It’s now a fair bet that we will never see the total extinction of the smallpox virus. The idea was to cap the glorious achievement of 1980, when smallpox was eradicated in the wild, by destroying the killer virus in the last two labs that are supposed to have it-one in the US and one in Russia. If smallpox had truly gone from the planet, what point was there in keeping these reserves?
In reality, of course, it was native to imagine that everyone would let go of such a potent potential weapon. 1 Undoubtedly several nations still have several. And the last "official" stocks of live virus bred mistrust of the US and Russia, for no obvious gain.
Now American researchers have found an animal model of the human disease, opening the way for tests on new treatments and vaccines. So one again there’s a good reason to keep the virus-just in case the disease puts in a reappearance.
How do we deal with the mistrust of the US and Russia? Simple. Keep the virus under international auspices in a well-guarded UN laboratory that’s open to all countries. The US will object, of course, just as it rejects a multilateral approach to just about everything. But it doesn’t mean the idea is wrong. If the virus is useful, the let’s make it the servant of all humanity-not just a part of it. [綜合類B、理工類C、衛生類C]

一個讓天花存在的好理由

目前很可能我們永遠都不會看到天花的徹底絕跡。這個觀念掩蓋1980年的光輝成就，那時消滅了最后兩個擁有這種致命病毒的實驗室的病毒后。四處蔓延的天花已經被根除了。那兩個實驗室，一個在美國，一個在。如果天花真的在這個星球上消失了，那么保留這些儲備的意義何在？
當然，事實上想像每個人都會放棄這樣一種有效的潛在的武器是幼稚的。無疑，幾個國家仍舊有幾瓶。美俄最后的“官方”的活病毒儲備引起大家對這兩個國家的不信任，因為并沒有獲得明顯的收獲。
現在美國研究者們發現了人類疾病的動物版，為試驗新的治療方法和新的疫苗開辟了道路。因此，再次存在著一個保存病毒的理由——萬一這種病卷土重來。
我們怎樣應付對美國和的不信任呢？很簡單。把病毒放在國際贊助的、被嚴密監視和向所有國家開放的聯合國實驗室中。針對的對象當然是美國，因為它反對任何事務的多邊化。但是這并不意味著這個想法是錯的。如果病毒是有用的，那么讓我們把它變成全人類的奴仆——而不是一部分人的。[綜合類B、理工類C、衛生類C]