The W. Administration is working on guidelines to immunize the entire US within five days in the event of a smallpox outbreak.
Part of me wants to be cynical, and attribute the idea of the plan (or at least the timing of the announcement) to the season premiere of ER, where smallpox comes into a Chicago emergency room (the first half of the story was re-broadcast in the US last week, and concludes with the season premiere this Thursday).
Part of me wants to be realistic, and accept that this is what our government should be doing (although I'm surprised that this kind of planning hasn't been done yet...)
Most of all, I hope that this administration remembers the fiasco of mass Flu vaccination that occurred during the Ford administration. With Smallpox, there is less time to act, and a greater chance of complications, including death.
Of course, a smallpox outbreak would be very serious, so in a way you do have less time to react.
I heard where epidemiologists are predicting a virtual collapse of our society if Smallpox were to break out and there was not ready access to vaccinations. Within days or weeks of an outbreak, there would be no interstate travel allowed, no planes, no cars, nothing. Widescale starvation, no electricity... It would be bad.
