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Smallpox I: Biologist Urges U.S. to Allow Vaccination Americans should be able to choose to receive a smallpox vaccination, said Paul Ewald in a column in the New York Times today (see GSN, Dec. 6). Ewald, a biology professor at Amherst College and author of Evolution of Infectious Disease and Plague Time, said voluntary vaccination might prevent a smallpox attack, because if part of the population was immune to smallpox, “the bang for the terrorist’s buck could be drastically curtailed.” Offering the option of vaccination could also help prevent difficult decisions that would occur if terrorists released smallpox on a vulnerable population, Ewald said. For example, a woman who intended to become pregnant could choose to receive a smallpox vaccine before pregnancy rather than being forced to choose between the risks to the fetus of a smallpox vaccine and acquiring smallpox itself if an epidemic occurred. A partly vaccinated population would also reduce the stress on medical resources if an outbreak occurred, Ewald said (Paul Ewald, New York Times, Dec. 17).
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