How much of a threat is smallpox as a biological warfare agent?
Smallpox virus (scientific name variola major) would be a “good” biological warfare agent because it is unusually robust, can be disseminated through the air as an inhalable aerosol to infect people over a large area, and–unlike anthrax–is contagious from one person to another. Even if a relatively small group of people were infected in an initial attack, they could spread the disease widely. As a result, release of the virus could trigger an expanding epidemic unless transmission was halted by means of an aggressive vaccination campaign. The drawback of smallpox as a biological weapon is that it could not be “targeted”–unless contained, the disease would continue to spread and might eventually boomerang against the attacking country.
