U.S. to Vaccinate 500,000 Workers Against Smallpox

New York Times ^ | 7/06/02 | WILLIAM J. BROAD

[contessa machiaveli]

this is very frightening. it may get to the point where i won't leave my house. just kidding....i think.

[David Hunter]

The government is also laying the groundwork to carry out mass vaccinations of the public — a policy abandoned 30 years ago — if there is a large outbreak.

But it would be so much better to do it before a 'large outbreak'.

"Now we can act differently because we have more vaccine," Dr. Donald A. Henderson

Translation: "Now we medics can get ourselves vaccinated".

Dr. Kaplan, of Yale, presented a study done with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that described how a smallpox attack could affect a crowded metropolitan region like New York City. What began as 1,000 infections at a train station or airport, he said, would spiral over weeks and months into 97,000 deaths if fought with ring vaccination alone.

"By contrast," he said, "post-attack mass vaccination would result in only 525 deaths" from the smallpox virus, which takes about two weeks to develop in the body before symptoms become obvious.

Finally, someone with common sense. The ring vaccination strategy would completely fail to prevent high numbers of casualties.

If they did the mass vaccinations before an attack there would only be about 180 deaths. Because Soddem'll and his al "psycho" Qaeda pals fantasise about a large scale Smallpox attack, such a policy would also have a deterrent value. The payload from a Smallpox attack would be so small it would no longer be worthwhile. If only the US and British governments could wake up to this fact, probably they are too busy arranging there own Smallpox vaccinations.

[Gritty]

Dr. Henderson is on this case. As the world's leading expert on smallpox eradication, this should be BIG news, especially as he is retired.

No doubt the underlying threat of an attack is being taken very seriously if we have escalated to these steps.

[Gritty]

The plan to increase the number of "first responders" who receive the vaccination to roughly 500,000

I think the next key to watch is if the military starts getting vaccinated. No doubt they are first on the list for delivery of new vaccine.

[Eustace]

Thanks.

I'll check the book out.

Someone once told me about chicken antibiotics that you didn't need a presription for.

Isn't cipro the drug with bad side effects, maybe I'm thinking of something else.

Thanks again for the suggestion, I had stocked up on potassium iodate but didn't know what to do about antibiotics.

[David Hunter]

I should have said: al "psychos 'r' us" Qaeda. That's much more accurate as it implies there use of crazed mercenaries.

[bonesmccoy]

Well, you can spin it as a financially motivated deal. However, Aventis Pastuer DONATED their inventory of small pox vaccine to the US gov't. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, approached by both the Clinton and Bush (pre 9-11-01) Administrations, chose to NOT produce DryVax because of financial reasons. Wyeth deserves to be drummed out of the vaccine business. Aventis deserves to be supported.

The difference is clear. Our vaccine supply in this nation is poor because Clinton failed to convince the vaccine manufacturers that distribution of the vaccine would be profitable.

Why?

The reason is that the vaccine supply in our nation is sequestered by an obtuse process. The Clintonistas created a vaccine supply review process that limited the supply of anthrax and small pox vaccine for the citizens of our nation.

The Bush team appears to be reviewing the mistaken policies of the ACIP. I have posted ad nauseum regarding ACIP's problems in other threads.

[bonesmccoy]

That's ridiculous advice!

Stocking up on antibiotics is dumb. The stockpiles of Cipro exist. While investigating the process, I found one pharmaceutical company with pre-packaged Cipro doses. America has nothing to fear from an anthrax attack. We've got good Anthrax response strategies after the last set of biological attacks hit.

Smallpox is a bigger problem.

[bonesmccoy]

You can't. That's why I've been posting on this matter for weeks.

[bonesmccoy]

There are many different types of viruses. Each would be scary.

[bonesmccoy]

You can't get the vaccine now because I can't buy the vaccine to give it to you. Clinton's Administration restructured the distribution of vaccines to flow through a recommendation committee called the ACIP. The ACIP were the brains who blocked public distribution of the vaccine a few weeks ago. ACIP is without merit and needs to be evaluated as a "recommendation" panel. But, they should not be given the role of mandating public health policy (which is what Clinton did).

[the crow]

I would be curious as to your gentlemen's comments on the anthrax case from last fall. Do you think it was a warning from a foreign govt, or the act of the loner VRW extremist as they are trying to get us to believe?

Realizing it is an isolated incident, of course. /sarcasm

[aristeides]

But haven't the Russians offered us their vaccines? Whatever difficulties might exist regarding ramping up U.S. production, isn't that supply source available? Why haven't we used it to vaccine Americans against smallpox?

[FITZ]

If my understanding of the smallpox vaccine is correct, a small percentage of the 500,000 people will die from the vaccine.

I think that's much of the reluctance to let people buy the vaccine. For one ---AIDS patients will not fare too well with the general population being vaccinated with a live virus. There's other immunosuppressed people too---of course they wouldn't do well with a smallpox epidemic either if the rest of us aren't vaccinated.

[aristeides]

If there is that much of a threat to AIDS patients and others whose immune system is weakened, couldn't they be sequestered for a month or so while the rest of the population is vaccinated?

[aristeides]

Fatality rate of one in a million would mean that, out of 500,000, one or zero would die. Plus, the 500,000 probably have better health than average individuals, so that zero becomes more likely than one.

[FITZ]

There are many different types of viruses. Each would be scary.

Smallpox is one of the scariest though because we know from history what it can do. Ebola seems to kill it's host so fast it doesn't have as much ability to spread. Other viruses aren't as pathogenic as smallpox. I don't know about the genetically engineered viruses, they might not be as powerful as we fear because they aren't naturally evolved and might not survive out in the population.

[FITZ]

I think they'd have to be sequestered, maybe the AIDS lobby doesn't like that. The government wants to be in control and it's controlled by groups like that. It'd be better for the rest of us if we could decide for ourselves and our families if we want the vaccine now or wait. The only people threatened by the vaccine are those who are immunosuppressed.

[aristeides]

But even the immunosuppressed would benefit from the fact that the rest of us are immunized so that smallpox won't spread. Herd immunity.