WASHINGTON — Injecting the military can-do spirit into a program weighed down by difficulty, an Army colonel said Thursday that the Pentagon has vaccinated "well over" 100,000 troops against smallpox and received only three reports of serious reactions.
"The risks [of the vaccine] are still pretty darn low," Col. John D. Grabenstein, deputy director for military vaccines, told a scientific panel created to advise the government's smallpox vaccination program.
"Sick leave is rare and short ... and just about everything is occurring at rates lower than historically predicted," he added.
Grabenstein's upbeat report -- coming in the third week of a program characterized by fits and starts, confusion and controversy -- prompted members of the Institute of Medicine committee to ask how the military's matter-of-fact success can be replicated in the civilian world.
Not easily, appears to be the short answer. The military is spared virtually all the thorny issues that have slowed the vaccination program in state and local health departments.
For about 500,000 military personnel, inoculation against the deadly smallpox virus is an order, not a choice. Their deployment overseas increases the threat of a smallpox attack and, as a result, the incentive to be vaccinated. And they are guaranteed free medical care should they suffer serious side effects.
"It's all about reason and emotion" and making sure reason wins out, Grabenstein said in an interview.
For federal and state health officials, however, the program is also about logistical challenges, legal complications and constant fine-tuning of the nation's first large-scale vaccination program in almost 30 years.
In December, President Bush called for inoculations of up to 10.5 million health-care workers and police, fire and emergency personnel so they could safely respond to any terrorist attack that used smallpox as a weapon.
As of Tuesday, 1,043 of these front-line health-care workers, from 18 states and Los Angeles County, had been vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal health officials are working with Congress to create a compensation fund for anyone injured by the vaccine, and the agency is still developing an electronic reporting system, funding mechanisms and educational materials.
