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Interview with Steven Weiner, Steve Jones

Aired December 13, 2002 - 13:34   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: About a half an hour from now, President Bush will unveil his plan to vaccinate the American people against smallpox, a defense against a possible attack by bioterrorists.
The clinical manager of New York University's medical center, Steven Weiner, will supervise the vaccinations at NYU. Chief Steve Jones of the Orange County, Florida Sheriff's Office was vaccinated nearly two months ago in Orlando. He and Steven join us to talk about it. Gentlemen, hello.

STEVE JONES, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Hello.

PHILLIPS: Steven, let's start with you. And you -- it makes sense, I guess, to do first responders first.

JONES: Yes. Definitely. Those are the key people that are going to be out there, they are going to be first exposed if there is an outbreak of smallpox in the United States. So, that would be the first -- one of the first lines.

PHILLIPS: And I guess I should say, Steven, I will address you as Steven, Chief Jones, I will address you as chief. Sorry about that, I know that we have two Steves here, gets a little confusing.

Now chief, you just got vaccinated seven weeks ago. How are you feeling?

JONES: Excellent. I had no reaction to it at all. I was fine.

PHILLIPS: And Steven, you are going to be in charge of the program at NYU. Why don't you tell me how you are facilitating this, and how you are getting ready and doing and putting the team together, let's say.

DR. STEVEN WEINER, NYU MEDICAL CENTER: Well, we have been working on this now since, really, last year. We have an emergency preparedness committee. We have already been talking some about who we are going to vaccinate. Now that we know that the vaccine is going to be released, we're going to identify specific individuals. We're working on screening them.

I was at a briefing yesterday for the greater New York Hospital Association and New York City Department of Health who are going to be coordinating this. So we know what the issues are, we know what we have to do, and we have given smallpox vaccine before to researchers at the institution, so we have some experience with it. PHILLIPS: And since 9/11, we really do live in a whole new world medically, don't we, Steven?

WEINER: That's correct. A whole world organizationally. Medically, it affects us because we're really devoting some resources to be ready for whatever comes.

One of the things about the smallpox is that it's not -- there's no definable medical risk of smallpox in this world. All there really is is a political risk, but we have got to be prepared for that. But it's a very different kind of risk because I can't tell you what your risk is. It's not zero, and it's not ten out of a million. We don't know what it is. So we have to be ready for it.

PHILLIPS: Well, you make a good point. Very different type of risk. And chief, when you were back at the academy, did you ever think that you would be dealing with bioterrorism and worrying about smallpox, and that you would be having to vaccinate your men and women?

JONES: Absolutely not. Everything has changed since 9/11. We have a whole new concern in law enforcement in our community, and this nation.

PHILLIPS: And you have a prescreening process, chief. Tell me about that.

JONES: Yes. I participated in a -- something that's been going on in about 16 different cities in the United States. They're producing VEG (ph), in lack of better terms, an antidote or medicine to be given to people that have certain adverse affects to the smallpox vaccination. And about seven, eight weeks ago, I participated and was prescreened, and about, to date over 2,300 people in the Central Florida area have gone through this program, and we have not had one case of any type of adverse effects to the smallpox vaccination.

PHILLIPS: And chief, how did your men and women respond when they had to get the vaccinations, and have you been doing a little more education on bioterrorism?

JONES: Well, that's probably the biggest key right now in the United States. There's just so much misinformation about the smallpox vaccine. And people in our agency right now, it's voluntary. If people want to participate in this program, they can.

We just started this a couple of weeks ago as far as agency-wide, and we have about 50 people that are started already in the process. So, it's a great plan, and I think we just really need to educate the people in the United States about the smallpox vaccination because there is a lot of misinformation out there.

PHILLIPS: And Steven, you probably agree with that. How are you organizing your team, and how are you getting ready for this, you know, possible threat? WEINER: Well, I agree the communication with people in the hospital, as well as their family members and people in the community is really the most important thing we can do. Part of that is communicating with them about what the risk factors are for the serious adverse effects, and screening them for that as well as we can. Because, if somebody's immune suppressed, we don't want to give it to them. If somebody's working with somebody who is immune suppressed, we don't want to give them the vaccine. So we are really working right now on developing that communication and doing very careful screening of the people who will get it.

Ideally, we'd like to give it to people who have been vaccinated before, people who were born before 1972, people who were in the military, because we know that those people are at less risk for any of the serious adverse effects.

PHILLIPS: And Chief Jones, you made an interesting point when I was talking to you prior, that you are doing this for your family also, aren't you?

JONES: Yes. That was one of the primary reasons for me, participating in this program, was that I wanted to be vaccinated because if you do get smallpox or get exposed to it, it can take five days to a week before you realize that you even have smallpox. In the meantime, you are going to be infecting a lot of your friends, neighbors, and loved ones.

PHILLIPS: From the law enforcement perspective and the medical perspective, Steven Weiner, Chief Steve Jones. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time.

JONES: Thank you for...

