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Ourview
Remain
calm but aware
It
seems as though there is no end to the list
of potential threats we all face while living
in our world today. We must fear such unfathomable
atrocities as nuclear war and chemical weapon
attacks. We are talking about destroying the
entire world many times over requiring only
a willing fingertip and a button.
But there is another threat which looms within
the realm of uncertainty: smallpox. Should
we seriously worry about it or is mere media
hype causing the alarm? It seems that there
are good arguments for both sides.
According to the Center for Disease Control,
smallpox was eradicated from the world in
1979. For many years, the virus was only known
to exist in one lab in Russia and in one lab
run by the United States. The problem is experts
believe the Iraqi government may have developed
or is in the process of developing the smallpox
virus for use as a weapon.
Could mass infection really, conceivably happen
here in the United States? Why not? Apparently
the smallpox virus is extremely contagious;
just talking to someone could cause a person
to transmit the disease. The scariest part
is the symptoms. The virus has an incubation
period of up to ten days in which the unsuspecting,
afflicted person feels totally healthy. When
symptoms do occur, a fever develops and the
person breaks into pustules, bumps all over
the body that can either fill with blood or
with pus. Death can occur from a heart attack
or from severe hemorrhaging.
What a thing to be faced with. We can
either not worry about it unless it actually
happens or we can live under the false security
that too many Americans continue to live under:
that things could never get that bad in the
colossal United States of America. It is hard
to believe that people are still not able
to allow for the possibility that we may not
be in a position to continue dominating the
world forever. The worn-out comparison between
the ancient empire of Rome and the modern
empire of America still ranks consideration.
If Rome can fall, so can we.
And one of the ways this could conceivably
happen is through an introduction of the smallpox
virus somewhere in the United States. The
government has taken some small steps, such
as making the vaccine voluntarily available
to hospital workers and military troops. At
the heart of the debate lies the reason that
getting vaccinated is not mandatory. Out of
a million people that receive the vaccine,
one or two will die. If it came down to the
possibility of contracting the virus, the
risk of vaccination seems worth it.
The only other problem is availability. Right
now, approximately one million doses of the
vaccine exists and it is hard to believe that
any of us would be first on the list of receivers.
The problem shares many similarities with
the anthrax scare that ended up, at least
up to this point, as amounting to a much less
serious threat than was initially feared.
Both the fear of a fatal unseen enemy and
the problem of readily available treatment
caused the anthrax hysteria. That same fear,
with a different name, haunts us again. Hopefully,
it will all end up being hype, but we cannot
afford to naively write the possibility off.
It is a tragedy that so many people may end
up having to pay for the mistakes of a few,
but it is a fact of life today that more people
need to educate themselves about. Do not freak
out, but do not cloak yourselves in ignorance
either.
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