Fear and Its Discontents

I n March for my online column "Ask Dr. Marc," I contacted readers to find out what the jolt of government-issued terror alerts was doing to people (www.thenation.com). I found that the fear level is fairly high--even among the antiwar set--but so is skepticism about whether these warnings are being used by the Administration to fuel support for war and civil liberties restrictions.

From New York City: If it comes to the point that the smallpox vaccine is recommended for and available to the general public, would it be wise to get vaccinated?

In a word, no--not in a pre-exposure scenario. The only smallpox vaccine approved in the United States uses a live virus that can cause brain swelling or even death for several people per million vaccinated. Those risks are well established, while the risk of an attack is merely theoretical. And if an immune-compromised person became sick from exposure to a vaccine recipient, who would be the terrorist then?

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