Government panel begins deliberations on smallpox vaccine

ATLANTA - The government panel that sets U.S. vaccine policy began two days of meetings in Atlanta Wednesday to decide whether vaccine against deadly smallpox should be offered to health care workers or the general public. <br> <br> The vaccine is currently offered only to lab workers who handle the virus. But health officials worried about the threat of bioterrorism are considering whether more people should get anti-smallpox shots as a precaution. <br> <br> Smallpox was declared eradicated more than two decades ago, and the virus is known to exist in only two places -- a government lab in Atlanta and a similar one in Russia. But experts fear it could fall into terrorist hands. <br> <br> The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the government panel that formulates vaccine policy, is meeting in Atlanta to consider the risks of a bioterror attack -- and the dangerous side effects of the vaccine. <br> <br> The panel is expected to make its recommendation Thursday. It would have to be approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. <br> <br> A parade of smallpox experts made presentations to the committee, trying to guess how an outbreak might spread in the United States.

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