Coincidentally I just finished reading Biohazard by Ken Alibeck and while old news (circa 1999) it left me with no doubt that there are still stockpiles of bioweapons grade smallpox in military labs. This news is strangely reassuring given how low vaccine stockpiles are against these awful diseases.
FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
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Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#22This risk has been acknowledged for a long time. Shortly after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks in 2001, the US began stockpiling enough smallpox vaccine for the whole country[1]. They claim to have kept that stockpile going[2] but they also said the same of the PPE stockpile... [1] - https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2001/11/acambis-... [2] - https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/bioterrorism-response-planning/...
Gotta rotate the supplies.
This is why even though I've _reduced_ my use of bottled water, I keep an active supply of bottles on hand at a level sufficient for an emergency and consume through the stock to keep it fresh.
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#23How can you test the effectiveness of this drug against smallpox?
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#24How can you test the effectiveness of this drug against smallpox?
From the article:
> Because smallpox is eradicated, the effectiveness of Tembexa was studied in animals infected with viruses that are closely related to the variola virus. Effectiveness was determined by measuring animals’ survival at the end of the studies. More animals treated with Tembexa survived compared to the animals treated with placebo. FDA approved Tembexa under the agency’s Animal Rule, which allows findings from adequate and well-controlled animal efficacy studies to serve as the basis of an approval when it is not feasible or ethical to conduct efficacy trials in humans.
That's a little disconcerting that there are viruses that are similar, that they're severe enough to kill the host, and that they're willing to use it in tests. Perhaps these viruses they're using aren't nearly as contagious? Or they're not transmissible to humans?
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#25If smallpox-as-a-bioweapon is even a slight possibility why don’t we start vaccinating for it again? It seems like it would be much easier to prevent the problem at all rather than to try to respond to it.
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#26If smallpox-as-a-bioweapon is even a slight possibility why don’t we start vaccinating for it again? It seems like it would be much easier to prevent the problem at all rather than to try to respond to it.
> why don’t we start vaccinating for it again?
Because vaccination isn’t 0% risk. Very few people are going to acquiesce to vaccination for a functionally extinct virus nor should they. Perhaps those who want to should be able to but that’s another discussion.
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#27If smallpox-as-a-bioweapon is even a slight possibility why don’t we start vaccinating for it again? It seems like it would be much easier to prevent the problem at all rather than to try to respond to it.
Because it no longer exists in the wild. All vaccines have some risk of negative reactions.
No matter how small x is, x is > 0, which is the current chance of being infected by smallpox.
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#28If smallpox-as-a-bioweapon is even a slight possibility why don’t we start vaccinating for it again? It seems like it would be much easier to prevent the problem at all rather than to try to respond to it.
The current smallpox vaccines stockpiled in the US use a live virus¹ and have a fairly high rate of serious side effects (1–2%) for a disease that doesn't currently exist. The vaccines are also still effective a few days after exposure to smallpox.
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#29If smallpox-as-a-bioweapon is even a slight possibility why don’t we start vaccinating for it again? It seems like it would be much easier to prevent the problem at all rather than to try to respond to it.
I think the main issue is that it’s not difficult to create a vaccine resistant variant, modifying smallpox is apparently quite easy. Also current vaccines are only effective for around 5 years. I read about this recently, his other book about Ebola is worth a read too:
Re: FDA approves drug to treat smallpox
#30How can you test the effectiveness of this drug against smallpox?
From the article: > Because smallpox is eradicated, the effectiveness of Tembexa was studied in animals infected with viruses that are closely related to the variola virus. Effectiveness was determined by measuring animals’ survival at the end of the studies. More animals treated with Tembexa survived compared to the animals treated with placebo. FDA approved Tembexa under the agency’s Animal Rule, which allows findi…
There’s a variant of pox for most animals, they aren’t dangerous to us. There’s even 2 variants of kangeroopox. Not even joking.