New Fears About Smallpox Vaccine

CBS / AP ^ | Sharyl Attkisson

[MindBender26]

New Fears About Smallpox Vaccine May 7, 2003, (AP)

(CBS) Three months into the smallpox inoculation campaign, sources say the government is doing an about-face and will let states stop administering the high-risk vaccine, if they choose, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

That's a sharp contrast to the original rush to vaccinate a half-million health care workers as a frontline defense against a possible bio-terror attack. So far, only 35,000 of the targeted workers have been inoculated.

Dr. Brian Strom of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine heads the independent advisory committee that urged the government to slow – or stop – its program.

"This is a toxic vaccine. We should only use it in people who need it," says Strom. "And we need a few weeks or months to just step back and say let's replan the plans to see how many people need to get the vaccine before we continue on with it."

The turnaround comes amid serious and unexpected adverse events in the first people to get the shots.

An aggressive government surveillance program set up to detect any dangerous trends recently uncovered one: 11 cases of unusual heart inflammation among military troops who got the smallpox vaccine; three civilian deaths are also under investigation.

But CBS News has learned of one high-profile death that hasn't yet been counted – that of NBC Correspondent David Bloom. He died of an apparent blood clot several weeks after getting both the smallpox and anthrax vaccines.

Asked if Bloom's death should be counted and reported since he had the smallpox vaccination and died within a period of weeks, Strom says, "Yes."

The link between the smallpox vaccines and blood clots like Bloom's isn't widely accepted in the medical community, but has been claimed for years by some doctors. All adverse events are required to be reported so researchers can look for new, dangerous trends and see whether the vaccine may be at fault.

Strom says it would be "a surprise if we did not see new adverse reactions emerge."

Bloom's case may have mistakenly gone uncounted because civilians are being monitored under a civilian system and the military is tracking the troops. But it's unclear who – if anybody – is tracking the hundreds of civilian journalists who embedded with the military during the war with Iraq.

Bloom's case would make four deaths under investigation for a possible link to the smallpox vaccine. Already considered the riskiest of its kind, the smallpox vaccine may be even more dangerous than anyone thought.

[John Beresford Tipton]

"Asked if Bloom's death should be counted and reported since he had the smallpox vaccination and died within a period of weeks, Strom says, "Yes."

And if he got run over by a truck? </sarcasm>

[Living Free in NH]

And if he got run over by a truck? < /sarcasm >

It would be counted & reported if the truck was delivering the smallpox vaccine. < /more sarcasm >

[MEG33]

Have they ever found a link to smallpox vaccinations and blood clots? I can't see it.

[trebb]

Have they ever found a link to smallpox vaccinations and blood clots? I can't see it.

Haven't heard any - I'm surprised that they found a supposedly new side-effect (inflamation of the heart). Makes me wonder if it was something that was never picked up before because of older medical technology, or if it is an interaction with newer diseases/vaccinations that hadn't been taken into account.

[MEG33]

I think it's a matter of reporting any deaths that occur in a certain time period after vaccinations.(Nonaccidental or war wound related)

[joesnuffy]

Have any stores of terrorist small pox been found anywhere yet?

[demosthenes the elder]

All right, dammit, let's have some facts.

1. Up until 1972 or so, all infants born in this country (and most others) were routinely innoculated against smallpox.
2. Including me.
3. The overwhelming majority of them (99.999%) suffered NO DISCERNABLE ILL EFFECTS from innoculation.
4. My mother, a doctor, just had the shot several weeks ago. She is fine, the scab has fallen off, and she is now immune to the bug.
5. The rest of her staff will be innoculated (as of the last word from the government) sometime in midsummer
6. including ME.
7. I want my smallpox shot.
8. These doomsaying fearmongers will get a visit from me plus a ballpeen hammer if they succeed in interfering with my decision to get such a shot.

[prairiebreeze]

It is MUCH more likely that Bloom's blood clot developed from inactivity associated with long rides in military vehicles and sitting in cramped quarters for extended periods of time. This is similar to the DVT's (deep vein thrombosis) that sometimes form in people who have been on very long air flights. The blood doesn't circulate as effectively due to the inactivity and pool causing small clots.

Blooms clot then broke off and traveled to his lung causing the pulmonary embolism. He was seen by at least 3 military medics each of whom tried unsuccessfully to convince Bloom to end his embed coverage and go back for treatment (anticoagulants) which he refused to do.

It's tragic, but I have doubt about the relationship between small pox vaccine and thrombosis. The heart inflammation I can't comment on.

Prairie

[Mamzelle]

1) Is this the exact same vaccine, produced under the exact same conditions? Note that most who would be immunized now are not infants, but adults. Will that change reactions?

2) Those vaccinated are potentially infectious, particularly to those with suppressed immune systems (nurse's job description). A health pro really ought to take off work for a couple of weeks after the immunization.

3) When knowingly exposed to smallpox, the exposed person has a few days (probably) to get immunized before the infection would take hold--thinking by pros is that you've got a 4-day window of opportunity.

4) Vaccines are stockpiled and waiting for use in emergency response centers.

I do not believe that we should be rushing to mass-immunize--even health professionals.

[demosthenes the elder]

1. Don't know, and, since it is CBS which is beating the panic-drums, thus making this "threat" most likely as real a danger as those "explosion-prone" side-panel gas-tanks, I can't say that I care, either.

