If the Small Pox vaccine was offered, would you want it?
- Thread starter lonegunman
- Start date
Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
Well, my smallpox "scrape" hasn't bothered me for 65 years, now. Should I start to worry? And I vaguely remember a re-inoculation back during my Army daze, 1954-1958.
Before going to the Phillipines in 1949, my mother and I got shots for typhoid, typhus and some other horrible. Got'em all again in 1954 when I went into the Army.
I just don't understand all the worrying. Sure, there will be some tiny percentage for whom there are problems. Heck, tetracycline will kill my wife; erethromycin doesn't bother her at all. Other folks will fall over Flop! from penicillin...
Better some reaction in front of a doctor, from an inoculation, than to get the disease itself, seems to me.
My own experience with inoculations has been benign, which causes me to think that the Great Worriers might consider the joys of appropriately folded tinfoil.
Art
Before going to the Phillipines in 1949, my mother and I got shots for typhoid, typhus and some other horrible. Got'em all again in 1954 when I went into the Army.
I just don't understand all the worrying. Sure, there will be some tiny percentage for whom there are problems. Heck, tetracycline will kill my wife; erethromycin doesn't bother her at all. Other folks will fall over Flop! from penicillin...
Better some reaction in front of a doctor, from an inoculation, than to get the disease itself, seems to me.
My own experience with inoculations has been benign, which causes me to think that the Great Worriers might consider the joys of appropriately folded tinfoil.
Art
Flame-suit on!
To say "I'll take my chances" regarding innoculation against possible bio-warfare is SO macho...(testoserone-induced: brain loses to big-penis debate.
Well, that's one way to thin-out the herd..very Darwinian.
As for me, I was innoculated as a child, had no reaction, and never got this horrible -- possibly fatal disease.
You want to die early and in a lot of pain? Cool! Be macho and there'll be more anti-dote for the ones of us who want to survive!
A.M.F.,
hansolo
To say "I'll take my chances" regarding innoculation against possible bio-warfare is SO macho...(testoserone-induced: brain loses to big-penis debate.
Well, that's one way to thin-out the herd..very Darwinian.
As for me, I was innoculated as a child, had no reaction, and never got this horrible -- possibly fatal disease.
You want to die early and in a lot of pain? Cool! Be macho and there'll be more anti-dote for the ones of us who want to survive!
A.M.F.,
hansolo
Marko Kloos
New member
Moved to Legal & Political.
We're talking about voluntary preventive innoculation, I assume.
If we should be so unluck as to have an outbreak I can assure you federales, CDC, any number of 3 letter agencies will force you to take the shot.
If a bio-terror event takes place Posse commatatus goes away. Civil liberties gone. Refusal to take the shot is not an option.
All that will matter is stopping the spread. Government house will be relentless, thorough, and without sympathy for civil liberty argumentation.
If we should be so unluck as to have an outbreak I can assure you federales, CDC, any number of 3 letter agencies will force you to take the shot.
If a bio-terror event takes place Posse commatatus goes away. Civil liberties gone. Refusal to take the shot is not an option.
All that will matter is stopping the spread. Government house will be relentless, thorough, and without sympathy for civil liberty argumentation.
Christopher II
New member
Keep in mind, folks, that the smallpox vaccine used during the SEP only stays active for around twenty years. If you haven't had a booster in the past twenty years, you're probably still vulnerable to smallpox infection.
I don't see any particular need to get innoculated right now. It is something to keep in mind for the future.
- Chris
I don't see any particular need to get innoculated right now. It is something to keep in mind for the future.
- Chris
I'd want it if there were a bioterror attack. I'd want it if there were a safer vaccine.
I get dizzy from most shots (not an allergic reaction - happens when I give blood too, must be mild psychologically-induced shock), but I'll still gladly accept any safe vaccination. Given that smallpox vaccine is less safe than just about every other, that there's no chance of a random infection, and that there's (allegedly) a few day window to be vaccinated in the event of infection, I can't think of a reason to risk potentially serious encephalitis as the danger outweighs the risk of dying of smallpox.
I get dizzy from most shots (not an allergic reaction - happens when I give blood too, must be mild psychologically-induced shock), but I'll still gladly accept any safe vaccination. Given that smallpox vaccine is less safe than just about every other, that there's no chance of a random infection, and that there's (allegedly) a few day window to be vaccinated in the event of infection, I can't think of a reason to risk potentially serious encephalitis as the danger outweighs the risk of dying of smallpox.
Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
Waitone, could there be any rationality in the government not wanting somebody to contract a Really Bad Disease and becoming contagious? I know that if there were some sort of Horrendus Outbreak, and I knew that you, as a neighbor, refused the inoculation, I would want you quarantined in your house.
I and others might indeed enforce such a quarantine. I want to live, and my life is more important to me than yours is, to me.
I imagine this would be a very common attitude among tens of millions of folks: Their lives are more important to them than is mine.
Just something to think about, in these notions of "Rights". Your neighbors most likely think they have a certain Right To Live.
