Smallpox at Pa Lab False Alarm But No Worries?

Yet another virulent Covid strain has surfaced & some think the original was started in a leaky Wuhan virus lab funded in part by CDC money … so forgive the temporary angst over media reports warning “Vials of deadly virus discovered at Pa research facility.” False alarm, CDC later assured, yet …

Recently, the agency confirmed to Fox News that “several frozen vials labeled ‘smallpox’ were discovered by a [Merck] lab worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research” outside Philadelphia, Pa.” According to Yahoo News citing a government alert, up to 15 “questionable vials” were involved, five of them were labeled “smallpox” & 10 others were labeled “vaccinia” or the virus used in smallpox vaccines.

In a follow up notice and after testing, however, the CDC said the alarming vials did NOT contain smallpox itself, but only the vaccine used to fight it. Phew! The CDC website says smallpox was eradicated by an intense vaccination campaign & no cases have been reported since 1977, with the last natural outbreak in the US occurring in 1949. Fox notes the “virus is considered so deadly that only two labs in the world are authorized to store samples of it, one in Russia and the other at the CDC in Atlanta.” The NY Times noted it was not clear why the vials were in the Merck freezer, altho smallpox research in the US commonly goes on to counter potential bioterrorism. Still, the CDC said it was “in close contact with state & local health officials, law enforcement & the World Health Organization about the findings.” Meanwhile, CDC & WHO were trying to name a new Covid strain Out of Africa (just dubbed "Omicron") that appears far more transmissible than Covid & Delta & they're working on the details at "warp speed." Maybe the "name" shouldn't be most important to our hired hands ...

Davd Soul