Bioterrorism via Smallpox

With every action in life, there is a corresponding consequence. Perhaps even perpetually in sync with the butterfly effect whereby something that may not seem significant or even related to another event could in fact be just that. This seems to be the premise behind the bioterrorism podcast.

Through time we have seen that history has a pattern of repeating itself. Wars and diseases follow a similar pattern and often seem to come as a package. Smallpox, being the highly contagious and deadly virus that it is, has already been used as a means of chemical warfare as was the case when Indians received blankets of smallpox victims from the British and became victims of the disease themselves. Our first President also suffered losses of our troops due to the smallpox epidemic thus requiring all future troops to become inoculated against the virus.

The late 1970's bestowed the eradication of the smallpox virus and was indeed the first successful eradication. One might question success to who though? Certainly public health, but was it a bioterrorist success as well? We are now in a situation whereby public health has done it's job to eliminate a viral threat to society and thus banished the necessity for individuals to receive immunity from smallpox, and yet bioterrorists may be relying on that precise success of public health as a precursor to its' own success. With that in mind, I believe that we should heed on the side of caution and have a plan in effect to mass supply smallpox vaccinations if necessary and learn from past lessons of modes of transmission by bioterrorists. We should also learn from general public health successes that have lead us to become more vulnerable in other aspects such as with the instigation of a clean water supply and proactive hygiene measures. Although a success in one arena, it could lead to our downfall whereby the human species has lost its' immunity to an abundance of germs due to lack of exposure setting the stage that a future exposure could be catastrophic.

In the end, there will always be pros and cons for every action that we make. Finding a balance between public health successes in the realm of biological agents and how that applies to bioterrorism will be a key factor in the overall success or failure of bioterrorism. Keeping in mind that any decision we implement can render significant consequences, for better or worse.