Doctors avoid shots

Washington, D.C.

The Bush administration has vaccinated only 1 percent of the 500,000 doctors, nurses, and emergency workers it had planned to immunize against smallpox, health officials said this week. The plan was to vaccinate the volunteers over 30 days so they could safely respond to a terrorist attack using smallpox. But the month has ended with only 4,200 inoculations. The program “is as close to stalled as you can get,” one expert said. A half-dozen major unions and some health departments refused to participate. Skeptics said the risk of attack was too low to justify using a vaccine that can have serious side effects. The slow start alarmed some experts. “We’re advertising loudly this is one threat we’re not ready to deal with,” said Edward Kaplan, a Yale University professor.