Group Notes
Palkin Sachdeva and Christina VanderClute
October 31, 2013
Smallpox Eradication Debate
Keep the Stores:
RESEARCH
ECONOMIC
ETHICAL
-large portion of population not
-the facilities are already in
-500 MILLION deaths in 20th
able to receive current vaccines
place; no outlay of expenses
century alone
-extremely virulent pathogen;
-the money is better spent on
-should we really be responsible
researching it is important
research than on vaccination
for the planned extinction of an
because it could easily mutate
during an outbreak
entire species; genocide?
-no guarantee that it is TRULY
-what is the HUMAN cost if
eradicated
there's a global pandemic?
Destroy the stores:
Research
Economic
Ethical
One mistake during research,
A big economic burden- US
The 500 million deaths
and small pox could come back.
government is spending millions
themselves prove the necessity
Accidents happen!
of dollars each year in research.
of eradication of smallpox.
We have the whole genome, if
In 2013 alone, US government
It is not about morality when it
need be, virus can be created for
spent $463 million dollars to get
comes to smallpox. Small pox is
research.
vaccines for smallpox.
a virus that kills humans. As
moral beings, we should prevent
that from happening instead of
keeping the virus in name of
morality.
How can you give stocks to only
Even if there is global pandemic, We want polio to be eradicated.
two countries in the world and
the smallpox stocks we had for
Why? How is eradicating polio
let them maintain them? Other
research will be useless because
ethical and eradicating small pox
countries will secretly keep the
the new virus will be a whole
is not.
stocks, and will blame the US
different set of genome. Hence,
with trust issues.
human cost remains unchanged.
Relating the class discussion to the book ‘Demon in the Freezer’
Smallpox took millions of lives before it was eradicated. Its brutality led people to be determined to
eradicate the disease from the face of the earth. ‘Demon in the Freezer’ is a book for those who want to
know everything about smallpox. From the very first case of smallpox to the last one, it highlights what
struggles people had to face due to smallpox, how different countries reacted to the disease differently,
and how people all over the world came together and worked towards eradicating smallpox. The book
leaves us with an insight of the current debate of whether to keep the smallpox reserves that we have or
to eradicate those reserves. The issue is not as simple as it seems.
First, if we are in favor of keeping the smallpox reserves, it must be noted that in Preston's
book, he asserts that at the very least Iraq and North Korea are likely to have illegal stores of
potentially weaponized smallpox. The safest and sanest thing is to maintain our own stores and
continue to research, in order to enable us to react promptly to any threat. While we are also attempting
to eradicate polio, nobody is weaponizing it (as far as we know), and it is nowhere nearly as deadly and
easily transmitted as smallpox.
He also describes how the scientists at the CDC were successful in their attempts to infect
monkeys with human smallpox, highlighting the dangers of this virus and its potential to eventually
mutate on its own. As we cannot be 100% certain that there are only two stores of smallpox in the
world, and the danger exists that it could either be used as a weapon or somehow be released from
these clandestine labs, its mutability and virulence could lead to its making the jump from human to
animal host, unleashing an even greater horror on the global population. Again, we MUST keep
researching, staying one step ahead.
Preston also mentions that the vaccine we have on hand only grants immunity for a few years
after administration, and might even be completely ineffective against weaponized smallpox,
supporting the need for further research. And we cannot forget the fact that our current vaccines are
contraindicated for large portions of our population, leaving them unprotected in the face of a smallpox
outbreak. Research into alternative vaccines is absolutely required if we don't want to neglect these
people.
On the other hand, many factors support that getting rid of the smallpox reserves is a better
option. We will go one by one from the table in the beginning, and relate those to the book ‘Demon in
the freezer.’
1. Research: Smallpox research today is mainly focused on creating a vaccine, in case another
country attacked the United States. Initially, smallpox reserves were supposedly located only at
two locations, one in Atlanta in United States, another in Russia (previously called USSR).
