XPost: rec.arts.sf.fandom, rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: kfl@KeithLynch.net   
      
   Mike Van Pelt  wrote:   
   > Nobody gets vaccinated against smallpox any more, since the virus   
   > is extinct.  In the wild.  I grimly await some (long string of   
   > weapons-grade expletives) to break that out of the freezer and   
   > inflict it on the world again.   
      
   That may not be the only way it can happen.  At a book signing I asked   
   James Watson if a terrorist could synthesize smallpox, given that its   
   complete genome is in the open literature.  He said no, but he looked   
   very uncomfortable when answering, so I'm skeptical.   
      
   A few weeks later, Keith Marshall (a fellow local SF fan) asked me if   
   I was the one who asked him that.  It turned out that the event was   
   carried via radio, and he was listening, and recognized my voice.   
      
   > ... also got the vaccines for Covid and all boosters, pneumonia,   
   > RSV, the yearly flu shot... and due to a business trip to India,   
   > hepatitis and typhus.   
      
   Covid is the only thing I've been vaccinated for in this century.   
      
   I've never had a flu shot, and never had the flu.  Or a cold, at least   
   as an adult.   
   --   
   Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/   
   Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)