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CNN Sunday Morning

Should Americans Choose to Get Vaccinated Against Smallpox?

Aired December 15, 2002 - 09:33   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.


CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's new smallpox policy is on a lot of people's minds. He's requiring smallpox vaccines for members of the military, recommending it for emergency health care workers, and making it voluntary for the general public, if you want one. Should Americans choose to get the vaccine or not? Here to talk about it, is CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Smallpox will kill you, but there's about a one-in-a-half million chance that the vaccine could kill you too, isn't there?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Exactly. And what you need to think about, when you think about the smallpox vaccine, is what would be the benefits of getting the vaccine in the first place? Let's take a step back and talk about whether or not the public can get it. Because in the president's speech, it was a little bit confusing as to what you can and cannot do.

First of all, what the president said is that if a member of the public wanted to get the smallpox vaccine, that public health agencies would try to accommodate them. So what I have been told that that means is that starting let's say in the summer, somewhere around there, about six, nine months from now if someone wanted the smallpox vaccine, they could try to volunteer for a clinical trial. They could try to be in a study, or they could go to their county public health agency, and there would be some kind of a system in place where people could say, gee, I want the vaccine.

And you'd have to jump through a fair number of hoops. You'd have to sign a lot of papers saying I know this is not a licensed drug. This is an investigational new drug. In other words, it's not something the FDA has approved, but I want to take the risk. So starting in about the summer, you could, if you wanted to, try to take steps to get the smallpox vaccine.

MOLINEAUX: Now, of course, those people who got their smallpox vaccine, say, more than 30 years ago, a lot of people have them, we hear that they may not be protected from smallpox. What if you got that vaccine and you decide, well, maybe you want to get this, are you any safer?

COHEN: You are safer. Those of us who are over the age of 30 and were vaccinated as children, if we were to be revaccinated today, we would have a lower risk of some of the bad side effects from the smallpox vaccine. The people with the higher risk are people under the age of 30 who were never vaccinated in the first place. So, yes, you are safer being revaccinated -- and you're right, we only have limited immunity from those vaccines that we received long ago, if any.

MOLINEAUX: Is this really a matter of peace of mind for a lot of people?

COHEN: I think for some people it is. And I think it's so interesting that people have very different reactions. You asked me before, how would you decide, is it worth it, there are bad side effects to this.

Some people feel that the enemies of the United States are poised with smallpox. They are scared. They don't want to get smallpox. They fear that there could be an attack. And they want that vaccine, and they don't really care so much what the side effects are. They figure, well, the side effects are much less dangerous than the actual disease itself.

And other people say, you know what, there is no specific threat of smallpox in this country. President Bush said it several times in his address on Friday. Why should I take a vaccine that potentially could kill me? There's one death per million people vaccinated. Why should I take that risk when there's no specific threat of smallpox?

MOLINEAUX: Now, of course, we understand that potentially safer versions of the vaccine are in the pipeline. Is that something people ought to just think about waiting for?

COHEN: Yeah, you could wait for that. I mean, that could be years before those come out. And again, it really just depends on everyone's mind-set. I mean, some people might say, as you just said, there are safer ones being studied. I'm going to wait. Other people would say, you know what, I'm nervous about smallpox being used as a bioweapon soon. I feel the need to go get vaccinated now.

It's everyone's very personal decision. And that's one of the reasons why it took the president so long to make this decision, because people have such deeply entrenched feelings about this on very opposite ends of the spectrum.

MOLINEAUX: OK, thank you very much, Elizabeth Cohen.

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




Smallpox?>


Aired December 15, 2002 - 09:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's new smallpox policy is on a lot of people's minds. He's requiring smallpox vaccines for members of the military, recommending it for emergency health care workers, and making it voluntary for the general public, if you want one. Should Americans choose to get the vaccine or not? Here to talk about it, is CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Smallpox will kill you, but there's about a one-in-a-half million chance that the vaccine could kill you too, isn't there?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Exactly. And what you need to think about, when you think about the smallpox vaccine, is what would be the benefits of getting the vaccine in the first place? Let's take a step back and talk about whether or not the public can get it. Because in the president's speech, it was a little bit confusing as to what you can and cannot do.

First of all, what the president said is that if a member of the public wanted to get the smallpox vaccine, that public health agencies would try to accommodate them. So what I have been told that that means is that starting let's say in the summer, somewhere around there, about six, nine months from now if someone wanted the smallpox vaccine, they could try to volunteer for a clinical trial. They could try to be in a study, or they could go to their county public health agency, and there would be some kind of a system in place where people could say, gee, I want the vaccine.

And you'd have to jump through a fair number of hoops. You'd have to sign a lot of papers saying I know this is not a licensed drug. This is an investigational new drug. In other words, it's not something the FDA has approved, but I want to take the risk. So starting in about the summer, you could, if you wanted to, try to take steps to get the smallpox vaccine.

MOLINEAUX: Now, of course, those people who got their smallpox vaccine, say, more than 30 years ago, a lot of people have them, we hear that they may not be protected from smallpox. What if you got that vaccine and you decide, well, maybe you want to get this, are you any safer?

COHEN: You are safer. Those of us who are over the age of 30 and were vaccinated as children, if we were to be revaccinated today, we would have a lower risk of some of the bad side effects from the smallpox vaccine. The people with the higher risk are people under the age of 30 who were never vaccinated in the first place. So, yes, you are safer being revaccinated -- and you're right, we only have limited immunity from those vaccines that we received long ago, if any.

MOLINEAUX: Is this really a matter of peace of mind for a lot of people?

COHEN: I think for some people it is. And I think it's so interesting that people have very different reactions. You asked me before, how would you decide, is it worth it, there are bad side effects to this.

Some people feel that the enemies of the United States are poised with smallpox. They are scared. They don't want to get smallpox. They fear that there could be an attack. And they want that vaccine, and they don't really care so much what the side effects are. They figure, well, the side effects are much less dangerous than the actual disease itself.

And other people say, you know what, there is no specific threat of smallpox in this country. President Bush said it several times in his address on Friday. Why should I take a vaccine that potentially could kill me? There's one death per million people vaccinated. Why should I take that risk when there's no specific threat of smallpox?

MOLINEAUX: Now, of course, we understand that potentially safer versions of the vaccine are in the pipeline. Is that something people ought to just think about waiting for?

COHEN: Yeah, you could wait for that. I mean, that could be years before those come out. And again, it really just depends on everyone's mind-set. I mean, some people might say, as you just said, there are safer ones being studied. I'm going to wait. Other people would say, you know what, I'm nervous about smallpox being used as a bioweapon soon. I feel the need to go get vaccinated now.

It's everyone's very personal decision. And that's one of the reasons why it took the president so long to make this decision, because people have such deeply entrenched feelings about this on very opposite ends of the spectrum.

MOLINEAUX: OK, thank you very much, Elizabeth Cohen.

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




Smallpox?>