Mock vaccination exercise mimics smallpox response

The trial run, with 500 volunteers, tested the logistical challenges of mass inoculation, but some serious questions remain.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Feb. 3, 2003.

Washington -- Health officials in Arlington, Va., ended up with a bunch of salty oranges and some valuable lessons on how to run a mass vaccination clinic following a Jan. 11 trial run of the national smallpox clinic guidelines developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It's important to take the plans off the shelf and put them to the test," said acting Arlington County Police Chief Steve Holl at the start of the four-hour mock clinic.

The test was the first to be sponsored and paid for by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, although mass vaccination tests have been carried out in other locations in the country. The data gathered at the test will now be analyzed, said a spokesman from the HHS Council on Public Health Preparedness.

The exercise was intended to help the nation's public health system prepare for the logistical challenges of protecting citizens against the possibility that the smallpox virus could be unleashed as a terrorist weapon. The United States ceased smallpox vaccinations in 1972.

Still, other questions persist. The Institute of Medicine on Jan. 17 urged the CDC to address all concerns about the program before beginning to vaccinate the 500,000 health care workers who are to act as first responders in the event of an attack. That round of vaccinations was to have begun as early as Jan. 24.

The IOM raised concerns about how people will be compensated for medical expenses and other losses that might be incurred as a result of their vaccination.