Like many pox researchers, Bert Jacobs of Arizona State University in Tempe believes it is “premature” to distribute the smallpox vaccine widely. The threat of an outbreak is uncertain, he points out, and dangerous side effects from the existing vaccine, which contains vaccinia virus, are all too real. Why not wait, he wonders, given that “we have the potential for alternatives, at least in advanced research, in the next couple of years.”
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Jon Cohen (2002) studied this question.
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