In its war on Ukraine, Russia spread false rumors about covert bioweapons laboratories—a claim that was met by rapid and emphatic responses from the international community. Now, it is spreading disinformation that the international monkeypox outbreak stems from those laboratories. Without lending credence to either rumor, these attempts to vilify Ukraine provide an opportunity to evaluate how our continued possession of smallpox samples makes us vulnerable to disinformation campaigns that could cause harm to the US and its allies. The United States maintains live samples of the smallpox virus in Atlanta at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These samples are secure and inaccessible, but holding onto them is still harmful to our national security.
Smallpox disease had been a scourge since ancient times, passing from one person to another at least as far back as when pharaohs ruled Egypt. Caused by the variola virus, the disease was ...
