Dr. Levengood’s Scab: CDC Seizes 180-Year-Old Smallpox Scab

Now this would have made for an interesting tort suit, but the surgical-booted thugs from the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) have spoiled it. After Dr. Paul Levengood of the Virginia Historical Society put on display a small pox scab from 1831, CDC officials covered in surgical garb rushed to the museum, seized the scab, irradiated it and threw it into a “medium security area.” It is not clear if the scab has counsel.

The CDC notably was not concerned about the canker sores spreading from the captured cigar of Confederate president Jefferson Davis or lice from a wreath made of human hair. It was the scab sent by a son to his father with a note reading “Dear Pa … the piece I inclose is perfectly fresh and was taken from an infant’s arm yesterday. Dr. Harris says the inclosed scab will vaccinate 12 persons, but if you want more, you must send for it. I will pin this to the letter so that you cannot lose it as you did before.”

All my wife and kids gave me this month for my birthday was a heart monitor for walking (a chilling gift for a guy who turns 50 to be sure). What have they run out of smallpox scabs or are kids just not as caring as they were in the nineteenth century?

As for the scab, conditions have improved after it was moved from a high-security, BSL-4 lab, to a medium-securing lab. I assume that includes access to weight sets and possible conjugal visits.

Source: WSJ