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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 11, 2003
TAMPA -- Dr. Douglas Holt pleaded with the licensed practical nurse wielding a two-pronged needle.
"Be gentle," said Holt, director of the Hillsborough County Health Department.
The nurse, Leah Wilson, promised to do her best. Then she quickly jabbed the needle 15 times into Holt's left arm.
"I felt the pricks, but there was less discomfort than drawing blood," said Holt, 44.
Holt was the last of 57 health department and hospital employees in Hillsborough to receive a voluntary smallpox vaccination Monday at the Crosstown Business Center.
It was the start of Stage 1 for Operation Vaccinate Florida, part of President Bush's call to vaccinate 500,000 health care workers who would be on the front lines of a smallpox bioterrorist attack. The Pinellas County Health Department begins Stage 1 today. Health workers in Pasco and Citrus counties are also expected to receive vaccinations this week.
Stage 2 of Bush's plan, which has no start date, calls for vaccinations for up 10-million additional health workers, as well as firefighters, police and emergency medical personnel. Stage 3, if necessary, would involve vaccinating the public.
Mandatory inoculations for 500,000 military personnel are already under way.
But the plan, announced in mid December, is off to a slow start. As of Thursday, 687 people in 16 states -- excluding Florida -- had received the vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Unions representing medical personnel in at least four states, but not Florida, have advised their members to avoid the vaccine because of unanswered questions about how they would be compensated if it made them sick and they missed work. At least 80 of the country's 3,000 hospitals have chosen not to participate.
A small number of those vaccinated -- about 15 per million, according to most estimates -- will face serious medical complications. Others may experience flu-like symptoms. Two U.S. soldiers are recovering from complications of their mandatory inoculations.
Florida Department of Health officials refused to say how many people were vaccinated Monday, or how many of the state's 67 health departments started the program, citing security and confidentiality.
But in Hillsborough County, 43 health department employees and 14 workers from three hospitals in the county received vaccinations, said Cindy Hardy, Hillsborough's immunization and refugee screening program coordinator.
The employees from South Bay, Tampa General and Brandon hospitals, along with vaccinated county health workers, will begin vaccinating smallpox response teams of up to 150 people at participating hospitals later this month, wrapping up Stage 1, officials said.
"We had a good turnout," said Dr. Bill Tynan, the state's deputy epidemiologist and coordinator of Operation Vaccinate Florida. He was first in the state Monday to receive the vaccination.
"(The numbers) were actually right on target," he said, adding that several hundred vaccinators would participate in Stage 1.
Aside from the three participating hospitals in Hillsborough County, health officials were unsure how many of the county's other seven acute care hospitals are going to participate.
"Many of them are still on the fence," said Holt, the Hillsborough health department director.
In Pinellas County, no hospital has officially declined to participate, though some are still making a decision, a Pinellas health department spokesperson said.
All of the volunteers vaccinated Monday were preselected, Holt said.
One of those volunteers was Constance Hammond, a clerk in the immunizations division of the Hillsborough County Health Department. Like many of the volunteers, she had received a smallpox immunization as child.
After going over a medical questionnaire, being given the opportunity to watch an 11-minute video explaining who should not be vaccinated, and signing consent forms, Hammond rolled up a sleeve. She, like others who have been vaccinated before, received 15 jabs. The unvaccinated receive three jabs.
"It's my patriotic duty," Hammond, who declined to give her age, said afterward. "I feel we should support our country and president in his effort to ensure the safety and welfare of the people of our country. The best defense is to be prepared. This is just one step toward that."
-- Staff writers Matt Waite and Jim Ross contributed to this report, which includes information from the Associated Press.