Mass. nurses balk at smallpox shots

BOSTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Massachusetts Nurses Association is urging members not to volunteer for President Bush's smallpox vaccination program until problems with the federal-state effort are resolved.

The 20,000-member group cited safety and liability concerns over the president's initiative to prepare against a possible attack by terrorists using smallpox as a weapon, it was reported Wednesday.

"We agree that as a society we must prepare for the event of a bioterrorist attack, including, but not limited to smallpox. However, the timetable and the process proposed under this particular plan is fraught with problems at this time," the association said in a statement posted on its Web site, Massnurses.org.

The group said, "There are concerns that need to be addressed before we proceed," and pending adequate resolution of the issues raised, the MNA "cannot encourage participation by our members in the smallpox immunization plan."

According to the American Nurses Association, the MNA is the first statewide nursing or physician organization actively urging members not to be vaccinated.

Medical staffs at some 80 hospitals across the nation, including the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Mass., have decided not to have their physicians vaccinated, according to a USA Today survey.

Bush in December announced the vaccination program, saying the risks were worth taking considering the consequences of a smallpox attack by terrorists.

The MNA expressed concerns over the safety of needles used to administer the vaccine, the lack of malpractice insurance for nurses who might pass on the live virus to patients, an inadequate workers' compensation program for volunteers who get sick, and a lack of a plan to furlough immunized volunteers to protect vulnerable patients.

"Without furloughing provisions, and given the current malpractice liability for nurses who participate," the group said, "taking such an unnecessary risk is unacceptable."

The MNA also urged the use of a "safer vaccine," noting that the vaccine "chosen for use under this plan is more dangerous than that chosen and utilized to vaccinate the healthcare work force in Israel."

"Given the risks involved with a large scale vaccination plan," the use of a safer vaccine would help "to minimize any negative impacts," the group said.

When the vaccinations were widely given as late as the 1980s, one or two people died from side effects for every 1 million people vaccinated, while nearly 50 out of every 1 million had serious complications.

Under the state's program, the shots are to be given to some 10,000 public health workers in mid-February. After that, some 10,000 to 12,000 hospital workers and emergency responders would be vaccinated over the next three months.

Immunizing nurses is a critical component of the plan because they would in turn be the ones administering shots to others.

MNA President Karen Higgins told the Boston Globe her group is worried that the program is "moving so fast that some of the concerns are not being addressed, and we think they need to be before you put anybody at risk."

Massachusetts Department of Public Health chief of infectious diseases, Dr. Alfred DeMaria, said the nurses raise some "reasonable questions," but promised they would be answered soon.