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Smallpox: Report Says Threat of Vaccine Was Exaggerated By David McGlinchey Beginning in late January, U.S. officials had hoped to immunize 10 million emergency first responders by the end of the summer. As of early June, only 37,000 civilians had received the vaccine. “The perception of vaccine risk by many medical and public health practitioners, as well as by the public, is far greater than the actual risk,” says the report from William Bicknell, a Boston University professor and an authority on immunization planning, and Kenneth Bloem, a former chief executive of Stanford University Hospital and a veteran of smallpox eradication programs in Central Africa and Bangladesh. The report says the information distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was “inadequate and confusing.” The CDC did not respond to Global Security Newswire’s requests for an interview by press time, but health officials have said that one or two people could die from the vaccine for every million that are inoculated. Health officials also warned that up to 50 people per million could suffer serious side effects. Many more were expected to suffer annoying but nonlife-threatening side effects. Bicknell and Bloem say the U.S. vaccination effort — which focused on health workers and emergency responders — was primarily aimed at healthy adults. The report says that the historical sickness rates used by the CDC include children, the elderly and those with illnesses. The vaccine’s fatality rate for healthy adults is approximately one in 15 million, according to the report. Since the program began in February, health officials have investigated several deaths among the 37,000 civilian volunteers, but none was found to be related to the vaccine. In addition, about 10 vaccine recipients have suffered from cardiac inflammation that has been linked to the immunizations. The Defense Department inoculated more than 450,000 military personnel, and no military deaths have been directly attributed to the immunizations. Approximately 40 Pentagon personnel experienced the heart inflammation. The report also criticized the lack of high-level leadership for the program and the absence of compensation for those sickened by the vaccine early on in the immunization process. U.S. President George W. Bush signed a bill to provide compensation April 30, but the program was already floundering at that point and it has failed to be revived (see GSN, May 1). Given the allegedly exaggerated threat, as well as the lack of compensation and leadership, the report says that “far too many people reasonably and understandably, but erroneously, are prone to conclude that vaccination before an attack is too dangerous, its complications may not be paid for, and it probably isn’t very important anyway.”
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