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....