Risky business
Last week the Associated Press reported that the Bush administration is now prepared to “offer” every American the opportunity to receive a smallpox vaccination. This is a sharp departure from the recent plan to vaccinate only those classified as “first responders” – medical service personnel, police officers, and members of the armed forces who would need immunity to the disease in order to remain healthy in the event of an outbreak.
The AP article describes the vaccine as “effective but risky.” The word “risky,” however, hardly begins to describe the extremely troubling consequences of vaccinating 280 million Americans.
A Tom Clancy plot
In 1979 the World Health Organization announced that smallpox had been “eradicated from the earth.” That sounds pretty final: smallpox is gone forever. But not quite. Samples of smallpox were saved at two laboratories: one at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, and one at the Research Institute of Viral Preparations in Moscow. Ten years later communism collapsed, the government infrastructure of the U.S.S.R. unraveled, and no one can be sure if the samples in Moscow were contained and untampered with. The fear is that an enterprising scientist may have made some of the smallpox sample available to the highest bidder.
In this scenario, the highest bidder might easily have been the Bush administration’s current public enemy number one: Saddam Hussein. So with a war with Iraq at the top of the agenda, the new Bush plan calls for the vaccination of hospital emergency room workers, followed quickly by a wide range of other “first responders,” totaling as many as half a million people. Then, as soon as possible, the vaccine would be offered to the general public.
The key word there is “offered.” So, if offered, should you accept?
In an e-Alert I sent you last June (“A Shot in the Arm; a Shot in the Dark” 6/10/02), I told you about some of the dangers with the smallpox vaccine. To begin with, it’s still classified as an investigational new drug (IND). As the name implies, it has not been fully tested for both safety and efficacy. So while no one can say exactly who will have adverse reactions, we do know that certain people will be vulnerable to a number of very serious side effects, including paralysis, brain damage, and death.
Anyone with an immune deficiency (such as people who are HIV-positive) and many patients fighting cancer or chronic diseases will be most vulnerable to side effects of the vaccine. Anyone who has eczema will be vulnerable. There is a chance that the vaccine may harm the fetuses of pregnant women. And some infant children may experience brain swelling resulting in permanent retardation or death. Obviously this smallpox vaccine is not an “offer” to be taken lightly.
Writing in the New York Times last month, Bill Frist, a Republican senator from Tennessee and the author of “When Every Moment Counts,” a book on bioterrorism, stated, “Of every million people who receive the vaccine, two to four people will die from its complications. Five times that number will become seriously ill from the vaccine.” And although those risks are considerable, Senator Frist believes that the threat of a smallpox attack outweighs the risks of providing smallpox vaccinations. He supports the President’s plan to make the vaccine available to everyone as soon as possible.
At this time last year there were less than 16 million doses of smallpox vaccine available, and another 40 million were on order. But researchers recently determined that the existing 15.4 million doses could be diluted to create 75 million. Then an unidentified drug company opened a forgotten freezer and found another 86 million doses that were promptly donated to the government. Add to that another 209 million doses that will be ready early next year, and – presto! – the sudden bull market of smallpox vaccines has created a fire-sale mentality that appears to be driving this policy change. The revised plan has a gung-ho enthusiasm: we’ve got it, let’s use it!
Meanwhile, I can’t shake one nagging question. We fear that terrorists have smallpox to use as a weapon. But even Bill Frist admits that we don’t know this for sure. And if a bioterrorist attack should come, there’s a chance that any number of diseases other than smallpox may be used as the weapon. So should we take an action that we know will kill hundreds of Americans and leave many others permanently debilitated, based only on speculation?
There is no easy answer to that question. As horrific a decision as it is, if we knew for a fact that a smallpox attack was imminent, I would say that we would have to sacrifice the lives of a few in order to save the lives of millions. It’s almost on the level of “Sophie’s Choice” – the heartbreaking reality that no matter what choice is made, the consequences are unbearable. The thing is – I’m not convinced that we’ve come to that point yet where the clear choice is to vaccinate one and all.
There are many more issues to the smallpox vaccine dilemma that I haven’t brought up here. In the coming weeks and months we’re going to be hearing much more about this, and I’ll be keeping a close watch on the situation so that I can fill you in on the background information that the mainstream media glosses over.
At this point it appears that the first smallpox vaccinations may begin before the end of the year. So with the threat of a bioterrorist attack more of a reality than ever, it’s essential for each of us to take good care of ourselves to maintain a healthy immune system. In tomorrow’s e-Alert I’ll tell you about a new study that examines the importance of a diet rich in flavonoids, the biologically active compounds with high antioxidant content that can give the immune system a boost.
If you exercise regularly, get around 7 hours of sleep every night, and eat a balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, you’ll be providing the first line of defense against anyone or anything that tries to compromise your health.
To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
