Are mandatory vaccinations good or bad for us?

[curl-6]

Stefl1504 said:

curl-6 said:

Rath said:

The WHO apparently disagrees and thinks they should be destroyed.

Well, I think the WHO is wrong. 

The DNA of smallpox has been sequenced; it could be synthesized from scratch by an advanced enough lab with the right peope and knowledge, so destroying all remaining stocks, (assuming Russia wouldn't secretly keep stocks, and I don't trust them not to) would do nothing but rob of us the opportunity to learn about the virus and use this knowledge to save lives.

I trust neither in case of potential biological weaponry, not the US and not Russia, I think such health risks should be destroyed before giving anyone the opportunity to tamper with its genetical material, possibly creating a ultra-smallpox-virus, were vaccines may not be helping anymore or a new vaccine has to be found in order to protect people from it. About the possibility of rebuilding Smallpox - well doing something against it now is to late, but at least there isn't the possibility of an outbreak as long as no one artificially reproduces them. How often have we heard of catastrophies caused by "safe" facilities up to now.

On the other hand, we could say that humankind is once again on the edge of letting an 'animal' get extinct... well more like extincting it ;P

Yes, accidents have occurred, but to my knowledge, never under the kind of insane security smallpox is kept in, at least in the US. They don't even work with a whole virus at a time, even if it leaked which is unlikely under Level 4 Biosafety conditions it's just a chunk of non-functional DNA. It's been 28 years since they were moved to their current home, and so far nothing has happened. 

In my opinion, it's worth the risk. There is so much we can learn from it.