Charles Krauthammer

About the author: Charles Krauthammer is a regular columnist for the Washington Post. He won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1987.

The government's plan to make smallpox vaccinations voluntary for health care workers and discourage vaccination for the general public does not go far enough. People who choose not to be vaccinated and catch smallpox during a bioterror attack endanger not only themselves but others because they can spread the disease. Vaccination for everyone should be made mandatory, just as vaccination for childhood diseases is now mandatory, in order to protect society.

The eradication of smallpox was one of humanity's great success stories. After thousands of years of suffering at the hands of the virus, the human race gathered all its wit and cunning and conquered the scourge, eradicating it forever [in the...