Something silly and sort of scary for a Sunday morning.

Henipaviruses are fascinating! Also, good news for Tazzie devils - the Taronga Zoo and other zoos are collaborating to establish "lifeboat" populations free of the virus, just in case the species ever goes extinct in the wild. I got to see some of the "lifeboat tazzies" when I was at Taronga and also at Featherdale - they're really doing a lot of research into it and trying to stop it, or at least minimize its spread. The keeper I spoke to at Taronga was super excited/knowledgeable about it.

Re poxviruses...I kind of wish I could get a smallpox vaccination, just for peace of mind. I have a pockmark on my face from when I had chicken pox (caught it 2 days before I was supposed to get the vaccine), and that was hellish enough as a kid. I had a pretty bad case, all because someone decided to let their infectious kid go to a birthday party, on the grounds of 'it's not that harmful if someone catches it'. I was so sick I was 2 months late starting Kindergarten. And chicken pox is a walk in the park compared to its cousins....

Yeah, not even the military vaccinates for small pox anymore - they haven't since the mid 80s. The only people that get that vaccine now are people that actually work in labs where there's a chance of contact.

I know. My OCD plus knowing people who can't be vaccinated because of medical reasons (my sister doesn't have ANY noticeable antibodies a year after she gets a vaccine, so she has to get revaccinated for everything every year, plus she's immunocompromised), makes me want to make 'vaccinate everyone for everything, just in case' public policy. Not something that's ever going to happen, but it does explain why I get ragey when my coworker says she never gets the flu shot because she's healthy and never gets the flu -__-

Most US nurses are required to have the vaccine as well, sadly this is not true for ALL healthcare workers!
Thank you for making my dreams just a little bit scarier Seanan, and reminding me why I went into the health sciences in the first place. It is at least partly your fault (I listened to The Black Death at least once a day when applying for schools.) :-)