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American Morning
Look at Debate About Smallpox Vaccinations
Aired September 04, 2002 - 08:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Smallpox was eradicated about 20 years ago, but the deadly virus still lingers in laboratories and experts now a bit concerned that smallpox could be used as a bioterrorism weapons. Americans have not been vaccinated against it since 1972, and just yesterday, the Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson sent the White House a plan on how to get ready for the possibility of such an attack. Let's talk about the debate of vaccinations. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been studying this. That's the topic of our "House Call" this hour.
Good morning, Sanjay? What do you have?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Well, I'll tell you, we learned a lot from anthrax and bioterrorism. Many thought the United States was caught off guard. Officials don't want to let that happen again, so they are preparing. But it's those plans that you say, Bill, that are causing a lot of debate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): Americans haven't been vaccinated for smallpox since 1972, but that may soon change.
TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECY.: It's in the White House right now, and the White House is reviewing my recommendations and hopefully will make a decision in the near future.
GUPTA: Although triumphantly eradicated from the world in 1999, experts are concerned smallpox could show up again, this time as a weapon of bioterrorism.
SEN. BILL FRIST (R), TENNESSEE: I would say the risk of a smallpox attack is very real. I would say that that risk is increasing compared to, say, five or 10 years ago, and I would say as a nation, that we do remain highly vulnerable if smallpox is used as an instrument of war.
GUPTA: Highly vulnerable, because if you are under 32, you probably have not been vaccinated. And if you're older and did receive the shot, it's questionable how much protection you still have.
FRIST: Every American should have the opportunity to make an informed individual choice to evaluate those risks, plus those benefits, to receive that smallpox vaccine. GUPTA: It's weighing the risks and the benefits that make this vaccine so complicated.
DR. ROBERT BELSHE, ST. LOUIS UNIV. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: There is a lot of people that should not be vaccinated with smallpox vaccine.
GUPTA: Dr. Robert Belshe of St. Louis University has worked on several smallpox vaccine trials.
BELSHE: The logistics of conducting a large-scale vaccination program, if we are talking on the order of millions, would be enormously complex.
GUPTA: And the vaccination itself could cause serious side effects.
DR. D.A. HENDERSON, HHS: The person most at risk are those who have a serious skin condition of eczema, people who are being treated for cancer, people who are getting organ transplantation, people who have a severe HIV disease.
GUPTA: That's because their immune system is more susceptible to the live virus in the vaccine. They are so susceptible they could even catch a variety of the disease from someone who has been recently vaccinated.
(on camera): And sometimes, people will die. Remember New York 1947, a smallpox outbreak; six million people were vaccinated, two died from the disease and eight from vaccination side effects. Experts warn that the numbers could even be higher today due to the increase in eczema, HIV and even cancer.
HENDERSON: We would estimate maybe two to four deaths per million might be more likely today.
GUPTA (voice-over): If everyone in the country were vaccinated, the death toll could approach a thousand. That's still better than the death toll in previous outbreaks with no vaccinations. Then, 16 to 30 percent of those infected died.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: To be clear, there are about 160 million doses available, 160 million people today, and the government predicts by the end of next year, they would have enough to vaccinate every citizen, 300 million doses, but to vaccinate or not to vaccinate, that's the question everyone is soon going to have to decide for themselves -- Bill.
HEMMER: We heard from Senator Frist say, he says the threat is very real right now. How do you in the medical community assess that threat?
GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, the World Health Organization ranks smallpox right up there with anthrax. There's five agents that they typically talk about, anthrax, smallpox, botulism, plague, those are a few of them, to name a few. But the reason that smallpox is particularly concerning is that, a, it exists in the world today. We know that it exists in the United States. We know that it exists in Russia. It could exist in other countries as well, especially after the dissolution of the USSR.
Also, it's a highly contagious virus that can be spread human to human, and it kills 30 percent of the time. So it is a potentially effective weapon that way.
HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks.
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