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June 16, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Officials weighing whether to dispense smallpox vaccine to the nation were presented with the possibility Saturday that the virus might be a more effective terrorist weapon than thought.
U.S. researcher Alan Zelicoff, drawing on long-secret Soviet documents, reported on an isolated 1971 outbreak that he said appeared to have been caused by smallpox that was tested as a weapon and carried miles through the air.
If that was the cause of the outbreak that killed three people, it suggests that a disease known to spread mainly in close quarters has the potential to be used as a weapon of mass infection from farther away, perhaps from one end of a city to the other.
While Zelicoff's analysis created something of a sensation at a conference of scientists and health officials, not all were buying the theory.
"I see nothing whatsoever that's new," said D.A. Henderson, who advises the government on bioterrorism and led the campaign that eradicated smallpox worldwide more than 20 years ago. He called the report alarmist.
Public health officials are stockpiling more than 300-million smallpox doses, enough to protect everyone in the country in the event that terrorists use the virus in an attack.
Authorities expect to have enough on hand by the end of the year. Also, they are deciding whether to offer the vaccine to the public in the absence of any smallpox cases.
The vaccine has serious side effects for many people and would be expected to kill several hundred if it were given to all Americans.
The live virus is known to exist only in heavily guarded labs of the U.S. and Russian governments, but there are fears other countries have secretly stored it and it might fall into terrorist hands.
As much death as it caused when it raged across continents, smallpox has shortcomings as a weapon, starting with the difficulty of turning it into an aerosol dispersant that can survive the elements and infect people over much distance.