Smallpox:  Gregg Says New Compensation Plan Will Move Quickly

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) yesterday said a White House plan to resolve compensation issues in the national smallpox immunization plan would move “very quickly” through the U.S. Congress and he warned that vaccinated health workers are urgently needed to protect the United States against a potential biological weapons attack (see GSN, March 6).

Gregg, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said that the proposed legislation would move to the full Senate by the end of the month.

“We need to do this one fast,” he told a press conference hosted by the Health and Human Services Department to introduce the Bush administration’s smallpox vaccine compensation plan.

Held back by concerns over the vaccine’s side effects and the lack of related compensation, fewer than 13,000 medical workers have been vaccinated out of an anticipated 500,000.  The legislation would provide $262,100 to vaccine recipients, or their families, who die or suffer permanent disability.  It would also provide limited compensation, after five missed days of work, for those who suffer less serious side effects.

“People should certainly sign up because this legislation is going to pass,” Gregg said.

Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the committee’s senior Democrat, believes the White House plan is a “step in the right direction” but he has some areas of concern, according his aide Jim Manley.

The new proposal “falls short of what is needed to compensate injured workers adequately,” Manley said.  As examples of shortcomings, he cited the absence of funding for states to carry out their immunization plans, the cap on compensation and the five-day period before sickened workers begin to receive lost wages.

“Senator Kennedy shares Senator Gregg’s desire to move quickly.  That being said there are some concerns,” Manley said.

In a statement yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) gave his support to the administration plan.

“As majority leader, I’m committed to moving legislation quickly through the Senate so that a strong smallpox compensation program is in place for our nation’s health care workers,” Frist said.

Gregg said he could not predict when the legislation would become law.

“I can’t speak for the House of Representatives, I wish I could,” he said.

Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) recently proposed a bill in the House that would provide a more generous compensation plan than the White House is championing.

Waxman yesterday applauded the attention given to the compensation issue, but questioned whether the plan went far enough.

“It doesn’t seem fair for a worker who we ask to take the vaccine to bear the cost of up to five days lost wages if they are injured by the vaccine, or to face this cap on wages,” Waxman said in a statement.

Gregg joined top U.S. health officials at the Washington press conference yesterday to say that the United States must quickly improve its ability to respond to a smallpox attack.

“Now more than ever, we really need to scale up and speed up,” said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also speaking at the press conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that hundreds of federal health workers would be immunized to augment the regional and state efforts.  He said also that the second phase of the immunization plan, in which millions of emergency workers are to be vaccinated, could begin soon.

New Bioterrorism Center

Thompson took Gregg, and a group of reporters, on a tour of the department’s newly finished command and control center.  The $3.5 million facility, a large room designed to monitor the United States for the possible outbreak of dangerous pathogens, was built in 59 days, according to a department official.  The center was ready for operations Dec. 1, and is now staffed around the clock.

The center is filled with communications equipment and features floor-to-ceiling screens displaying regional maps and television stations.  Thompson told Gregg that the center has access to 4,000 television stations across the United States and can record up to 90 hours of footage.

Gregg noted that the center must be useful during college basketball season.

It would be “great during the Final Four,” Thompson said.

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Smallpox:  White House Agrees to Back Limited Compensation Plan

In an effort to breath new life into its stalled smallpox immunization campaign, the Bush administration yesterday proposed a limited compensation plan for health workers and emergency personnel who are sickened by the vaccine (see GSN, Feb. 28).

“This removes the concern that a lot of people had, and we would expect that the numbers of people that would be vaccinated would increase,” said Jerome Hauer, acting assistant secretary of health and human services for public health preparedness.  “This would provide them the level of comfort they need in the very small likelihood of an adverse event,” he added.

Only 12,404 health workers nationwide have been immunized so far in the program that once anticipated vaccinating 500,000, the Washington Post reported today.

Modeled after an existing law enforcement compensation program, the smallpox plan would pay $262,100 to medical workers or their families if the individual is permanently disabled or killed by the vaccine.  The plan is also designed to pay lost wages to hospital workers who become sick, although those benefits would only kick in after five days of missed work and would be capped at $50,000.

“We appreciate they recognize it’s a problem, but there’s a long way to go from what we’re looking for,” said Chris Donnellan, associate director of government affairs for the American Nurses Association.  Donnellan took particular exception to the caps on compensation and the administration’s refusal to pay the first five days of lost wages, according to the Post.

Other union officials agreed that the proposal was a positive first step, but said it was not enough.

“President Bush refused to listen to patients, physicians, nurses and health workers when he launched the smallpox program,” said Rob McGarrah, coordinator for workers’ compensation at the AFL-CIO.  “Now, more than two months later, with the program in shambles, the administration has finally taken a step in the right direction,” he added (Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, March 6).

Local union officials supported some aspects of the plan, but said it should be federally funded and should not divert resources from other public health needs.

The provisions on lost wages and medical compensation are “totally inadequate.  It should be full compensation, and it should start immediately,” said Charles Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association.

The plan must be approved and funded by Congress, the Los Angeles Times reported (Vicki Kemper, Los Angeles Times, March 6).

The compensation could cost $20 million to $30 million, according to an administration official.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) plans to sponsor the legislation.  Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has proposed a more liberal compensation plan in the House of Representatives.

Health officials renewed their call to medical workers last night.

“A smallpox release is possible and we therefore must prepare by offering vaccine to those most likely to respond,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said (Connolly, Washington Post).

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Anthrax:  Brentwood Postal Facility Successfully Decontaminated

The effort to decontaminate Washington’s Brentwood Road postal facility of anthrax, following the autumn 2001 anthrax attacks, appears to be a success, U.S. Postal Service officials said yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2002).

Thousands of air and surface samples taken from the facility all came back negative for anthrax spores, officials said.  While the results of the tests still need to be reviewed by an expert committee, the preliminary findings prompted postal officials to say the facility could be reopened to postal workers by summer, according to the Washington Post.

“We are very confident that we have a building that is anthrax-free,” said Thomas Day, Postal Service vice president for engineering.

The Environmental Clearance Committee, consisting of 15 academic, government and private-industry experts, is now reviewing the results of the air and surface samples, the Post reported.  Committee members plan to enter the Brentwood facility today without wearing protective equipment, and they are expected to confirm the successful decontamination in a report to be released in the next few days, officials said.

Some Brentwood employees, however, still have lingering fears (see GSN, Jan. 8).

“The majority of workers have anxieties about going back,” said Dena Briscoe, who worked as a clerk in the facility and is now president of Brentwood Exposed, a support group of former and current workers.  “That’s really our building, as workers.  We would love for that building to be ours again, but it’s going to take time to adjust,” she said (Manny Fernandez, Washington Post, March 5).

For further information, see:

CDC Frequently Asked Questions About Anthrax

FBI Amerithrax Investigation

Journal of the American Medical Association Background on Anthrax

GSN Anthrax Attack Chronology (Dec. 12, 2001)

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