Ugly Bags of Mostly Pus

I'm reading the first book I've read in months. I needed to read. I was having withdrawl. Bad withdrawl.

It's The Demon in the Freezer, a non-fiction telling of the recent history of smallpox, from just before it's eradication from the general population to the present day.

Richard Preston mostly writes about hazardous diseases and genetic engineering of weapons. His fiction is as good as his non-fiction.

Probably the most disgusting thing I've ever read was his multi-page synopsis of how ebola kills a person. Depending on the aggressiveness of the smallpox, it can come in anywhere from a close second to a distant second. There are hemorrhagic strains of the disease.

It's brutal. In a severe case, the pustules can overlap each other till your skin seperates from your body (it's as painful as you can imagine) and your skin holds a sea of pus that your body floats in.

I could post 20 blog entries on this. Every few pages of the book, I just have to shake my head and take a deep breath.

I look at my smallpox vaccination scar. At one time it was in the middle of my upper arm. Now it's faded and on my shoulder. I'm sure my resistance to smallpox has faded much much more than the scare. Would my physician think me paranoid if I asked for smallpox vaccinations for me and my family?

Back when President Ronald Reagan was calling the USSR the "Evil Empire" they had a stockpile of 20 tons of weaponized smallpox while claiming that they only held a small amount for scientific research. Not only were they growing it, they were hardening it and 'heating it up' by brute force methods and genetic engineering. They've also developed and tested aerosol dispersal systems on MIRV vehicles on intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Maybe Reagan knew just how evil they were.

Then when the USSR fell, the smallpox talent followed the money, be it dinars or wons. Some went to Iraq, some went to North Korea. Most of the scientists probably bought samples with them.

It is a documented fact that in 1997, Iraq was working on bioweapons. The Iraqi scientists claim that they were trying to modify camelpox to affect humans, but the inspectors had reason to suspect (some machinery labels read "smallpox").

I don't know what would be worse. A weaponized smallpox or camelpox modified to infect humans. When a virus jumps species, it's usually very fatal to it's new host. For example, AIDS/HIV is carried by green monkeys, but is often fatal to humans.

Evidence suggests the Iraqi smallpox program went back to 72-73, if not longer.

Iraq had WMD. We just gave them time to hide them.