This ain't a game, and there ain't no "Reset" button.
, Art
I and others might indeed enforce such a quarantine. I want to live, and my life is more important to me than yours is, to me.
I imagine this would be a very common attitude among tens of millions of folks: Their lives are more important to them than is mine.
Just something to think about, in these notions of "Rights". Your neighbors most likely think they have a certain Right To Live.
This ain't a game, and there ain't no "Reset" button.
, ArtMr. Eatman,
You point out a human reaction to a peceived threat. Self- enforcement of a quarantine is reality. External enforcement is a reality also.
My simple point is if we experience A Really Bad Event all sorts of philosophical contruction will come tumbling down when a wrecking ball comes through it. I believe a bio-terror event is one such wrecking ball. . . . . .particularly those pathogens with long incubation periods.
You point out a human reaction to a peceived threat. Self- enforcement of a quarantine is reality. External enforcement is a reality also.
My simple point is if we experience A Really Bad Event all sorts of philosophical contruction will come tumbling down when a wrecking ball comes through it. I believe a bio-terror event is one such wrecking ball. . . . . .particularly those pathogens with long incubation periods.
pittsdriver
New member
Smallpox Vaccine
What's to even think about? I got the innoculation as a child like everyone else did. I don't remember anyone I met ever having any adverse reaction to it. It's been proven effective over several decades and the only reason it was stopped was because smallpox was believed eradicated years ago. Now that we know/suspect that Mr. Biggy Rat and any number of his buddies probably have the virus, I would vote to just restart the program as a regular precaution against future problems. When administered as a preschool or formal public health project, it is very simple. As I recall, it was only a scratch type innoculation and took a couple of seconds.
shoot safe
What's to even think about? I got the innoculation as a child like everyone else did. I don't remember anyone I met ever having any adverse reaction to it. It's been proven effective over several decades and the only reason it was stopped was because smallpox was believed eradicated years ago. Now that we know/suspect that Mr. Biggy Rat and any number of his buddies probably have the virus, I would vote to just restart the program as a regular precaution against future problems. When administered as a preschool or formal public health project, it is very simple. As I recall, it was only a scratch type innoculation and took a couple of seconds.
shoot safe
MeekAndMild
New member
I would estimate the chances of a future epidemic to be 100% Why? The genetic sequence of the virus is known and published, so that probably every medical school and veterinary school in the entire world has a copy. The state of the art is such that isolating DNA at the kitchen table is on the level of junior high school science.
Its like the story of the thousand monkees and the thousand typewriters. Sooner or later
Mike Irwin
Staff
M&M,
How do you propose sequencing the DNA into a viable virus?
To do so requires not just junior high chemistry equipment, but very very expensive machinery.
Sure, you can isolate the DNA, but you need a live virus to carry the DNA. Without that, all you have is, well, DNA.
And, as far as I know, there haven't yet been any successful experiments in "creating" a live virus from DNA from a dead medium by DNA transfer.
How do you propose sequencing the DNA into a viable virus?
To do so requires not just junior high chemistry equipment, but very very expensive machinery.
Sure, you can isolate the DNA, but you need a live virus to carry the DNA. Without that, all you have is, well, DNA.
And, as far as I know, there haven't yet been any successful experiments in "creating" a live virus from DNA from a dead medium by DNA transfer.
QuadOughtBuck
Moderator
"If the Small Pox vaccine was offered, would you want it?"
No, I will not accept a microchip.
No, I will not accept a microchip.
Mike Irwin
Staff
"No, I will not accept a microchip."
I was wondering how long it would be until the X-files factor came to play...
Microchips aren't sufficiently small at this point to where they can be inserted with a innoculation needle.
You need something more along the lines of an autopsy fluid-draw needle.
But, just so as you know...
You've already been microchipped, tagged, probed, and released back into the wild.
If you've ever taken an aspirin, cold caplet, or eaten a school lunch, or breathed the air in the DMV, you've been "registered" by your government, which is watching you through a chair-keyboard interface to your computer.
(Sung to the tune of Santa Claus is coming to town...)
They know what you've been reading, they know how much you make, you'd better not lie to them, or you'll disappear post haste...
Oh... You'd better not grouse, you'd better not sigh, you'd better bitch, I'm telling you why, Uncle Sam is spying, on you!
I was wondering how long it would be until the X-files factor came to play...
Microchips aren't sufficiently small at this point to where they can be inserted with a innoculation needle.
You need something more along the lines of an autopsy fluid-draw needle.
But, just so as you know...
You've already been microchipped, tagged, probed, and released back into the wild.
If you've ever taken an aspirin, cold caplet, or eaten a school lunch, or breathed the air in the DMV, you've been "registered" by your government, which is watching you through a chair-keyboard interface to your computer.
(Sung to the tune of Santa Claus is coming to town...)
They know what you've been reading, they know how much you make, you'd better not lie to them, or you'll disappear post haste...
Oh... You'd better not grouse, you'd better not sigh, you'd better bitch, I'm telling you why, Uncle Sam is spying, on you!