Features

Arrest of Journalists Threatens Press Freedom

Bush and the 'Pathology of Normalcy'

California Creates Family Leave Program

Cotton: World's Most Toxic Crop

Polls Build Public Support for War

Hormone Replacement Therapy in question

Iraq for Dummies

The Struggle Against Neo-Colonialism

No New War Against Iraq

Peru: Bayer Responsible in Pesticide Deaths

Schools Implement Pesticide 'Right to Know' Act

September 11 Families Call for Peace

Starbucks vs Sambucks

Supreme Court limits death penalty

Sweatshop Fashion Statements Not Attractive

Tough Winter for Montana Buffalo

Universal Health Care Pursued by Initiative

Regulars

Reader Mail

Northwest & Beyond

Envirowatch

Good Ideas from Different Countries

Global Warming Update

Workplace Issues

Bob's Random Legal Advice

Question: What percent of the world's population was vaccinated during the smallpox eradiction campaign?

Answer: Most people believe that the smallpox vaccine was solely responsible for the worldwide eradication of that disease in the 1960s. But only about ten percent of the world's population was ever immunized against smallpox. The eradication was successful largely because of the introduction of low-tech quarantine procedures in undeveloped countries, where vaccination was limited to only those who were closest to any outbreaks. (In fact, some experts believe that the disease could have been eradicated by quarantine alone, given the finite and predictable period of contagion of the disease.) After the eradication of smallpox, the smallpox vaccine was discontinued due to acknowledged high risks of side-effects and death from the vaccine itself. (For a history of the eradication, read P. Razzell's The Conquest of Smallpox).

Current talk in the US federal government about mandated smallpox mass-vaccination in response to a vague threat of terrorism is especially disturbing. More people might die from such a mass-vaccination than would ever die from an outbreak. And with little evidence to assess how real or imagined such a terrorist threat is, such talk seems grossly ill-informed.

A good source of information on smallpox and the effects of the vaccine is the article "Don't Fear a Smallpox Outbreak" by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, readable at chetday.com/smallpoxepidemic.htm