Why We Still Need Smallpox
25 April 2011
By U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services,
Kathleen Sebelius
New York Times
In a few weeks, member states of the World Health Organization
will consider the destruction of the last known samples of smallpox
virus, currently held in secure labs by the United States and
Russia. Some have sought to publicly frame this issue as a
contentious disagreement between our two countries and the rest of
the world over whether the virus should be destroyed. This is
misleading.
We fully agree that these samples should - and eventually will -
be destroyed. However, we also recognize that the timing of this
destruction will determine whether we continue to live with the
risk of the disease re-emerging through deliberate misuse of the
virus by others.
Those who advocate immediate destruction would have us believe
that another smallpox outbreak is unthinkable. They want us to
believe that there is no need to ensure the global community is
adequately prepared to deal with an outbreak and that the only risk
comes from maintaining the highly secured samples. For these
reasons, they argue that the World Health Assembly should set an
immediate date for destruction.
It should not. Although keeping the samples may carry a
miniscule risk, both the United States and Russia believe the
dangers of destroying them now are far greater.
Full article
DISCLAIMER
The links and content above are provided for your convenience to provide further information and do not constitute an endorsement by Bavarian Nordic. We have no control over the nature, content and availability of the sites that are being linked to and thus we assume no responsibility for the privacy practices on such websites.
