Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Holds Hearing on Smallpox Vaccination Plan
FDCH TRANSCRIPTS
Congressional Hearings
Jan. 30, 2003
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Holds Hearing on Smallpox Vaccination Plan
JEFFORDS:
Dr. Gerberding, what were the elements in choosing which states and counties would receive these initial doses of vaccine?
GERBERDING:
What happened was CDC issued guidance for states to develop their plans, and as the plans were submitted this past January, they were reviewed according to the completeness of the various elements. As they were approved, then states were given permission to request the doses of vaccine that they needed to initiate their program. As of today, all states have approved plans. In one state, and I forget which one it is, there's some minor contingency that has to be cleared up before we could release vaccine. But the vaccine will be made available to every state when they request it.
JEFFORDS:
I know that Vermont was selected. What did that mean?
GERBERDING:
It means that the state of Vermont contacted CDC and said, "Please ship us vaccine. We're ready to go."
JEFFORDS:
And what is the plan for evaluating implementation of the smallpox program in the initial stage?
GERBERDING:
I'm sorry, I missed your question.
JEFFORDS:
For evaluation of implementation of the smallpox program, what is the plan?
GERBERDING:
The plan is quite comprehensive. In addition to monitoring the safety in the mechanisms that I described earlier, which include following people who've chosen to be vaccinated and using another system for identifying people with severe effects, several states are working on a program to contact the people who could have been vaccinated but chose not to be to understand why they not to chose to be included in the program and are we aware of all the barriers to participation?
JEFFORDS:
Dr. Fauci, yesterday you mentioned that we need to be prepared against genetic manipulation of some of these bacteria and viruses that could be used in a terrorist attack. I'm concerned that there could be potentially unlimited variations of these bacteria or viruses. Could you elaborate on these issues and how we can be prepared?
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
JEFFORDS:
Wow. During the recent mad cow disease scare in Europe, there was a great deal of concern about preons and what role they played in the disease. These are not bacteria or viruses, I believe.
FAUCI:
No, they're not.
JEFFORDS:
Can you tell us more about these, and do we need to be concerned about them in our fight against bioterrorism?