WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush is expected to announce as early as this week a plan to vaccinate 500,000 health workers against smallpox as a counter-terrorism measure, Administration sources said yesterday.
The decision comes after an extended period of deliberation by Bush, who has worried about the possible side-effects and deaths inevitable for some of those who would receive the vaccination.
Under the plan Bush is expected to adopt, the initial vaccinations of 500,000 health workers would be followed by a second round for seven million to 10 million more health workers as well as firefighters, police and other so-called first responders, the sources said.
The Government will not recommend anyone other than health workers and emergency officials get the vaccine, although the public could gain access to it by volunteering in clinical trials.
What is driving the issue is the fear that terrorists could unleash smallpox on US targets.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, while not confirming Bush had made a decision or would announce it soon, said it was not a simple matter.
"The process is a careful one and a very deliberative one recognising that any decision the President makes on this, medically speaking, there will be a very small number but a number of side-effects as a result of the vaccine itself," Fleischer said.
Last year, the US Government ordered millions of doses of smallpox vaccine and now says it has enough to vaccinate "every man, woman and child" in the country.
But some health officials warn that widespread vaccinations could kill an estimated one in one million recipients and cause serious side-effects in one in 10,000.
Conservatives have urged Bush to take a cautious approach, but many lawmakers in Congress want him to make the vaccine widely available.
- REUTERS
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Bush prepares to authorise mass smallpox vaccination
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