About 60 percent of U.S. citizens recently surveyed have said they would be willing to be vaccinated against smallpox, even with potentially fatal side effects and a low risk of an attack, a Harvard professor said yesterday (see GSN, May 26).

“People’s willingness to be vaccinated when there hasn’t been a single case is a bit of a surprise,” said Harvard School of Public Health researcher Robert Blendon, who conducted the survey.  “It shows the anxiety people feel about the bioterrorism threat.”

If a smallpox case were to be discovered, about 80 percent of people surveyed would want to be vaccinated, Blendon said.  One in 10 people, however, said they would refuse smallpox vaccination no matter the circumstances, he said.

The poll, which was conducted last month, surveyed 3,011 adults, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  It also indicated that people have some misconceptions about smallpox, the Journal-Constitution reported.  Only a third of the people surveyed knew that the smallpox vaccine could be used to prevent the disease even after exposure (see GSN, May 10).  About 20 percent incorrectly said that smallpox could be treated once a person becomes infected.

“The poll shows the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] needs to work on public education,” Blendon said.  “If there is a first case, there will be enormous pressure to respond” (M.A.J. McKenna, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 6).

Other results of the poll include:

*         More than 40 percent of people surveyed said they were concerned about a future terrorist attack involving smallpox.

*         Fewer than 10 percent said they think someone in their immediate family will contract smallpox in the next 12 months.  About 20 percent believe an immediate family member will be hurt in another form of terrorist attack.

*         A total of 75 percent of people surveyed said they were at least mildly optimistic that they would survive contracting smallpox.

*         Those who believed their doctor could recognize the symptoms of smallpox numbered 85 percent, while 70 percent said they believed their local emergency room could treat patients who contracted the disease.

*         Out those surveyed, 28 percent said they trusted the CDC to provide correct information in the event of the smallpox outbreak, 26 percent said they trusted state and local health officials and 19 percent said they trusted Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson (AScribe Newswire, June 5).

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