“Smallpox isn’t completely gone. That’s because two large government laboratories, one in the U.S. and one in Russia, insist on maintaining stocks of the smallpox virus (called variola). In the U.S., the smallpox virus is kept at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. In Russia, it’s at the Vector lab in Siberia. Why keep this incredibly deadly virus around? The scientists at the CDC and in Russia give the same answer: more research is needed to develop better vaccines, to protect us from a bioterrorism attack. They’ve been making this argument for 30 years now, but they are wrong. The only thing they need to do is to destroy their stocks of smallpox, and wipe out this virus once and for all.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sciencebiz/2011/03/13/its-time-to-destroy-the-u-s-smallpox-reserves/