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Bush Likely to Roll Out Vaccination Plan Tomorrow
Aired December 12, 2002 - 14:09 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, the president is expected to unveil a plan tomorrow to vaccinate Americans against smallpox. It's said to be strictly voluntary. So why the big fuss? Let's bring in our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to talk about that -- hello.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. It's been a long-awaited announcement. You and I have been talking about smallpox for quite some time now, no question about it.
This plan that is expected to occur -- announced, I should say, tomorrow would actually involve vaccinating or inoculating 500,000 military personnel. Now, it sounds like the president might actually direct that those people be inoculated -- that is more of a mandate, whereas you have 500,000 medical or first responder teams, they would be strongly recommended to get the vaccine as they may potentially come in contact with people who have smallpox if that ever were to actually occur.
Now, it has been controversial, Kyra, in part, just to lay it out for you, while this vaccine no doubt eradicated a disease from the world, it also is a vaccine that is alive, that as a live vaccine can potentially kill people. Let's take look a look at some of the numbers there.
This vaccine, if given to the entire country, would expect that one out of two people out of every million would actually die from it, 15 people will develop life-threatening illnesses, some of the more life threatening ones including swelling of the brain. Many more would just have a fever, a swollen arm. They predict about a third of people would miss a day of work, or part of a day of work with this.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about people who shouldn't get vaccinated in just a minute. But first, you and I both had this shot when we were babies. It wasn't controversial then.
GUPTA: I think that's an excellent point, and there's sort of this glaring irony, I think, that we keep sort of passing over with this particular story, and that is that smallpox was eradicated 22 years ago. It doesn't exist in natural form in human beings today.
So the fact that we may actually be giving this virus -- I am sorry, giving this vaccine for a virus that doesn't really exist today, that's a glaring irony.
The other part of it, Kyra, as well is that the rates of HIV, the rates of patients who are on chemotherapy for cancers and stuff like that is much higher than it was, so this could potentially be a lot more dangerous to them.
PHILLIPS: Right. Let's talk about other people that shouldn't get vaccinated.
GUPTA: Right. So we talk about people who can get vaccinated. There is a long laundry list of people that should not -- maybe even cannot get vaccinated either. Let's take a look at some of those people. We predict that that number will about 50 to 60 million people. If you take a look at the list there, people with Eczema, this is a very common problem. Ten to 12 percent of the population, 28, 30 million people have this. Immune deficiencies, as we just were mentioning, people with HIV, getting chemotherapy, organ transplant patients, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, all these sorts of things. Pregnant women and kids under the age of one should not get this either.
PHILLIPS: But what if you don't know you're pregnant, or you don't know you are HIV positive? I mean, therein lies a whole 'nother issue, right?
GUPTA: A very big concern and there is no question -- this is sort of a big deal, but we're also sort of alerting people that it's not likely that people are going to be running out and getting this vaccine anytime soon. If you are considering getting the vaccine, you should definitely find those things out. Find out all those -- if you're pregnant, if you have HIV, get those things checked before you get this potentially dangerous vaccine. While those numbers are small, they can still be a real problem.
PHILLIPS: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, always a pressure. Thank you.
GUPTA: Yes, good seeing you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 12, 2002 - 14:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, the president is expected to unveil a plan tomorrow to vaccinate Americans against smallpox. It's said to be strictly voluntary. So why the big fuss? Let's bring in our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to talk about that -- hello.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. It's been a long-awaited announcement. You and I have been talking about smallpox for quite some time now, no question about it.
This plan that is expected to occur -- announced, I should say, tomorrow would actually involve vaccinating or inoculating 500,000 military personnel. Now, it sounds like the president might actually direct that those people be inoculated -- that is more of a mandate, whereas you have 500,000 medical or first responder teams, they would be strongly recommended to get the vaccine as they may potentially come in contact with people who have smallpox if that ever were to actually occur.
Now, it has been controversial, Kyra, in part, just to lay it out for you, while this vaccine no doubt eradicated a disease from the world, it also is a vaccine that is alive, that as a live vaccine can potentially kill people. Let's take look a look at some of the numbers there.
This vaccine, if given to the entire country, would expect that one out of two people out of every million would actually die from it, 15 people will develop life-threatening illnesses, some of the more life threatening ones including swelling of the brain. Many more would just have a fever, a swollen arm. They predict about a third of people would miss a day of work, or part of a day of work with this.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about people who shouldn't get vaccinated in just a minute. But first, you and I both had this shot when we were babies. It wasn't controversial then.
GUPTA: I think that's an excellent point, and there's sort of this glaring irony, I think, that we keep sort of passing over with this particular story, and that is that smallpox was eradicated 22 years ago. It doesn't exist in natural form in human beings today.
So the fact that we may actually be giving this virus -- I am sorry, giving this vaccine for a virus that doesn't really exist today, that's a glaring irony.
The other part of it, Kyra, as well is that the rates of HIV, the rates of patients who are on chemotherapy for cancers and stuff like that is much higher than it was, so this could potentially be a lot more dangerous to them.
PHILLIPS: Right. Let's talk about other people that shouldn't get vaccinated.
GUPTA: Right. So we talk about people who can get vaccinated. There is a long laundry list of people that should not -- maybe even cannot get vaccinated either. Let's take a look at some of those people. We predict that that number will about 50 to 60 million people. If you take a look at the list there, people with Eczema, this is a very common problem. Ten to 12 percent of the population, 28, 30 million people have this. Immune deficiencies, as we just were mentioning, people with HIV, getting chemotherapy, organ transplant patients, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, all these sorts of things. Pregnant women and kids under the age of one should not get this either.
PHILLIPS: But what if you don't know you're pregnant, or you don't know you are HIV positive? I mean, therein lies a whole 'nother issue, right?
GUPTA: A very big concern and there is no question -- this is sort of a big deal, but we're also sort of alerting people that it's not likely that people are going to be running out and getting this vaccine anytime soon. If you are considering getting the vaccine, you should definitely find those things out. Find out all those -- if you're pregnant, if you have HIV, get those things checked before you get this potentially dangerous vaccine. While those numbers are small, they can still be a real problem.
PHILLIPS: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, always a pressure. Thank you.
GUPTA: Yes, good seeing you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
