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American Morning

President Bush Going to Announce Smallpox Plan Tomorrow

Aired December 12, 2002 - 08:39   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is going to announce his plan tomorrow to protect Americans from the possibility of an attack from smallpox. Certain members of the military will be the first to get the vaccination, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta this morning at the CNN Center in Atlanta with more on the plan and the disease and what we need to know.
Good to see you. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

This is something, a long-awaited announcement now, Bill. We've been talking about this for months, no question. The smallpox vaccination plan is what we are talking about. Military personnel, about 500, 000, that's what we're hearing, will likely be directed to receive the smallpox vaccine. At the same time, about 500,000 first responders, Bill. Those are people that will actually be called to the site of a smallpox outbreak; 500,000 first responders also offered the vaccine. That announcement, we are expecting both of those things to be heard in the announcement tomorrow.

Bill, as you know, this has been very controversial. Why? Because this is a live vaccine, a potentially very dangerous vaccine.

Let's take a look at some of the potential risks of this vaccine. What we know now, and what we have known for quite sometime is about one to two out of a million people will likely die from this vaccine. Fifteen people out of a million will have life-threatening illnesses, some of the more severe illness actually being brain swelling, and finally many more will have fevers, swollen lymph nodes, things like. That sort of case scenarios, and about 1/3 of people would actually be out of work for at least a day or part of a day if they in fact received this vaccine.

That's in part why it's been so controversial, why it's taken so long to come to this decision. It's a potentially very dangerous vaccine, Bill.

HEMMER: Clarify this, though, if one or two people out of a million could be met with death, aren't the numbers for flu shots even greater than that?

GUPTA: Well, the flu shot, the flu kills a lot of people, no question, but the flu shot itself is a very safe shot. People may get a little sick from that, but, Bill, people don't talk about death when it comes to getting your flu shots. We are talking about very different things here. This is a vaccine that could potentially kill people, albeit very small numbers, but very different case scenarios there, Bill.

HEMMER: Who can not be vaccinated?

GUPTA: That's a very interesting question. As important it is to talk about who is going to get vaccinated, there is a group of people who can not get vaccinated. Eczema, Bill, people who have ever had it or live with someone who have it are going to not good candidates for this vaccine. Immune deficiency, where you're immune system is not working that well. It could, could be because you're an organ transplant recipient. Those are some examples of people who can't receive it. There are other people as well. Pregnant people should not receive it. Children under the age of 12 should not receive it either -- Bill.

HEMMER: Sanjay, the word we're getting from the White House, you mentioned first responders, U.S. men and women in the military, really on top of the list of getting the vaccination first. It's been described it would be a voluntary basis for regular citizens, like you and me across the country. Is there enough of this supply to do that for how many ever Americans want to go ahead and step up and take it?

GUPTA: That's a good question. Right now, what we are hearing is there are about 70 to 75 million doses that exist right now of the diluted form of the vaccine. There is about 80 million doses sitting around, these are sort of older doses. They'd only be tapped into in the case of an emergency.

By 2004, a company called the Canvas Baxter (ph) hopes to have another 209 million. We did the math. That should cover just about every man, woman, and child in the United States.

And interestingly, as well, there was a poll recently done, despite all of these risks, despite what everyone is hearing about the smallpox vaccine, about two-thirds of Americans would actually say that they would get it. That was a poll done just in October of this year.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a story we will talk about more tomorrow pending the announcement.

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 - 08:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is going to announce his plan tomorrow to protect Americans from the possibility of an attack from smallpox. Certain members of the military will be the first to get the vaccination, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta this morning at the CNN Center in Atlanta with more on the plan and the disease and what we need to know.
Good to see you. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

This is something, a long-awaited announcement now, Bill. We've been talking about this for months, no question. The smallpox vaccination plan is what we are talking about. Military personnel, about 500, 000, that's what we're hearing, will likely be directed to receive the smallpox vaccine. At the same time, about 500,000 first responders, Bill. Those are people that will actually be called to the site of a smallpox outbreak; 500,000 first responders also offered the vaccine. That announcement, we are expecting both of those things to be heard in the announcement tomorrow.

Bill, as you know, this has been very controversial. Why? Because this is a live vaccine, a potentially very dangerous vaccine.

Let's take a look at some of the potential risks of this vaccine. What we know now, and what we have known for quite sometime is about one to two out of a million people will likely die from this vaccine. Fifteen people out of a million will have life-threatening illnesses, some of the more severe illness actually being brain swelling, and finally many more will have fevers, swollen lymph nodes, things like. That sort of case scenarios, and about 1/3 of people would actually be out of work for at least a day or part of a day if they in fact received this vaccine.

That's in part why it's been so controversial, why it's taken so long to come to this decision. It's a potentially very dangerous vaccine, Bill.

HEMMER: Clarify this, though, if one or two people out of a million could be met with death, aren't the numbers for flu shots even greater than that?

GUPTA: Well, the flu shot, the flu kills a lot of people, no question, but the flu shot itself is a very safe shot. People may get a little sick from that, but, Bill, people don't talk about death when it comes to getting your flu shots. We are talking about very different things here. This is a vaccine that could potentially kill people, albeit very small numbers, but very different case scenarios there, Bill.

HEMMER: Who can not be vaccinated?

GUPTA: That's a very interesting question. As important it is to talk about who is going to get vaccinated, there is a group of people who can not get vaccinated. Eczema, Bill, people who have ever had it or live with someone who have it are going to not good candidates for this vaccine. Immune deficiency, where you're immune system is not working that well. It could, could be because you're an organ transplant recipient. Those are some examples of people who can't receive it. There are other people as well. Pregnant people should not receive it. Children under the age of 12 should not receive it either -- Bill.

HEMMER: Sanjay, the word we're getting from the White House, you mentioned first responders, U.S. men and women in the military, really on top of the list of getting the vaccination first. It's been described it would be a voluntary basis for regular citizens, like you and me across the country. Is there enough of this supply to do that for how many ever Americans want to go ahead and step up and take it?

GUPTA: That's a good question. Right now, what we are hearing is there are about 70 to 75 million doses that exist right now of the diluted form of the vaccine. There is about 80 million doses sitting around, these are sort of older doses. They'd only be tapped into in the case of an emergency.

By 2004, a company called the Canvas Baxter (ph) hopes to have another 209 million. We did the math. That should cover just about every man, woman, and child in the United States.

And interestingly, as well, there was a poll recently done, despite all of these risks, despite what everyone is hearing about the smallpox vaccine, about two-thirds of Americans would actually say that they would get it. That was a poll done just in October of this year.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a story we will talk about more tomorrow pending the announcement.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com