IP: Poorly-paid researchers pose risk?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 13:42:28 -0500
> To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
> From: Jean Armour Polly <mom () netmom com>
> Subject: poorly-paid researchers pose risk?
>
> Monday November 5 11:28 AM ET
>
> Russian Germ Warfare Experts Raise Smallpox Alarm
>
> By Adam Tanner
>
> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Soviet germ warfare scientists, warning that 
> rogue powers could lure underpaid Russian researchers, called Monday for 
> wide reintroduction of worldwide vaccination against the now extinct 
> smallpox virus.
>
> ``It is a very dangerous weapon in the hands of terrorists and...you don't 
> need some clever way of delivering it,'' said Lev Sandakhchiyev, director 
> of Russia's Vektor Institute, which holds one of the world's two official 
> samples of smallpox.
>
> ``All you need is a sick fanatic to get to a populated place,'' he told a 
> news conference in Moscow. ``The world health system is completely 
> unprepared for this.''
>
> Officials declared smallpox eradicated worldwide in 1981 and have since 
> stopped inoculating people against an illness that had killed countless 
> millions throughout human history.
> But authorities in the United States and elsewhere now fear the disease 
> might reappear if individuals like the mystery attackers mailing anthrax 
> to Americans were to get their hands on smallpox. Four people have died so 
> far in the United States.
>
> Sandakhchiyev said scientists at Vektor earn just about $100 a month and 
> so some could -- in theory -- be tempted financially by outsiders looking 
> to acquire germ warfare expertise.
> <snip>
> unabridged story here
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20011105/wl/attack_russia_smallpox_dc_1.html


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