Should smallpox virus be destroyed

Carmel Lewis

Shared publicly  -  Yesterday 12:45 PM Should the remaining stocks of the Smallpox virus be destroyed?

As part of my course we have been asked to answer the following question. Using an article that has been given to me by my tutor and also using research that i have obtained myself I will try to answer the following question.

One of the longest and most contentious international policy debates has swirled around the question of whether to destroy the last known stocks of the smallpox (variola) virus, which are preserved at two World Health Organisation (WHO)-authorised repositories in Russia and the United States. Although smallpox was eradicated from the nature more than three decades ago concerns surfaced in the early 1990s that a few countries might have retained undeclared samples of the virus for biological warfare purposes. Because a smallpox outbreak would be a global public health emergency of major proportions, in 1990 the WHO approved a research program at the two authorised repositories to develop improved medical defences against the disease.

I was given an article titled “Smallpox Virus stocks at the 64th WHA: Implementing the conclusions of the major Review, which was written by Edward Hammond with contributions from Lim Li Ching. Edward Hammond is an American policy researcher he relies heavily on government records obtained through the US freedom of information Act and other open government laws to conduct his research. As he uses these sources to carry out his work it cannot be trusted. Even though governments claim the records are open and freely available they are still able to control the information that is available to the public. As this research looks at the smallpox been used as bioweapon the information available from governments will be heavily censured as is most information regarding terror threat.

Hammond and Ching (2011) believe that since the eradication of Smallpox was over three decades ago, there is no real reason to retain stock of the virus, as it is no longer required for research as vaccines and anti-viral drugs for the treatment of Smallpox have already been established.

Since this research cannot be 100% trusted I have decided to use my own reason to answer the above question and discuss whether the Smallpox virus should be retained or not, and also the threat of the Smallpox Virus being used as a bioweapon in the future.Read more

Should the remaining stocks of the Smallpox virus be destroyed?

As part of my course we have been asked to answer the following question. Using an article that has been given to me by my tutor and also using research that i have obtained myself I will try to answer the following question.

One of the longest and most contentious international policy debates has swirled around the question of whether to destroy the last known stocks of the smallpox (variola) virus, which are preserved at two World Health Organisation (WHO)-authorised repositories in Russia and the United States. Although smallpox was eradicated from the nature more than three decades ago concerns surfaced in the early 1990s that a few countries might have retained undeclared samples of the virus for biological warfare purposes. Because a smallpox outbreak would be a global public health emergency of major proportions, in 1990 the WHO approved a research program at the two authorised repositories to develop improved medical defences against the disease.

I was given an article titled “Smallpox Virus stocks at the 64th WHA: Implementing the conclusions of the major Review, which was written by Edward Hammond with contributions from Lim Li Ching. Edward Hammond is an American policy researcher he relies heavily on government records obtained through the US freedom of information Act and other open government laws to conduct his research. As he uses these sources to carry out his work it cannot be trusted. Even though governments claim the records are open and freely available they are still able to control the information that is available to the public. As this research looks at the smallpox been used as bioweapon the information available from governments will be heavily censured as is most information regarding terror threat.

Hammond and Ching (2011) believe that since the eradication of Smallpox was over three decades ago, there is no real reason to retain stock of the virus, as it is no longer required for research as vaccines and anti-viral drugs for the treatment of Smallpox have already been established.

Since this research cannot be 100% trusted I have decided to use my own reason to answer the above question and discuss whether the Smallpox virus should be retained or not, and also the threat of the Smallpox Virus being used as a bioweapon in the future.