November 5, 2002
10:17 AM   Subscribe

Five Nations May Possess Smallpox US officials worry that Iraq and North Korea could develop potent biological weapons with their samples, and lax security in Russia could allow other nations to obtain the deadly disease for use as a weapon.
posted by tranceformer (3 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason:



 
See also this recent mefi thread: The Demon in the Freezer - caution - reading that article will scare the bejebus out of you.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:34 AM on November 5, 2002


I won't even pretend I know anything medical/biological, but is retaining viruses absolutely necessary? If they resurfaced, wouldn't we then have new samples? Forgive my ignorance here.
posted by LouReedsSon at 10:55 AM on November 5, 2002


LouReedsSon- The worry is that someone unleashes a smallpox attack, and that we have neither a vaccine nor smallpox samples on-hand to make more.
posted by mkultra at 11:00 AM on November 5, 2002


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