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July 25, 2003

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“Program to Vaccinate Health Workers Against Smallpox Is Faltering, Officials Say”

Associated Press (www.ap.org) (07/24/03); Meckler, Laura

The rates of vaccination against smallpox among healthcare workers are quite varied between states and local jurisdictions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Just 38,000 workers have received the vaccine to date, less than 10 percent of the original national goal of having 450,000 healthcare professionals vaccinated against the disease, as activists and health workers themselves question the need for the vaccine given the associated risk of side effects.  Another concern, that of compensation for injury or death caused by the vaccine, was only partly alleviated with a congressional ruling that allowed some recompense; the White House has yet to publish a table of injuries and their corresponding value, as it were, which is necessary before the compensation program can be implemented.  Still, the federal government has not become resigned to the situation, and it is continuing to gather enough smallpox vaccine to immunize the entire country should a bioterrorist event occur and to create a distribution and training network for administration of the vaccine in that event.