A White House spokesperson announced this week that the Bush Administration plans to make the smallpox vaccine available to all U.S. residents on a voluntary basis beginning in 2004. Under President Bush's plan, 500,000 soldiers and 500,000 healthcare workers will receive the vaccine within weeks, with the first public inoculations beginning in early 2004. The government has been debating whether to distribute the vaccine for several months due to its possible dangers (it is made with a live virus, vaccinia, that can cause serious injury to those who come in close contact).

Health officials have determined that one or two people may die for every million inoculated with the smallpox vaccine. Although routine vaccinations ended in the United States in 1972 and the disease was declared eradicated from the earth in 1980, the U.S. government fears terrorist organizations or hostile countries such as Iraq may have stockpiled samples of the smallpox virus.