3&4. As IF terrorists would be so magnanimous as to warn an exposed population to get their shots within four days of exposing them in an attack! In exactly which sandbox have you buried your head? < /blazing scorn >

2.a. First off, it is not a live-culture vaccine of the Smallpox Virus itself - it is a different viral strain, with a similar protein coat, which is not generally harmful.
2.b. Secondly, the immunosuppressed are at grave risk of infection and serious medical complications from just about every bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogen. The fact that their medical caretakers are now sporting yet another such pathogen would not increase their risks to any measurable degree - their single greatest risk would STILL be pneumonia. Any health professional who works with immunosuppressed or immunodeficient patients can be informed of the real and MINOR risks and adjust their behavior accordingly. There is no need for a nationwide halt of vaccination on that score.
2.c. Lastly, let's look at the two competing rationales here and see which holds more water:
-Your POV:
It is better to put the entire national population (including your precious immunosuppressed) at a very real risk of clandestine terrorist bioweapons attack for the sake of avoiding the very slight increase of risk to a very small set of select immunodeficient people.
-My POV:
It is better to accept the very slight increase of risk to the exceedingly small population of the immunodeficient, as well as the statistically insignificant inherent risks of the vaccine to healthy people, in order to make safe in a very real way the entire general population of some 300 million Americans.

hrmn...
Seems to me that your POV holds as much water as a clogged glass pipette, and mine holds more water than all of the oceans of Earth.
Ever hear of "acceptable risks"? How about "acceptable losses"?
Simple math, bucko.

[Mamzelle]

My, what a reasoned and civil discourse. So run get your scar in a great hurry, but expect the prudent to take their time.

re: As IF terrorists would be so magnanimous as to warn an exposed population to get their shots within four days of exposing them in an attack! )))

Smallpox wouldn't be spread like anthrax, by some sort of aerosol. That's why there is a reasonable argument to make about the unlikelihood of it being used at all. There's more effective terrorism to be made with some botulism and a city's water supply, but I never read about what we're supposed to do to confront a hazard like that. You can cook up a little botulism in no time. To use smallpox as terrorism you'd have to infect people, who would then infect others. Since it is medical personnel who would see and diagnose the first infections (and it is emergency personnel who are being asked to immunize themselves, not the mass public of your assumption), they could institute the "bull's eye outward" scenario of mass immunization.

This was how smallpox was eradicated, at least that's what I learned in my sandbox.

re: It is better to accept the very slight increase of risk to the exceedingly small population of the immunodeficient, as well as the statistically insignificant inherent risks of the vaccine to healthy people, in order to make safe in a very real way the entire general population of some 300 million Americans. )))

Since when are Americans taught to accept risks? Maybe in fairyland, but not in America. Your scenario sounds just a bit like "to make an omelette, you must break some eggs." When the accusations start flying when the outcomes are adverse, I'll bet you wouldn't be anywhere around.

Not only would a freshly immunized nurse be infectious, she would be *liable*. As would the hospital.

[Remole]

This is completely off the topic of the article, but the reporter Sharyl Attkisson is a very attractive lady; for a while a co-anchor at CNN, for the past 7-8 years a sometime reporter for CBS. Anyone got a photo?

[Steve_Seattle]

This vaccine was administered to millions in the 50's and 60's, and I never heard a g*damned word about its alleged toxicity until Bush ordered its use as a precaution against bio-terror attacks.

[Willie Green]

and I never heard a g*damned word about its alleged toxicity until Bush ordered its use as a precaution against bio-terror attacks.

IMHO, smallpox (and anthrax) are wrongly classified as WMD.
Instead, they should be referred to as "Weapons of Mass Propaganda".

Yes, they are horrific diseases,
but vaccines and medical treatment is easy to produce and distribute,
as "weapons" they create much more hysteria than "destruction",
And the media just magnifies the claims of the outlandish extremists on both sides of the issue.

[FairOpinion]

"I do not believe that we should be rushing to mass-immunize--even health professionals."


---

How about allowing people to make their own decisions and NOT have the government make my decisions for me to gamble with MY life, by not allowing me to take the vaccine, if I so choose.

[FairOpinion]

"I never heard a g*damned word about its alleged toxicity until Bush ordered its use as a precaution against bio-terror attacks. "
---
BINGO! You solved the riddle, found the "magic word": BUSH. "If Bush thinks is a good idea, it must be a bad idea." That is how liberals think, totally ignoring reality and facts, and unfortunately they still have way too much influence.

[Mamzelle]

It's lawyers that stop you from making your own choices. You'd be lots freer without them. And?

[demosthenes the elder]

As to omelettes: I take it you so fear to break a few eggs (and thanks ever so much for bringing Stalin into this) that you never, ever, drive faster than 5 miles per hour? That you support a complete ban on all private firearms ownership? That you support the removal of all books which could possibly educate a private citizen on ways and means of developing "destructive devices"(ie: all chemistry and physics textbooks, machinists trade manuals, etc...) from public access? Wow! You sound a bit like a Nazi.

As to the nature of the notional attack: If the "white-eyes" could use smallpox effectively against the amerinds 130 years ago, I am willing to assume modern terrorist cells could do as well or better. Read some history - it would do you some good - and spare me the labor of smacking you down so frequently.

As to reasoned and civil discourse: My reasoning is clear, cogent, and supported by numerical analysis and history. Yours is clearly based on fear, ignorance, gullibility, and squeamishness. That I have addressed you sincerely is the most civility I am constrained to extend to one who tries to shuffle off such pap as "reason".

As to getting my scar (and "...of your assumption"): I shall gladly do so, if you and the rest of the far too numerous nattering nannies will kindly stop trying to make it impossible for me to do so. I will remind you that you are arguing in support of a cessation of the voluntary immunization program, and I am arguing in favor of the continuance of that program - not mandatory mass innoculation. Get your ducks in a row before you presume to stick a fabricated assumption in my mouth.

[demosthenes the elder]

bingo.