‘Anyone that allows the government to stick them or their kids is a fool…’

Smallpox

Variola – major and minor; Variola

Last reviewed: June 23, 2011.

Smallpox is a serious and contagious disease due to a virus.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Smallpox was once found throughout the world, causing illness and death wherever it occurred. It mainly affected children and young adults. Family members often infected each other.  Smallpox spreads easily from one person to another from saliva droplets. It may also be spread from bed sheets and clothing. It is most contagious during the first week of the infection. It may continue to be contagious until the scabs from the rash fall off.

Researchers believe that the smallpox infection might be able to stay alive (under the right conditions) for as long as 24 hours. In unfavorable conditions, the virus may only remain alive for 6 hours.

People were once vaccinated against this disease. However, the United States stopped giving the smallpox vaccine in 1972. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that all countries stop vaccinating for smallpox.

There’s Something Fishy About The White House’s $433 Million Investment In A Smallpox Vaccine

[Editor's note: smallpox is indeed a horrifying and terrible disease; this cannot be overstated. It is not the intent of this article to mitigate the very real and terrible nature of the disease. The point of this article is to question the White Houses’ intentions in this deal.]

Several critics believe that the Obama administration’s $433 million investment in the new ST-246 smallpox vaccine reeks of scandal.

How could a multimillion dollar investment in an antiviral pill that could cure smallpox be scandalous?

Part of the reason lies in the word “could.” The drug has never been tested on humans.

A process for sentinel case review to assess causal relationships between smallpox vaccination and adverse outcomes, 2003-2004.

Chapman LE, Iskander JK, Chen RT, Neff J, Birkhead GS, Poland G, Gray GC, Siegel J, Sepkowitz K, Robertson RM, Yancy C,Guerra FA, Gardner P, Modlin JF, Maurer T, Berger T, Flanders WD, Shope R.

Source

Epidemiology and Surveillance Division, National Immunization Program, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. lec3@cdc.gov

Abstract

The US Department of Defense requested that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices-Armed Forces Epidemiological Board joint Smallpox Vaccine Safety Working Group define the likelihood that smallpox vaccination played a causal role in the fatal illness of an Army reservist. Reported serious adverse events for which there was no a priori reason to discount the existence of a causal association with smallpox vaccine were reviewed to assess whether they were signals of constellations of vaccine-associated adverse events. A causal relationship between the immunization experience and the index patient’s death was favored, but the implication of an individual vaccine was precluded. No new smallpox vaccine-associated clinical syndromes were identified. The data supported neutrality regarding the hypothesis that dilated cardiomyopathy was causally associated with smallpox vaccine-induced myocarditis. This review of sentinel cases augmented the ongoing safety review process and was transparent, but it shares limitations with other case-based causality-assessment methods.

See, smallpox was all but eliminated in 1978 and the U.S. already has vast stockpiles of the original vaccine. Why would the current administration push so vigorously to invest millions of dollars in what could rightly be described as an unnecessary (and untested) drug?

As the saying goes, “follow the money.”

The company that scored the federal contract is called Siga Technologies and they won it through a “sole-source” procurement; they are the only company that will be doing business with the Feds.

 2008 Mar 15;46 Suppl 3:S212-20.

A review of the smallpox vaccine adverse events active surveillance system.

Thomas TN, Reef S, Neff L, Sniadack MM, Mootrey GT.

Source

National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Abstract

In response to concern about smallpox possibly being used as a biological weapon, the President of the United States launched the National Smallpox Pre-Event Vaccination Program on 13 December 2002. Given safety concerns, identifying potentially serious adverse events (SAEs) was an essential tool of the program. To monitor for SAEs, both enhanced passive surveillance and active surveillance systems were used. The enhanced passive system was built, in part, on the existing Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System; the active system was implemented 24 January 2003. During January 2003-May 2005, the active system detected only 1 SAE in addition to those reported through the enhanced passive system. Furthermore, the active system was not universally used by states. With the enhancements to passive surveillance, the performance of enhanced passive surveillance was comparable to that of active surveillance. However, an active surveillance system may be important when there is no enhanced passive surveillance system available.

And here’s the best part: the controlling shareholder of Siga Technologies is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party  donor, reports the Los Angeles Times . Moreover, back in June 2010, Siga named Andrew Sterns (former head of the SEIU) to its board.

That certainly raises some eyebrows. (thank you dutch)

Major review of variola virus research, 1999-2010  W.H.O.

In May 2007, the 60th World Health Assembly in resolution WHA60.1 (see link to resolution below) on smallpox eradication: destruction of variola virus stocks requested the WHO Director-General to undertake a major review in 2010 of the results of the research undertaken, currently under way, and the plans and requirements for further essential research for global public health purposes, taking into account the recommendations of the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research, so that the Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly may reach global consensus on the timing of the destruction of existing variola virus stocks.

• WHA60.1: Smallpox eradication: destruction of variola virus stocks (pdf, 900kb)

Smallpox Vaccine Safety from the cdc

In response to concern about smallpox possibly being used as a biological weapon, the President of the United States launched the National Smallpox Pre-Event Vaccination Program on December 13, 2002. The journal Clinical Infectious Diseases published a special supplement entitled “Posteradication Vaccination against Smallpox” on March 15, 2008. The 14 articles in this supplement describe the context in which the national smallpox vaccination program was implemented, and focus on the overall safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.