By William J. Broad In 1999, William J. Broad and two colleagues wrote a comprehensive article on the past, present and future of the smallpox virus. Feb. 12, 2025 President Trump’s order that ...

View Full Profile. Learn about our Editorial Policies. Thanks to a Cold War-era division of responsibility, smallpox has been held in just two places in the world since 1984: at the CDC labs in ...

Today there is mounting concern about the threat of a bioterrorist attack using smallpox—so much concern that in October 2001 the American government decided to order enough vaccine to protect ...

Smallpox, one of the biggest killers in history, is caused by a virus called variola. Variola causes a distinctive rash and is often lethal. The name variola comes from the Latin word for “spotted” ...

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They caused empires to fall and new ones to arise. Smallpox first emerged around 68,000 years ago. We have no idea how many people it has killed, but we do that in the 20th century alone it killed ...