Minutus

As Russell said, the smallpox vaccine is prepared from the vaccinia
virus, not the smallpox virus, so it cannot cause smallpox. Here's a
quote from the CDC website:

Facts about vaccinia

* The vaccinia virus, the virus in the smallpox vaccine, is another
"pox"-type virus.
* Vaccinia is related to smallpox, but milder.
* The vaccinia virus may cause rash, fever, and head and body aches.
In certain groups of people, complications from the vaccinia virus
can be severe.
* Vaccinia is spread by touching a vaccination site before it has
healed or by touching bandages or clothing that have been
contaminated with live virus from the smallpox vaccination site.
* This way, vaccinia can spread to other parts of the body or to
other individuals. This is called inadvertent inoculation.
* In the past, spreading to other parts of the vaccine recipients'
body was the more common form of inadvertent inoculation.
* Careful care must be taken of the site of the vaccine to prevent
spreading of the vaccinia virus.

Arlene
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Tanya wrote:
doesnt open an article

[snip]
http://www.stratiawire.com/article.asp? ... tccom%2Ene

This is because the end of the URL gets truncated when I send the email.
(I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about that -- Dave?)
Rather than just clicking on the hyperlink, cut and paste the entire two
lines into your browser, of manually add the bit (t&id=771) that's got
lopped off.

Regards
Wendy

Wendy,

I posted this URL yesterday in a post. It is the same and it works.

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/Agent/Smallpox/vaccineimages.asp

sara

SMALLPOX VACCINATION HAZARDS (03)

Vaccinated people can transmit vaccinia virus
An interesting historical note is that during the early days of
vaccination (while Jenner was still alive), the problem of keeping live
stocks of the vaccine was solved by transferring the vaccine from one
recipient to the next. As explained by Jonathan B. Tucker in his book
"Scourge: The Once and Future threat of Smallpox" (New York: Atlantic
Monthly Press, 2001), p. 29:

"One solution to the problem was to keep the vaccine 'alive' by
transferring it from one human recipient to the next, a practice known
as the arm-to-arm technique. First, an individual was vaccinated, and as
soon as the cowpox pustule had appeared on his or her arm, matter from
the lesion was then used to vaccinate other recipients. In 1801 in St.
Petersburg, Russia, for example, a recently vaccinated girl was sent to
a local orphanage to serve as the source of smallpox vaccine for all
children more than a week old. From then on, the orphanage continuously
transferred the vaccine from one child to another for more than
ninety-two years (1801-93)."

The author goes on to note the hazards of the arm-to-arm method: It
could "contaminate the vaccine with dangerous pathogens, resulting in
inadvertent spread of hepatitis or syphilis. In 1861, for example, 41
Italian children who had been vaccinated by arm-to-arm transfer acquired
syphilis from a child with an undiagnosed case of the disease." (p. 33)

Ed Regis, Ph.D.
College Fellow
McDaniel College
Westminster, Maryland 21157
Ref......
http://www.vaclib.org/news/smallpoxadverse.htm

Anthony Gunterman

Just read Julian Windston's column in Homeopathy Today. He addresses the perils of the Homeland Security Bill's vaccination requirements. I thought it timely that I received the article today. It seems like the medical profession is up in arms over this and
most hospitals and large health unions are refusing to participate.

I think we need to be pro-active around these kinds of issues. Pass this around and contact local legislators and lobby against the inclusion of mandatory vaccination with the legal immunity to the manufacturer's of vaccines for health damages.

tanya
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January 30, 2003
Health Care Leaders Voice Doubts on Smallpox Inoculations
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

ASHINGTON, Jan. 29 - Serious doubts about the president's smallpox vaccination plan emerged today at a Senate hearing from the very health care professionals who have been asked to get or administer the vaccine.

The chief of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the nation's largest children's hospital, said his institution would not immunize its staff.

The health and safety director of a union representing 350,000 health care workers asked for a delay and said several of his chapters had advised their nurses not to cooperate.

Two public health officials said the Bush administration was seriously underestimating the costs of the plan and how much money it would take from public health programs for things like childhood vaccines and tuberculosis control.

Dr. Julie Geberding, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, defended the administration's plan, but said, "We appreciate the concerns and are going to take steps to make the program successful."

The president's program, announced on Dec. 13, calls for up to 500,000 health workers to be vaccinated in the coming weeks. The second phase is to include 10 million more health workers, firefighters, police and ambulance personnel.

All are to be volunteers. Four doctors were vaccinated in Connecticut on Friday, the first day the plan went into effect, but Connecticut health administrators were embarrassed when the nurses on their vaccination team backed out at the last minute, citing concerns like those expressed at today's hearing before the subcommittee on labor, health and human services of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The critics' chief worries were that vaccinated health workers could suffer side effects themselves or accidentally infect their own family members or patients with the vaccinia virus. If they or a family member suffered a bad reaction - whether resulting in a day off work because of fever or a rare but life-threatening case of encephalitis or generalized vaccinia - they might not be covered by workers' compensation, they said.

When the vaccine was last in routine use, in the 1960's, it caused up to 52 life threatening complications and two deaths for every million people vaccinated. Some experts expect higher rates of complications today because more people have compromised immune systems and skin problems. On the other hand, the 1960's figures were mostly for the first-time vaccination of children, while many health care workers today were vaccinated as children, and, of course, are adults and presumably know something about the risks of side effects.

Dr. Louis M. Bell, chief of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, in explaining his hospital's decision not to join the plan, said, "The virus might spread from the arm of a health care worker to a hospitalized child."

From 1907 to 1975, Dr. Bell said, citing a study that he said would soon appear in The New England Journal of Medicine, 85 children and adults were infected by health care workers shedding virus, and 9 of them died. The risk was greatest to hospitalized children. Hospitals like his now contain many children on cancer chemotherapy or undergoing organ transplants, so the risks are greater, and there are more immuno-compromised health workers.

Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who was chairman of the hearing, called it "rather startling that an institution of your prestige should decide not to inoculate." Mr. Specter later said a newspaper survey of 50 state health officials found that more than 80 of the country's 3,000 hospitals, including some leading ones, had made the same decision.

Dr. Geberding of the disease control agency said the administration's plan did not require every hospital to participate.

"We knew that not every one would choose to," she added. "We planned for it."

During her brief testimony, Dr. Geberding calculated that it would cost about $13 for each person vaccinated. An earlier estimate by the centers had been $85 a person.

Two witnesses disagreed. Patrick Libbey, director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said four of his members estimated their costs at $155 to $220 per person vaccinated, and Jane Colacecchi, the public health director of Iowa, estimated her costs at $400 a person. Both said their figures included training vaccination teams and paying their salary and travel costs, screening out people at risk, giving the vaccinations and bandages, following up on bad reactions and managing the data.

Dr. Geberding later said her estimate was only "the extra cost of putting vaccine in someone's arm," not what she called "infrastructure costs."

James August, health and safety director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, representing 350,000 health care workers, called for a delay in the program until workers could be taught more about the risks, and until all the worries about compensation for those suffering side effects were worked out.
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