The Smallpox threat

Hello all.

Please forgive the mailbox clutter, but since this letter has been sent
out already I wanted to respond to soothe some nerves a bit.

Yes, I read the letter, and I became frightened. Terrified even. Then I
did some research, and it's not that bad. The two main points I read that
were heartening were

1) Smallpox is most infectious when the patient is so sick that he is
bedridden anyway, thus most infection is spread to the family not to the
world at large. If the person next to you looks normal, you're not going
to get smallpox from that person.

2) Fatality rates for the most severe form of smallpox were only about
30%. So worst case, the world gets infected, you get infected, you still
have a 2/3 chance of surviving. Still beats nuclear war if you live near
a major city (remember when that was the main threat?).

So is smallpox a big deal? Yeah. Should the government be working on
getting vaccinations going again ASAP? Yeah, I think so. In the absolute
worst case scenario, though, you'll probably be okay.

But don't take my word for it. I got this from the Journal of the
American Medical Association. Read up on it yourself:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n22/ffull/jst90000.html

Take care,
--Justin