Whipping smallpox

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

The Bush administration plans to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of medical personnel against smallpox in case terrorists unleash the deadly virus in the U.S., The Washington Post reported this week. Last month, an advisory committee recommended inoculating only 20,000 doctors, police officers, and others who might be the first to respond to a bioterrorism attack. But after studying how quickly a smallpox outbreak might spread, health officials decided to vaccinate about 500,000 health care workers and emergency personnel. Hospitals believe that if there is a bioterrorism attack, panicky people will go to any local emergency room, not just a few hospitals designated by the federal government. The vaccine can cause severe, even fatal, side effects, so the administration has ruled out inoculating the entire population. “If we vaccinate a few million people,” said bioterrorism expert Alan Zelicoff, “we know a few are going to die.”