House Democrats Call For Revitalizing US Smallpox Vaccine Program

[Guest guest]

What?! Anyone read now how the flu vaccines are useless? And yet I

know of several dear friends that actually became severely ill after

taking these useless vaccines...

 

On a different note, anyone remember the craze for Cipero, I hope I

spelled that right, when there was the scare of anthrax being sent

through the mail... What ever happened to that?

 

So in the larger picture, after all the harm that was shown to occur

from smallpox vaccines, and now that we have witnessed how they can

whip up hysteria in the masses, to later have it be a non-subject,

what in the world are they cooking up now?

 

Other comments?

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

 

http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2004_1_29.html#88E92E9A

 

House Democrats Call for Revitalizing U.S. Smallpox Vaccine Program

 

Calling federal efforts to vaccinate U.S. health care workers against

smallpox " an embarrassing failure of government, with serious

implications for homeland security, " Democrats in the U.S. House of

Representatives yesterday called on the Bush administration to

reassess the smallpox bioterrorist threat and improve the U.S.

ability to respond to such an attack (see GSN, Jan. 26).

 

Led by Representative Jim Turner (D-Texas), the Democratic members

of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security released a 19-

page report yesterday lambasting U.S. efforts to prepare for the

possibility of a smallpox attack.

 

In December 2002, President George W. Bush announced a U.S. smallpox

preparedness plan that included goals of vaccinating 500,000 health

care workers in a first wave and millions of workers after that. To

date, fewer than 40,000 workers have volunteered to receive the

vaccine (see GSN, Dec. 12, 2003).

 

The report identifies three " key failures " for the vaccination

program's poor performance, including poor funding of public health

agencies, delayed preparation of a plan to compensate volunteers who

suffered vaccine side effects (see GSN, Dec. 15, 2003), and

ineffective efforts to convince health care workers that smallpox is

a serious threat.

 

" As a result of poor management and leadership of the vaccination

program, the confidence and credibility in the government from

vaccinated and unvaccinated health care workers, first responders

and the public is being undermined, " the report says.

 

The report recommends several steps to improve U.S. readiness,

starting with reassessing the threat of terrorists using smallpox as

a weapon.

 

If that threat is reaffirmed as serious, then several steps are

necessary, the report says:

 

* include the vaccination program into a larger smallpox

preparedness program and provide more help to cities and states to

assess their needs and implement changes;

 

* renew efforts to encourage health care workers to

volunteer for the vaccine by describing the nature of smallpox

threat and the compensation available to volunteers who suffer side

effects;

 

* provide adequate resources for states and localities to

implement the vaccination program without affecting other public

health activities; and

 

* integrate the smallpox preparedness program into a larger

strategy to respond to bioterrorist or other health emergencies

(House Select Committee on Homeland Security minority office

release, January 2004)