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Article: Smallpox Virus's Fate
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 18, 1994
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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"Smallpox Is Now a Hostage in the Lab" {Health News, Jan. 4}
leaves the impression I favor eliminating the smallpox virus when at
this time I do not.
It is always nice to be quotably quoted ("If you believe in
capital punishment, then smallpox should fry.") I was using a
metaphor to make the point that smallpox has taken more lives than
any other infectious agent. Smallpox, however, is not a criminal; it
is a virus, and we can learn much from it about the human immune
system and the virus-encoded proteins that wreak such havoc on it.
I refer your readers to "Science" (11/19/93). The authors note
that reemergent infectious agents pose "one of the most serious
current threats to human ...