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From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom,rec.arts.sf.science,rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: idiots walk among us
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2025 19:12:07 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: United Individualist
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Mike Van Pelt <usenet@mikevanpelt.com> 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.