smallpox

Scientists are working with computer nerds to find a cure for smallpox using screen savers. Their idea is to use the idle processing power of 2 million personal computers to look through millions of molecular combinations in hopes of finding one that fights smallpox. Although we have a smallpox vaccine, it can have serious side effects, and there’s no cure once you have the disease. To volunteer, download a screen saver that will run whenever your computer has memory to spare. When it connects to the Internet, your computer will send data back to a central hub. The combined power of 2 million personal computers is 30 times more than the fastest supercomputer. The same technique has been used to search for signs of extraterrestrial life.
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Smallpox is the worst disease known to man?it killed half a billion people from 1880 to 1980, before it was finally eradicated in 1980. But the smallpox vaccine can be deadly too, and that’s the problem we face today. Scientists say it’s the most dangerous vaccine ever invented. Should the U.S. population be given a vaccine that can cause dangerous, sometimes fatal reactions?

The vaccine used today is essentially the same as the one created in 1796. Dr. Paul Offit says, “We tend to think of vaccines as being very safe and every effective, which they are. But all the vaccines that we use today are the result of modern technology. That?s not true of the smallpox vaccine. It has a side effect profile that we would not accept for vaccines today.”
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The CIA says 5 countries?the U.S., Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France?have smallpox. Smallpox cultures are held officially in two heavily guarded laboratories, one in Atlanta and the other in Koltsovo, Siberia?all the others are unofficial. Everyone knew that Russia, North Korea and Iraq have stockpiles, but France comes as a surprise. The French say they use it only for defensive research.

Records found this year in Afghanistan show that Osama bin Laden tried to buy smallpox, along with other biological weapons, although officials say there is ?no reason? to believe he succeeded. Other items on al-Qaeda?s wish list are the nerve agent ricin, and the toxin that causes botulism.
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