Stay Curious

SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND UNLOCK ONE MORE ARTICLE FOR FREE.

Sign Up

VIEW OUR Privacy Policy


Discover Magazine Logo

WANT MORE? KEEP READING FOR AS LOW AS $1.99!

Subscribe

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

FIND MY SUBSCRIPTION
Advertisement

How the U.S. Stays Prepared for a Possible Smallpox Outbreak

Smallpox, though eradicated, remains a concern for bioterrorism. Experts weigh in on the potential risks and current safeguards in place to protect against this threat.

ByEmilie Le Beau Lucchesi
(Credit: Andrey Mihaylov/Shutterstock)

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news

Sign Up

In early 1991, several scientists went deep into the Siberian tundra on a covert mission. They worked for a secret laboratory funded by the Soviet government, and they needed a sample of variola major, the virus that causes smallpox.

They headed to a cemetery from the 1800s reserved for smallpox victims and cut deep into the ice. They extracted several corpses still wrapped in caribou fur. The ice had preserved the bodies well, and the scientists took bone and tissue samples, hoping they still contained the virus.

The scientists were looking for a cover. They had been working on smallpox as a possible biological weapon, and now they needed to explain themselves.

When the scientists cut into the Arctic ice, the U.S.S.R. had just been inspected by the World Health Organization (WHO) authorities and unhappy representatives from the U.S. and the U.K. They all demanded to know why the Soviets ...

  • Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi

    Emilie Lucchesi has written for some of the country's largest newspapers, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and an MA from DePaul University. She also holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Illinois-Chicago with an emphasis on media framing, message construction and stigma communication. Emilie has authored three nonfiction books. Her third, A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy, releases October 3, 2023, from Chicago Review Press and is co-authored with survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

Sign up for our weekly science updates

View our Privacy Policy

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Subscribe
Advertisement

0 Free Articles