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U.S. May Acquire 50-Year-Old Smallpox Vaccine Stockpile

Aired March 29, 2002 - 11:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: Once fully completed, we hope that our smallpox vaccine stockpile will serve as a deterrent to those who may consider using smallpox as a weapon. But most importantly, we will have the necessary medicine to save and protect every American, should there be an outbreak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And that was Tommy Thompson, Health secretary, speaking just moments ago, talking about smallpox vaccine.

That comes in light of a pharmaceutical company today agreeing to donate millions of doses of smallpox vaccine to the government. The company has had the stockpile sitting in its freezers for decades.

Our medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland is here to tell us how this stuff just kind of showed up.

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It just -- at least to us it appeared to just show up.

But just this morning Secretary Thompson, along with officials from Aventis, the pharmaceutical company, made the announcement that Aventis is willing to donate this stockpile. It's about 50 years old. It's not a complete done deal yet. The government wants to be sure it's safe and effective, so they're doing some tests on it right now, Daryn, and they should have those answers in about six to eight weeks.

KAGAN: Which makes me wonder -- anything sitting in my freezer for 50 years, you know, it's not so good.

ROWLAND: That's right.

KAGAN: How do we know this stuff is good?

ROWLAND: And that -- they don't know if it's good. And that's what the government wants to make sure, that it is good.

So they have tested it in the test tube. It looks safe there. They're now working to go ahead in humans and make sure that it will work. And once they know that, then they would go ahead and make this deal finalized. And then they would do bigger studies, and eventually find out if they can perhaps dilute this stockpile just like the Wyeth-Ayerst stockpile that we just heard could be diluted.

So that's -- will provide a stopgap.

KAGAN: Well, and what this might be leading to, of course, eventually, is the question that so many Americans are asking themselves, and especially if light of anthrax and what we saw over the fall: Do each of us need either a smallpox vaccination, or if we did have one as kids, do we need to go again if we have the opportunity and get vaccinated or a booster shot.

ROWLAND: Well Daryn, that's a big question right now. And there are some health officials who say we have to have an open discussion, a forum about this, so the American people can know what goes into this discussion.

There are some in favor of mass vaccination. And they think that this would be a deterrent for using smallpox as a bioterrorist weapon. Also, if you start vaccinating some people and there is an outbreak, that would slow the spread of it. So that's what's on the table right now.

But Daryn, this is a vaccine that can cause some devastating side effects. For every million people vaccinated, there's at least one death.

So those are the issues that everyone wants to look at. We know the CDC does have a committee looking at this issue, and they should come up with some recommendations by this fall.

KAGAN: So the two things we'll look for: How good is the vaccine that's been sitting in the freezer for 50 years. And then if, in fact, we all need to go out and get vaccinations.

ROWLAND: That's right because, of course, we have never tried to use a vaccine stockpile that is 40 or 50 years old. That's how old this stockpile is.

And. of course, what we understand from today is some of the Aventis people were talking to government officials for a while now about perhaps destroying this particular stockpile.

But this was a low priority. They never got around to it. After the anthrax attacks, then the people from Aventis went to Tommy Thompson's office and said, hey, do you want our stockpile? Do you want the vaccine?

So they've been talking since that time.

KAGAN: Got it. We will look for the additional news.

Rhonda Rowland, thanks for joining us with the latest, appreciate it.

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