Remember smallpox? At the height of concerns about terrorism following 9/11, the federal government proposed that health care providers and first responders get vaccinated against the disease. The lack of response, as they say, was deafening. Recently there was a privately-funded simulation of a smallpox incident in the news. Headed up by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, the exercise — dubbed “Atlantic Storm” — posed a scenario in which terrorists spread dried smallpox at an airport in Frankfurt, Germany and a number of other locations throughout Europe and the United States. The simulation revealed a number of serious weaknesses in our current planning. As the former Polish Prime Minister, Jerzy Buzek, put it: “Fortunately, we are not prime ministers anymore. Nobody is ready.”
Here are a few facts concerning the vaccination for smallpox (for detailed information, see the CDC’s website):

• For the most part, the vaccination is safe: the rate of adverse response to the vaccine is relatively small (1,000 serious reactions for every million vaccinated). However, given the scale of the anticipated inoculations that would be needed if all health care providers needed protection, there is cause for concern. Under rare circumstances the vaccine can lead to death.
• After vaccination, the individual is potentially contagious, for up to three weeks (as long as the vaccination site remains open). This means that health care workers — primary targets for vaccination — might not be able to work for a significant period of time.
• There is a portion of the general population that is at higher risk for adverse reaction to the vaccine (e.g., people with a history of eczema or acne, HIV positive individuals, burn victims, cancer patients, pregnant women). There are guidelines for screening these individuals out of a vaccination program.

The Public Policy conundrum
The smallpox vaccination program raises a number of issues involving workers compensation and other forms of insurance. In addition, there are some gray areas, where vaccinated workers and their families may face periods of disability that are not covered by insurance. Here is our take on just a few of these issues:
If employers require their employees to be vaccinated, any adverse responses would certainly be covered by workers comp, up to and including death. Even if the vaccination is “voluntary,” adverse reactions are still likely to be covered by workers comp. There is a potential “disproportionate impact” on insurers of health care facilities and ambulance services, whose workers are first in line for vaccination. This exposure is not currently contemplated in workers comp rates.
Regarding the significant portion of the general population that is at higher risk for adverse reaction to the vaccine (see above), many of these vulnerable individuals work in health care facilities, where their not being vaccinated might put them at higher risk for serious illness. If exposed to smallpox, they would be at very high risk when they are compelled to take the vaccine to stave off the illness.
As if the real risks were not enough, the considerable publicity about the dangers of the vaccine significantly increases the probability of “false positives” — people reporting what may be imaginary ailments. These “false positives” would immediately appear on the workers comp radar screen.
Here’s the crux of the problem for the health care industry: inoculated workers might not be allowed to come into contact with patients during their potentially contagious period (up to 21 days). This would apply especially to health care workers whose patients include the highly vulnerable groups mentioned above. This inability to work is not a period of “disability” but of quarantine. Workers comp would not apply. Who replaces the lost wages during this period? Is it fair to require workers to use their sick leave? What if they do not have any sick leave? Beyond that, if there is a mass inoculation of health care workers, how will hospitals staff their facilities during the quarantine period?
As if all the above weren’t enough to worry about, during the contagious period, a worker might infect family members. How would these exposures be covered?
This is not meant as a definitive summary of the smallpox policy issues. However, it is clear that any mass inoculation program will raise a number of concerns that need to be confronted head on, not as we are currently doing, with our heads buried in the sand.