MetroWest residents are closely watching efforts to inoculate military and health care workers for smallpox, but most yesterday said they're being cautious when it comes to their own vaccinations.

Among residents hitting the stores at Shoppers World yesterday, only one said he'd definitely be vaccinated if a vaccine were available.

"I'm the sort of person who gets a flu shot. I'll probably go for it," John Horan said. "It makes sense. The risks are fairly small."

Getting vaccinated early makes particular sense, the Sudbury resident said, with the debate about the possibility of a biological attack intensifying as the nation postures for war.

"Who knows? It's a possibility it could be a problem," Horan said. "If you look at the facts, I think it's a possibility. It's playing it safe."

Most residents scoffed at the idea of rushing headlong into a vaccination without studying the need or potential side effects first.

"No," Framingham resident Karen Fisher said, when asked if she'd be vaccinated. "I don't even get the flu shot."

And though the specter of biological attacks is frightening, there's been no suggestion one may be imminent.

"I don't think anything is out of the question," Fisher said. "Too much has gone on in this world. You can't take anything lightly anymore. (But) I`m not one to go out there and panic."

Statewide, officials said, most residents so far haven't expressed much concern over the question of whether, or when, the public will receive inoculations.

"We're not getting any calls at all," said Roseanne Pawelec, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health. "I think if you follow the president's recommendation, you do not get a smallpox shot unless you are among the volunteers identified."

So far, Pawelec said, the "volunteers" consist largely of those in the military and health care workers.

In recent weeks, vaccinations began for 500,000 front-line military personnel. Beginning in January, the program will continue with 500,000 "first-responders" including doctors, nurses and some police, firefighters and EMTs.

In Massachusetts, some 20,000 people, mostly health care workers, would be inoculated, Pawelec said.

To handle the complicated process of administering the vaccine, the DPH plans to send teams of doctors to each of the state's 76 hospitals. The process should begin in late January, and take several weeks to complete.

For the general public, though, most doctors say inoculation now is unnecessary, if not downright risky.

A new, safer vaccine is in development, but until it is approved, patients must be given a vaccine that carries the risk of serious side effects -- including death, said Dr. Andrew Baumel, a pediatrician at Framingham Pediatrics.

"If it was the old vaccine, I'd say no (they shouldn't get it,)" Baumel said. "The theoretical risks of being a victim of a bio-terror attack would be lower than the risks of getting the vaccine."

Most MetroWesters yesterday seemed to take their cues from Baumel.

"I'm not really worried, but I feel like I need to know more about it," Wellesley resident Sandy Pappas said yesterday.

Like other residents, Corrin DeBettencourt worried about whether she should be vaccinated following Sept. 11 and the anthrax attacks, but that fear has subsided.

"It's something I worried about a lot maybe six months or a year ago," she said. "It's definitely not an immediate concern."