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With the massive delays in rolling out the vaccine for COVID-19, I begin to wonder if the distribution for other vaccines would similarly lag in the event of a global crisis. Suppose smallpox gets out of a lab. They say there are enough vaccines, but this ignores the issue of distribution/logistics.
Is there any way I can get a smallpox vaccine? I was born in the 1980's.
Talk to your doctor about it, but probably not going to happen.
My child might have gotten the last vaccine in the nation. I had to beg and plead in order to get it for him. After he received the vaccine, the doctor told me that doctors had been ordered not to give it anymore and he considered that to be awfully foolish.
Enough smallpox vaccine for everyone? I seriously doubt it.
Get online and start research. Maybe it can be had for travel to some obscure African country. I don't know of any way to get the smallpox vaccine, but I haven't been looking, either.
I think even remotely worrying about smallpox is a waste of energy. The only samples that exist are in the same facilities that hold much more lethal diseases that unlike smallpox, have no known natural vaccine reservoirs.
I helped make the vaccine back in 1966. We had some still left in the super cold storage up until about the late 1990s. Then the government moved it someplace, I don't know where.
Because the vaccinia virus is live, it is important to follow care instructions for the vaccination site. You can spread the vaccinia virus by touching the vaccination site before it has healed or by touching bandages or clothing that have been in contact with the live virus from the vaccination site.
After you are vaccinated, you must:
Cover the vaccination site loosely with a piece of gauze held in place with first aid tape or a semi-permeable bandage (one that allows air to flow through, but not fluids).
Wear a shirt with sleeves that cover the bandage.
Keep the vaccination site dry.
If the gauze bandage gets wet, change it right away.
While bathing, cover your vaccination site with a waterproof bandage, and don’t share towels.
Change your bandage at least every 3 days. Change it sooner if it gets dirty or wet.
Wash your hands carefully every time after you touch the vaccination site or anything that might be contaminated with the virus from the vaccination site.
Try not to touch your vaccination site. Do not let others touch the site or items that have touched it such as bandages, clothes, sheets, or towels.
Do your own laundry. Use a separate laundry hamper for clothes, towels, sheets, and other items that may come into contact with your vaccination site or pus from the site. Machine wash items that have touched the vaccination site in hot water with detergent and/or bleach.
Put used bandages in plastic zip bags, then throw them away in the regular trash.
After the scab falls off, put it in a plastic zip bag and throw it away.
If you do not follow these instructions, you can spread the virus to other parts of your body or to other people.
Sounds like the vaccine is just as problematic as the disease may be. Possibly more so, if a person can be more effective than nature at creating a spread.
You can get the vaccine if you can get a job working with the virus. WHO declared smallpox erradicated in 1980. I wouldnt bother.
Because the vaccinia virus is live, it is important to follow care instructions for the vaccination site. You can spread the vaccinia virus by touching the vaccination site before it has healed or by touching bandages or clothing that have been in contact with the live virus from the vaccination site.
After you are vaccinated, you must:
Cover the vaccination site loosely with a piece of gauze held in place with first aid tape or a semi-permeable bandage (one that allows air to flow through, but not fluids).
Wear a shirt with sleeves that cover the bandage.
Keep the vaccination site dry.
If the gauze bandage gets wet, change it right away.
While bathing, cover your vaccination site with a waterproof bandage, and don’t share towels.
Change your bandage at least every 3 days. Change it sooner if it gets dirty or wet.
Wash your hands carefully every time after you touch the vaccination site or anything that might be contaminated with the virus from the vaccination site.
Try not to touch your vaccination site. Do not let others touch the site or items that have touched it such as bandages, clothes, sheets, or towels.
Do your own laundry. Use a separate laundry hamper for clothes, towels, sheets, and other items that may come into contact with your vaccination site or pus from the site. Machine wash items that have touched the vaccination site in hot water with detergent and/or bleach.
Put used bandages in plastic zip bags, then throw them away in the regular trash.
After the scab falls off, put it in a plastic zip bag and throw it away.
If you do not follow these instructions, you can spread the virus to other parts of your body or to other people.
Sounds like the vaccine is just as problematic as the disease may be. Possibly more so, if a person can be more effective than nature at creating a spread.
You can get the vaccine if you can get a job working with the virus. WHO declared smallpox erradicated in 1980. I wouldnt bother.
Have you ever looked at the pictures of patients with smallpox?
As far as spreading the disease from the vaccine, we eliminated the disease. It would be a different story if your speculation was correct.
Heck I was probably 8 or 10 when I was first given the vaccination. I don't remember any problems other than a scab the size of a quarter on my arm. I also don't remember having to treat the scab as a biohazard, we all had scabs in school at that time.
Yes, it is a live virus vaccine.
Smallpox vaccine contains cowpox, not smallpox.
Smallpox is serious, and often fatal.
Cowpox is not very serious, and seldom fatal.
Infection with cowpox leaves you immune to smallpox.
If you really insist on getting vaccinated,
you might try to see if there are any cowpox
cases in the world.
Of all the problems in world, worrying about smallpox should probably be at the very bottom of anybody's list right along with the sun's demise. Since smallpox has been eliminated from existence outside of one or two laboratories, even the anti-vaxxers can't spread it.
OTOH, worrying about contracting polio is a real concern because polio still exists in some parts of the world, including being endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Be sure that you and your family have had their polio vaccinations.
( https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline#EVT_100335 )
And, make sure you get all of them vaccinated at the same time, or keep the vaccinated ones (I mean those who are WAY out of date) away from the ones with fresh vaccinations. There are two components in the serum, and one of them is a live virus. Usually doesn't cause any problems, except among populations where people have never been vaccinated.
Today, the virus is found in Europe, mainly in the UK. Human cases are very rare (though in 2010 a laboratory worker contracted cowpox[19]) and most often contracted from domestic cats. Human infections usually remain localized and self-limiting, but can become fatal in immunosuppressed patients. The virus is not commonly found in cattle; the reservoir hosts for the virus are woodland rodents, particularly voles.[20] Domestic cats contract the virus from these rodents. Symptoms in cats include lesions on the face, neck, forelimbs, and paws, and, less commonly, upper respiratory tract infections. Symptoms of infection with cowpox virus in humans are localized, pustular lesions generally found on the hands and limited to the site of introduction. The incubation period is nine to ten days. The virus is most prevalent in late summer and autumn.
Apparently, anyone needing to do this will need to travel to the UK.
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