Then, somehow, the US government found out that Russia had been doing experiments on
smallpox and had engineered smallpox for bioterrorism. This led to US government spending
millions of dollars to research on smallpox and making vaccines. Then there was news that
smallpox was leaked to other countries, such as Iraq, which was working on engineering the
virus as well. This created a fear in the US government, and even today, 30 years after smallpox
has been eradicated, we continue spending millions of dollars in developing vaccines, which
might or might not work in case of a pandemic.
Now, to create a vaccine, we need someone to be infected with smallpox. We have
eradicated smallpox so there is no person to try the vaccine on. It is unethical to infect
people with smallpox. So, now there is one problem to check the effectiveness of vaccines.
In addition, smallpox only infects humans. There is no animal we can test the vaccine on
because smallpox doesn’t affect other animals. Hence, the whole process of creating a
vaccine comes to a stop. However, in the book ‘Demon in the Freezer,’ the narrator
describes one of the experiments to give monkeys smallpox. In the first try, monkeys were
given small amount of smallpox. The monkeys developed some fever but got well after a
few days. In the next try, monkeys were injected with huge doses of smallpox, and they
developed symptoms similar to that in humans. All but one monkey died as the result of this
experiment. This was the basis of creating vaccinations for smallpox in humans. But a key
problem here is that monkeys weren’t infected with smallpox the way humans do, just by
inhaling the air or by coming in contact with an infected person. The monkeys had to be
injected with smallpox. There is no guarantee that other monkeys outside the lab would
behave the same way. Granted, we do need vaccines, but we wont be able to develop a
vaccine until there is a real outbreak of the new smallpox virus strain. The vaccines we have
now will be useless.
Another issue that comes with research is that of safety. Smallpox is usually handled in
biosafety level 4 labs. Even though researchers are well qualified to do their jobs, and are
trained in handling dangerous samples, all it takes is one mistake for smallpox outbreak to
happen. A researcher could accidently cut themselves, and get infected, and then spread
smallpox around. In another accident, there could be leakage of smallpox virus from the
equipment in the lab. We need to remember that not all countries have labs as well equipped
as the US, Russia, or Canada. It can be very easy for smallpox to leak out from a lab in a
different country, which does not have as high biosafety levels. If we keep the stores, we
would also have to figure out what countries should be allowed to do research on smallpox.
US alone cannot get this advantage. This will create mistrust in other countries across the
world. They might think that US is planning to attack them with smallpox, which can be a
motivation for them to engineer smallpox.
2. Economic: There are various economic factors to be considered while considering how much
keeping the stocks of smallpox would cost. To keep the virus alive, we need freezers, which
consume a lot of electricity. It cost millions of dollars for the government to preserve smallpox
reserves annually. Then, there is unnecessary research that adds to the cost of maintaining
smallpox, not to mention that the US government just spent $463 million dollars to get
vaccinations in case of a smallpox bioterrorist attack in 2013 alone. For now, all this money is a
waste until a real attack happens; instead, there are so many current problems we should be
spending on. HIV AIDS is killing millions of people all around the world, people are dying
from diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, those water-borne diseases which can be taken care of by
improving water conditions in developing countries by spending much lesser amount. The point
of spending money is to keep people safe, not only from smallpox, but other diseases as well.
3. Ethical: This was an issue brought up in the class, and has not been mentioned in the book
‘Demon in the Freezer.’ Is it ethical for us to completely destroy one species from the face of
the earth? Do we have a moral right to completely eradicate smallpox? The answer for people in
favor of destroying the stocks is yes, because smallpox kills people, and if we don’t destroy the
disease, then it will destroy us. It is our responsibility to make sure that our species survive, in
case another species is capable enough to wipe the human race off the face of the earth. We
should ask the same questions when we talk about eradicating polio. Is it ethical to do that?
Yes, because if we don’t, then our human race will suffer. Unless there is no direct threat to the
human race, it is not ethical to eradicate a species. But when another species wants to infect
humans, we fight, and no matter what it takes, we get rid of that disease.