Two labs in the world keep a live smallpox sample. The one in Russia just had an explosion

[jpak]

Source: USA Today

An explosion sparked a fire Monday at a Russian biological research center known for being one of two places in the world that holds live samples of the smallpox virus.

A gas cylinder exploded on the fifth floor of a six story laboratory building at the Russian State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in the city of Koltsovo, the center said in a statement Monday. A sanitary inspection room was being repaired when the blast hit the center, also known as VECTOR, causing a fire that spread 30 square meters.

No biohazard material was held in the room where the explosion occurred and only one person was injured, according to the statement. Russia's news agency TASS reported that an employee of a construction contracting organization was taken to the burn center in the city of Novosibirsk with burns to the lower extremities and is in intensive care.

Glass was shattered in the building according to TASS, but the center said there was no damage to the concrete reinforced structure.Nikolai Krasnikov, the town's mayor, stressed to TASS that the incident posed no threat, biological or otherwise, to the population.

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/09/17/explosion-rocks-russian-lab-houses-smallpox-ebola-viruses/2351292001/

[Iliyah]

1. Oh shit . . .

[Brainfodder]

2. USA Today and it's extreme clickbait headlines need to piss off?

I just want unfiltered by BS news.

[LeftInTX]

3. I hate their site! Dozens of pop-ups..forget it!

I read about the explosion early this morning

It is no longer in the headlines and apparently smallpox wasn't stored where the explosion occurred.

But in the meanwhile, I learned: Although I'm vaccinated, I am not immune to smallpox. The vaccine actually requires a booster to be effective. I don't think anyone in the US has ever received a routine smallpox booster.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

5. You have to request the booster

and your physician has to agree that you absolutely have the need for it, which is almost never, optimal word here being "need."

Health insurance providers DO NOT cover the booster.

[intrepidity]

16. Try this

https://outline.com/MVr6v4

Put the URL of the site you want to read into the box at outline.com et voila

[dhol82]

4. I had one smallpox shot in 1949 and

One more in 1969.
Hope that’s enough.
Th scars on my arms are quite enough.

[LeftInTX]

6. I was born in 1956. I guess my parent must have gotten boosters

I just don't remember 2 scars on their arms.

But then again, I never looked! (Until a few years ago, my son thought my smallpox scar was birth defect...LOL)

[dhol82]

9. Got my first one in Europe.

I think they really, really wanted the evidence to be obvious.
Mine are large.

[Quackers]

11. I tattooed over my scar.

I think 2009 was my last booster. It was before deployment.

[PhoenixDem]

7. I thought WHO also keeps samples in Geneva

but I could be mistaken.


The virus bank for a DNA virus like variola (small pox's scientific name) is usually not huge - only a couple of vials. Those must have been stored in an extremely safe bunker like structure with very limited access.

Nothing to worry about.

[NickB79]

8. We've already sequenced it. Destroy it. All of it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. We can't destroy it, because "they" have it.

We may need to cook a big batch some day to create vaccine.

Until recently, I thought Measles and Polio were wiped out. Guess not. smallpox can certainly be weaponized (again).

[SansACause]

10. I hope we develop a vaccine

Because that would make this whole worry ridiculous.

[Quackers]

12. I think the first vaccine was from 1796. nt

[dhol82]

13. Are you serious?

[Ilsa]

14. You must be very young.

This is what it looks like on the arms of those of us that got the vaccine.

[LeftInTX]

15. The US stopped routine vaccinations in 1972. We're just getting old!

[Ilsa]

18. Yeah, I'm old, but I had thought that anyone born

before 1990, maybe even 2000, would know about the vaxes and scars. Bad assumption on my part!

[GulfCoast66]

21. By the time I got mine, it was a regular shot...

No scar. A few years before they phased it out.

My wife has a scar but her mother not wanting it visible had her shot on the ass.

Never mentioned to her mother that I saw it!!

[SansACause]

19. I was pointing out that this is not as serious as the clickbait makes it seem.

The British used smallpox against Native Americans in the 18th Century. One of the first attempts at biological warfare.

The tone of a comment on the internet is impossible to determine. Sorry about that. I too have my scar.

[JCMach1]

20. Covered mine with a tattoo, but kids don't get them today

[LisaL]

23. Well it sounds like vaccinations have stopped because disease is considered eradicated.

So if it were to re-emerge it will be very serious indeed.

[ck4829]

22. Deadly incompetence