Last Updated

29 Jun 2003

Source: Washington Post, April 8, 2002.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Plenty of Vaccines

by J. DONALD MILLAR, Washington D.C.

The March 28 front-page article "Smallpox Vaccine Turns Up" stated that the United States now has adequate resources to protect against smallpox.

As a former director of the Centers for Disease Control's smallpox eradication program (1966-70), I believe that the idea that we were short of vaccine was a misconception from the start. Even before the additional vaccine was found, the United States had an adequate supply for epidemic control in the event of a terrorist attack.

As the CDC proved in the 1960s, using intradermal jet injection the vaccine can be diluted 1 to 10 and used as effectively and more efficiently than undiluted vaccine via the traditional method.

Thus, the government's 15 million stored doses could vaccinate 150 million Americans, far exceeding the needs anticipated in the worst-case scenarios. With the newly found 70 million to 90 million additional doses, we could vaccinate all of North and South America.