Forums: Would you get the smallpox vaccine if it was available?

Click for info on smallpox and other agents.

The news of the day is anthrax. But many fear a much more serious agent of biological terrorism, like smallpox, could be next. Smallpox killed three times as many people as wars did during the 20th century. Right around the time vaccines eliminated smallpox from the world, the Soviet Union embarked on a successful initiative to weaponize the virus that causes smallpox.

Most consider smallpox to be a small threat because all the samples in existence are under lock and key. But how secure are the old Soviet technologies since the break-up of the old Soviet Union? Could smallpox or other Soviet weaponry have fallen into the wrong hands?

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Do you believe the words of Gerry Adams? Let us know in the forums.

Read Adams' speech here

An End to Fighting in Northern Ireland? Listen

"In my view the IRA is genuinely committed to building a peace process in which the objectives of Irish republicanism can be argued and advanced." Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, made a landmark speech today, urging the IRA to disarm.

The IRA has long been considered by many a terrorist organization. There have been questions whether the new "War on Terrorism" would be expanded to include regional terrorist groups. Is the IRA being influenced by a new world opposition to terrorism? Could other terrorist/ freedom fighter groups be right behind?

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