| Sumario: | The writer discusses the debate that is raging among defense officials, scientists, and policymakers in the U.S. and elsewhere over the proposed destruction of the last remaining strains of the smallpox virus. The World Health Organization has set the date for destruction as June 30, 1999, but it is a complex matter that brings together issues of public health and national security. There have been reports of the smallpox virus being weaponized in the Soviet Union and North Korea, and this makes calls for the virus's destruction seem hollow. The smallpox virus may have been removed from nature, but it continues to constitute a threat to humanity, and the best protection available against that threat is the smallpox virus itself.
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