from Hacker News

FDA approves drug to treat smallpox

by nacc on 6/10/21, 10:31 PM with 65 comments

• by Exmoor on 6/10/21, 11:55 PM

  > Although the World Health Organization declared smallpox, a contagious and sometimes fatal infectious disease, eradicated in 1980, there have been longstanding concerns that the virus that causes smallpox, the variola virus, could be used as a bioweapon.

  As I understand it, the variola virus's genome is known and it is possible to recreate it in a lab.

• by trimbo on 6/11/21, 12:28 AM

  This risk has been acknowledged for a long time. Shortly after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks in 2001, the US began stockpiling enough smallpox vaccine for the whole country[1].

  They claim to have kept that stockpile going[2] but they also said the same of the PPE stockpile...

  [1] - https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2001/11/acambis-...

  [2] - https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/bioterrorism-response-planning/...

• by mews_ on 6/11/21, 7:22 AM

  OK but this is assuming it isn’t a highly modified virulent strain of smallpox.

  Which would be my main concern, because god knows what happened to Russia’s stockpile of weaponized smallpox after the fall of the USSR. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of that is still floating around somewhere in a freezer…

• by elzbardico on 6/11/21, 3:55 AM

  This should be great news, probably is. But given the current context, it is downright Michael Crichton's creepy

• by mikesabbagh on 6/11/21, 1:40 AM

  How can you test the effectiveness of this drug against smallpox?

• by dadro on 6/11/21, 1:04 AM

  Coincidentally I just finished reading Biohazard by Ken Alibeck and while old news (circa 1999) it left me with no doubt that there are still stockpiles of bioweapons grade smallpox in military labs. This news is strangely reassuring given how low vaccine stockpiles are against these awful diseases.

• by thisisauserid on 6/11/21, 1:42 PM

  It's weird how matter-of-fact people were about smallpox in some memoirs. Casanova's descriptions are revolting but everyone just went on with their lives. 14-day quarantines when traveling were annoying but common (though maybe those were for plague).

• by elliekelly on 6/11/21, 1:53 AM

  If smallpox-as-a-bioweapon is even a slight possibility why don’t we start vaccinating for it again? It seems like it would be much easier to prevent the problem at all rather than to try to respond to it.

• by mchusma on 6/11/21, 5:55 AM

  I'm confused by the FDA. So last June, there were 3 COVID vaccines that passed phase I clinical trials and animal challenge studies. There was an active pandemic raging, and vaccines were almost certainly had 100x less risk for those over 65 (a statistical no brained)

  But somehow, they kept all vaccines banned for another 6 months killing hundreds of thousands. Nothing.

  But in the last week they approved an Alzheimer's drug that basically doesn't work (they have 9 years to prove it) and a smallpox drug with no human studies.

  Why couldn't we have unbanned the vaccines long before we did? Those that said we can't possibly approve something without following an exact process this week we're just totally proven wrong.

  I think the bar for "not banning" should be lower. The bar for "medicare must pay infinity dollars for it" should be higher.

• by kokanator on 6/11/21, 12:20 AM

  > Tembexa received priority review, fast track

  This is the same rating the COVID vaccines received. Either we are reacting to a real threat or preparing for perceived threat.

  It is possible some variola virus variant is being produced in a lab. This would obviously pose a risk necessitating precautionary measures.

• by chromatin on 6/10/21, 11:50 PM

  This is actually quite disconcerting, in the backdrop of questions surrounding SARS-CoV-2.