July 5, 2003

PITTSBURGH

Lots of smallpox vaccine will be thrown away

In the latest sign that the nation's smallpox vaccination program has fallen short of expectations, public health officials in several large states say they may end up throwing away more smallpox vaccine than they have used.

Public health officials contacted in California, Illinois, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania said they still have plenty of vaccine. Of the combined 53,800 doses they've received for health care workers, the states have prepared just 15,300 for use. But out of those prepared doses, only 5,041 people have been vaccinated.

The unused vaccine doesn't represent a safety problem or even raise much of a cost concern, but it does show a dramatic change in attitude that has taken place during the past two years.

In December 2002, President Bush announced the campaign to vaccinate public health officials, hospital workers and emergency first responders who "could be on the front lines of a biological attack." The plan envisioned vaccinating more than 500,000 people.

But for a host of reasons, which included the small but real risks of dangerous side effects posed by the vaccine and concerns about who would be liable for those harmed by vaccination, relatively few people have volunteered to get them.