“We can’t guarantee that a person who was vaccinated against smallpox is still going to be protected against monkeypox,” Fauci said. It was reasonable to assume that most vaccinated people were still protected, he said, “but durability of protection varies from person to person.” Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s top adviser on infectious diseases. Questions about the smallpox vaccine’s durability rose after an anthrax attack in 2001, said Dr. The military continued its vaccination program until 1991 as a precaution against a bioterrorism attack. In the United States, routine immunization for smallpox ceased in 1972.
“Even if they were vaccinated 50 years ago, that protection should still be there,” he said. Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the National Institute on Aging. “The bottom line is that even those that were vaccinated many decades before maintain a very, very high level of antibodies and the ability to neutralize the virus,” said Dr. Vaccinated older adults might become infected but are likely to escape with only mild symptoms. China detects first human case of H3N8 bird flu
