US preparing for bio attack...

Are they not telling us something? Sounds a little ominous to me.

U.S. Preparing for Smallpox, Bio Attack

The U.S. is preparing for a potential bioterrorism attack using the deadly smallpox virus – federal grants are funding efforts to produce a new, safer vaccine.

The terrorist and anthrax attacks of late 2001 raised concerns about the smallpox virus. Anthrax does not spread from person to person, while smallpox does, and a bioterrorism attack with smallpox could kill millions.

But for a population of nearly 300 million, the U.S. had only 15 million doses of vaccine at the time.

After that the government stockpiled enough vaccine for every American. But when President Bush announced a plan to inoculate up to 10.5 million doctors, nurses, police, firefighters and other workers ahead of time so they could respond to an attack, many health workers refused inoculation.

They were not fully convinced of the smallpox threat and worried about the safety of the standard vaccine, according to the Washington Post.
Then after unexpected heart problems emerged in some vaccine recipients, the administration canceled plans to offer shots to the public.

While the smallpox virus today is stored in only two official repositories, in the U.S. and Russia, there are fears that some other nations countries kept hidden stocks and terrorists or rogue states could get their hands on the virus.

But the standard vaccine is "relatively dangerous compared with most modern vaccines,” the Post reports.

The vaccine sickens some people, and can lead to heart inflammation and a catastrophic brain infection in a few cases. In addition, it was killing several infants a year in the U.S. when routine vaccination was halted.

Thus the government has been pushing for safer vaccines.

One newer type of vaccine is known as modified vaccinia Ankara, or MVA. It was first developed in Germany in the 1970s, and does not reproduce in the body – as the standard vaccine does – and appears less likely to cause illness.
But because it is weaker, people may need two shots several weeks apart for full protection. That could limit the usefulness of the vaccine immediately following a bioterrorism attack Two companies - Acambis PLC, with headquarters in England and Cambridge, Mass., and Bavarian Nordic A/S, with headquarters in Denmark - have received federal grants to develop MVA.

Their vaccines have undergone extensive tests, but their side effects are not yet fully known.

The Department of Health and Human Services has issued bidding documents asking for at least 20 million doses of MVA - enough for a minimum of 10 million people - and has said it may eventually buy an additional 60 million doses, according to the Post.

Replacing the entire vaccine stockpile with the MVA could cost billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, with no public funds, VaxGen Inc. of Brisbane, Calif., is developing a vaccine that reproduces in the body and therefore produces strong immunity with one dose, but appears safer than the standard vaccine.

VaxGen's product is expected to be significantly cheaper than MVA and, as a one-dose vaccine, more useful in an emergency. Experts say it’s likely to be at least a year or two before significant quantities of new vaccine arrive in federal stockpiles.

Smallpox was eradicated in 1977, and routine vaccination stopped. Studies have suggested that a quarter of the U.S. population has some lingering immunity from childhood smallpox vaccination, but the rest - 223 million people - are believed vulnerable, the Post reports.

Virtually no one younger than 37 has been vaccinated.