Victor @60: “The WHO ended smallpox in the 70s-but the virus deposits still have not been destroyed.” I believe it wouldn’t end the threat to world health if the virus stocks were destroyed. Because the virus has been sequenced. So it is now, literally, a digital file that can be re-instantiated in nucleotides by instructing a machine to assemble the desired string. Maybe not child’s play, but hardly difficult.

So it would be prudent to assume that those now working 24/7 on Twelfth Imam Project, are thinking hard about this.

Secondarily, I don’t understand why a decline in smallpox vaccinations would help HIV to spread. If the CCR5 co-receptor is part of how the two viruses enter the host, how would not activating CCR5 with a smallpox fragment help the co-receptor to be more vulnerable to HIV? I’m no biologist or infectious disease guru, I would just appreciate some more explanation.