The virus is also no longer needed for anti viral drug research and should be destroyed. There are two developed and tested drugs owned by the US and it is important to note that these drugs are used to treat only those that have already been exposed to the virus before vaccines are deployed. If the virus was to become airborne once more, there would most certainly be a death toll. Hammond states, 'As we and others have argued for years, from a public health perspective the risks of further animal model research outweigh the potential benefits and alternative animal models not using variola virus are more promising for evaluation and for obtaining regulatory approval of smallpox drugs.' This confirms that the virus is no longer needed for antiviral drug research and that there is a higher risk to public health in using it in this way.