WEINER: Thank 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 13, 2002 - 13:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: About a half an hour from now, President Bush will unveil his plan to vaccinate the American people against smallpox, a defense against a possible attack by bioterrorists.
The clinical manager of New York University's medical center, Steven Weiner, will supervise the vaccinations at NYU. Chief Steve Jones of the Orange County, Florida Sheriff's Office was vaccinated nearly two months ago in Orlando. He and Steven join us to talk about it. Gentlemen, hello.

STEVE JONES, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Hello.

PHILLIPS: Steven, let's start with you. And you -- it makes sense, I guess, to do first responders first.

JONES: Yes. Definitely. Those are the key people that are going to be out there, they are going to be first exposed if there is an outbreak of smallpox in the United States. So, that would be the first -- one of the first lines.

PHILLIPS: And I guess I should say, Steven, I will address you as Steven, Chief Jones, I will address you as chief. Sorry about that, I know that we have two Steves here, gets a little confusing.

Now chief, you just got vaccinated seven weeks ago. How are you feeling?

JONES: Excellent. I had no reaction to it at all. I was fine.

PHILLIPS: And Steven, you are going to be in charge of the program at NYU. Why don't you tell me how you are facilitating this, and how you are getting ready and doing and putting the team together, let's say.

DR. STEVEN WEINER, NYU MEDICAL CENTER: Well, we have been working on this now since, really, last year. We have an emergency preparedness committee. We have already been talking some about who we are going to vaccinate. Now that we know that the vaccine is going to be released, we're going to identify specific individuals. We're working on screening them.

I was at a briefing yesterday for the greater New York Hospital Association and New York City Department of Health who are going to be coordinating this. So we know what the issues are, we know what we have to do, and we have given smallpox vaccine before to researchers at the institution, so we have some experience with it. PHILLIPS: And since 9/11, we really do live in a whole new world medically, don't we, Steven?

WEINER: That's correct. A whole world organizationally. Medically, it affects us because we're really devoting some resources to be ready for whatever comes.

One of the things about the smallpox is that it's not -- there's no definable medical risk of smallpox in this world. All there really is is a political risk, but we have got to be prepared for that. But it's a very different kind of risk because I can't tell you what your risk is. It's not zero, and it's not ten out of a million. We don't know what it is. So we have to be ready for it.

PHILLIPS: Well, you make a good point. Very different type of risk. And chief, when you were back at the academy, did you ever think that you would be dealing with bioterrorism and worrying about smallpox, and that you would be having to vaccinate your men and women?

JONES: Absolutely not. Everything has changed since 9/11. We have a whole new concern in law enforcement in our community, and this nation.

PHILLIPS: And you have a prescreening process, chief. Tell me about that.

JONES: Yes. I participated in a -- something that's been going on in about 16 different cities in the United States. They're producing VEG (ph), in lack of better terms, an antidote or medicine to be given to people that have certain adverse affects to the smallpox vaccination. And about seven, eight weeks ago, I participated and was prescreened, and about, to date over 2,300 people in the Central Florida area have gone through this program, and we have not had one case of any type of adverse effects to the smallpox vaccination.

PHILLIPS: And chief, how did your men and women respond when they had to get the vaccinations, and have you been doing a little more education on bioterrorism?

JONES: Well, that's probably the biggest key right now in the United States. There's just so much misinformation about the smallpox vaccine. And people in our agency right now, it's voluntary. If people want to participate in this program, they can.

We just started this a couple of weeks ago as far as agency-wide, and we have about 50 people that are started already in the process. So, it's a great plan, and I think we just really need to educate the people in the United States about the smallpox vaccination because there is a lot of misinformation out there.

PHILLIPS: And Steven, you probably agree with that. How are you organizing your team, and how are you getting ready for this, you know, possible threat? WEINER: Well, I agree the communication with people in the hospital, as well as their family members and people in the community is really the most important thing we can do. Part of that is communicating with them about what the risk factors are for the serious adverse effects, and screening them for that as well as we can. Because, if somebody's immune suppressed, we don't want to give it to them. If somebody's working with somebody who is immune suppressed, we don't want to give them the vaccine. So we are really working right now on developing that communication and doing very careful screening of the people who will get it.

Ideally, we'd like to give it to people who have been vaccinated before, people who were born before 1972, people who were in the military, because we know that those people are at less risk for any of the serious adverse effects.

PHILLIPS: And Chief Jones, you made an interesting point when I was talking to you prior, that you are doing this for your family also, aren't you?

JONES: Yes. That was one of the primary reasons for me, participating in this program, was that I wanted to be vaccinated because if you do get smallpox or get exposed to it, it can take five days to a week before you realize that you even have smallpox. In the meantime, you are going to be infecting a lot of your friends, neighbors, and loved ones.

PHILLIPS: From the law enforcement perspective and the medical perspective, Steven Weiner, Chief Steve Jones. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time.

JONES: Thank you for...

WEINER: Thank 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