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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (61198)	12/11/2002 10:46:01 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

This sounds serious: Bush to make smallpox vaccinations mandatory for military By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON President George W. Bush says he will make the smallpox vaccine available to all Americans on a voluntary basis to guard against a bioterrorist attack. As a first step, the president will order military personnel to begin getting smallpox vaccinations and will launch a plan to offer the vaccine to emergency medical workers and response teams within weeks, senior administration officials said Wednesday. The general public will be offered the vaccine on a voluntary basis as soon as large stockpiles are licensed, probably early in 2004. Bush will announce his plan Friday. Smallpox was declared eradicated from the world in 1980, but experts fear that hostile nations or terrorist groups in an attack could use it. Intelligence experts believe that four nations, including Iraq, have unauthorized stocks of the virus. Bush, who struggled with the decision for months, had to weigh the dangers of the disease against the risks associated with the vaccine. He talked about the broad outlines of his plan Wednesday on ABC's "World News Tonight." "I think it ought to be voluntary," Bush said of the civilian part of the plan. "It's going to be very important for us to make sure there's ample information for people to make a wise decision." The decision represents remarkable progress since summer, when federal health advisers were recommending a much more limited vaccination program, perhaps totaling 15,000 to 20,000 people. Those plans scaled up quickly amid concerns about war with Iraq. Routine smallpox vaccinations ended in the United States in 1972, meaning nearly half the population is without any protection from the virus. Health officials aren't sure whether those vaccinated decades ago are still protected from the disease. The vaccine has risks of its own. Based on studies from the 1960s, experts estimate that 15 out of every 1 million people vaccinated for the first time will face life-threatening complications, and one or two will die. Reactions are less common for those being revaccinated. Using these data, vaccinating the nation could lead to nearly 3,000 life-threatening complications and at least 170 deaths. jpost.com