago
I'd maybe buy this comment a few years ago. We are barely able to vaccinate against a global pandemic as it is. Our society would honestly probably crumble if you brought in a really deadly virus like smallpox to the fold.
- blindmute 5y ago
  Smallpox is actually dangerous, and the smallpox vaccine is like 200 years old. Not even 1% of people would refuse that vaccine in that scenario.
  - mynameisvlad 5y ago
    Once again, two years ago I would have believed it. But considering a sizeable amount of people think that the Covid vaccine "allows governments to track you", "has 5G" or whatever other nonsense has permeated that discourse, I'm not as confident. Especially if it happened right now with all the controversy around the Covid vaccine, it'd surely be spun as the Covid vaccine in disguise, or the government forcing its way into tracking us all with nanotechnology.
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  Not for lack of people being willing to take the vaccination though. People look at risks and benefits and generally make their minds up pretty rationally, if you account that not everybody values things exactly the same as you do. Covid is really not that much of a risk if you're otherwise healthy and the vaccines are not highly effective as the smallpox one is (in fact stated definitions of vaccine had to be revised so it would not be excluded). The absolute risk reduction is just not all that high, and some people are disinclined to jump to getting new therapies without much long term data. You see the rational behavior play out when you look at vaccinations by age. 98% of people over 65 in the US have had one dose and 86% have had two. Because that's where the risk gets higher. Elderly people are not vastly better educated, smarter, less susceptible to propaganda, or lean toward political ideologies that are more inclined to take it, or have significantly easier access to it. It's just that they get more benefit from the vaccine and they understand that and act accordingly. If there was an especially transmissible smallpox epidemic killing 30% of people who contracted it and a vaccine that provided lasting immunity to 95% of people who took it, 99.something% of people would take it I bet.