The U.S. Defense Department may soon begin to vaccinate as many as 500,000 military personnel against smallpox, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 7).

Leading defense officials have recommended that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approve the vaccination plan, under which 350,000 to 500,000 troops would be immunized as soon as food and drug officials license the vaccine.  The White House must also approve the plan.

The recommendations have come at the end of a Pentagon study on the risk that smallpox poses to U.S. military forces (see GSN, Oct. 8).

“If you’re talking about potentially sending troops to areas where they could be exposed to smallpox,” a Pentagon official said, “aren’t you negligent if you don’t give them every possible protection?”

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to license 1 million doses of vaccine early in November and another million later in the month.  Last week Rumsfeld directed Pentagon officials to assist U.S. allies in obtaining the vaccine to protect themselves against an attack, the Times reported (Miller, Schmitt, New York Times, Oct. 12).

Debates within the Bush administration, meanwhile, have delayed important decisions needed to shape a response to potential biological terrorism attacks, the Times reported.

Some White House officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, reportedly support widespread vaccinations without evidence of a terrorist attack.  President George W. Bush and others, however, have been more cautious in light of the vaccine’s potential dangerous side effects (William Broad, New York Times, Oct. 13).

Israel Vaccinates Key Personnel

In Israel, health officials Sunday began inoculating thousands of key security and emergency response personnel against smallpox (see GSN, Aug. 21; Dawn, Oct. 14).

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  GET INVOLVED  |  SITE MAP

Back to top