Can you say $mallpox?

From Yahoo News comes a very odd and disturbing headline that reads “Company to Develop New Smallpox Vaccine.”

New smallpox vaccine? What when where how? It should be spelled $mallpox, since a company has just announced a three hundred and forty three million dollar contract to develop a new smallpox vaccine, according to the article.

Why would one create such a vaccine? “To protect Americans against bio terrorism” they say, that’s spelled F-E-A-R.

According to the article, the new vaccine will be based on the same virus strain used in the US in the 1970’s. Wasn’t it found that the smallpox vaccine was not effective? Weren’t several books written detailing the natural decline of smallpox? Didn’t studies show that those being vaccinated were the very same to contract the infection?

Hey, were talking $343,000,000 US taxpayer dollars here. Don’t worry, according to the article, they only plan to use the vaccine in the event of a “confirmed case of smallpox infection” or on lab workers handling vaccines.

Yahoo News: Company to develop new smallpox vaccine