Judd Gregg: Committee Examines Smallpox Inoculation
By Daniel Remin
WASHINGTON — A congressional committee chaired by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., heard from medical experts yesterday about what might happen if a smallpox virus was unleashed in the United States and how health officials should prepare to deal with such a possibility.
Gregg emphasized the need for the country to fully prepare itself, mainly by having not only emergency responders receive the vaccination but also the general public.
“I view this obviously as an issue of national security,” Gregg said in his opening remarks. “If we are able as a society to put ourselves in a position of being ready for a smallpox attack, the likelihood of it occurring will be significantly less. It would be unlikely that a terrorist would use smallpox against us if they knew that the damage that they were going to cause was going to be dramatically reduced because a large number of Americans were immunized.”
Gregg was chairing a hearing of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Among the experts who testified was William J. Schuler, chief executive officer of Portsmouth Regional Hospital.
Inoculations of medical personnel have begun around the country, but some are refusing because of potential side effects, including an allergic reaction, fever and possibly even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But Schuler said that despite these concerns, there has been very little reluctance at Portsmouth Regional Hospital from people getting the immunizations so far.
“Among our physicians and health-care workers, we’ve had more than a required number of volunteers who have stepped forward, and I think we discussed risks,” he said. “We’ve educated people, and I think everyone agrees that there is a threat out there, and for us to be able to meet that threat, we need to proceed with a plan.”
However, Schuler said that if the inoculations are to be given to the general public, facilities such as the Portsmouth Regional Hospital would need help and resources from state and federal officials. “If and when mass vaccination within the community occurs, it is important to recognize that community health-care systems will be severely stressed; mass vaccination will create a volume of ill patients that in most communities will be unprecedented and profoundly difficult to manage.”
However, Gregg said he thinks mass vaccinations are important for the protection of the nation.
“Nobody is going to infect themselves, I presume, with smallpox, bring it to the United States, go to all sorts of different areas, kill themselves if they know the majority of the population isn’t going to get affected with it because we’ve been inoculated,” Gregg said in an interview after the hearing.
“I think people don’t sense the threat,” Gregg said regarding the resistance to receiving the vaccination. “It’s pretty hard to sense it, but it’s there, and when it happens, it’s going to be overwhelming. The way to avoid that is to get people vaccinated early so that weapons won’t be used, and if it is used, its impact is limited.”
(Daniel Remin is an intern with the Boston University Washington News Service.)
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
