Fw: NYTimes.com Article: Postal Workers Hesitant on Anthrax Vaccinations

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> Postal Workers Hesitant on Anthrax Vaccinations

>

> December 22, 2001

>

> By ROBERT HANLEY

>

>

>

>

> HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J., Dec. 21 - The Postal Service doled

> out little teddy bears today to the scores of letter

> carriers and other workers at a makeshift mail-processing

> center on Route 130 here, but the gesture did little to

> lift holiday spirits.

>

> Anxiety about anthrax - a preoccupation of the workers in

> September and October - has resurfaced now that the Centers

> for Disease Control and Prevention has offered vaccinations

> for those with a high risk of exposure. Many of the postal

> employees here consider themselves in that category. But in

> interviews today, several workers showed little interest in

> receiving immunizations.

>

> " I'm not going to do anything, " said one letter carrier,

> Grace Piontek, 54, after returning to the center from her

> rural delivery route. " They don't know how the vaccine

> works with people who have been exposed. They can't

> guarantee us our safety with it. "

>

> Nearby, the main mail-processing center in this sprawling

> suburb of Trenton is heavily contaminated with anthrax and

> has been shuttered since mid-October, its windows and doors

> sealed now by heavy black plastic sheeting and tape.

>

> The anthrax-contaminated letters sent to Tom Brokaw of NBC

> News, The New York Post, and two United States senators,

> Tom Daschle and J. Leahy, all passed through

> high-speed sorting machines at the main center in September

> and October, and spores apparently escaped from them to

> other parts of the building. This substitute

> mail-processing center has since opened about a mile away.

>

> Two of the Hamilton workers contracted inhalation anthrax

> in late October and a third came down with skin anthrax,

> state health officials have said. All have recovered. Many

> of their colleagues have been taking antibiotics, mainly

> Cipro or doxycycline, for the 60 days recommended earlier

> by federal and state health officials.

>

> Earlier this week, the C.D.C. and the state health

> departments said that data from animal tests suggested that

> anthrax spores might continue to reside in the lungs beyond

> the 60-day period, although the animals did not develop the

> disease. The C.D.C. suggested vaccinations for postal

> workers and Congressional employees who may have faced high

> exposure levels.

>

> But the agency declined to issue a strong recommendation

> for immunization because of the lack of scientific evidence

> supporting use of the vaccine to treat anthrax after

> exposure.

>

> Another option the C.D.C. suggested was a new 40-day

> regimen of antibiotics for those who had already taken the

> pills for 60 days.

>

> Some Congressional employees have already been vaccinated.

> But the Postal Service is telling its workers the

> vaccinations are voluntary, apparently because of the

> C.D.C.'s reluctance to strongly recommend them.

>

> C.D.C. officials are to meet with postal workers here next

> week to explain the vaccination program. But the workers'

> union leaders are cautioning them against the vaccine, in

> part because it is an experimental program.

>

> Steve Bahrle, president of Local 308 of the National Postal

> Mail Handlers Union, which has members here, said he

> opposed the government's requiring postal workers who want

> the vaccine to sign consent forms absolving the government

> of any liability if they develop anthrax. He said anyone

> who consents, is immunized and then is stricken should be

> compensated. Mr. Bahrle said he would not participate

> himself. " I've got a family to raise and I won't jeopardize

> my income, " he said.

>

> Several other workers, all of whom declined to identify

> themselves, said they were not interested in the vaccine.

>

> " I'm not a guinea pig, " muttered one letter carrier as he

> unloaded baskets of holiday cards and other mail from his

> truck.

>

> Similar sentiments were expressed today by workers at the

> big mail-processing center on 29th Street and Ninth

> Avenue in Manhattan.

>

> The anthrax-laden letters mailed from the Hamilton center

> to NBC and The Post both passed through the center.

> Of a dozen workers questioned outside the center, 10

> said they would not consent to immunization.

>

> " I'm not about to take anything that I don't have to, " said

> one.

>

> The C.D.C. presented information on the Internet explaining

> the various treatment options and restated the government's

> view that the people who had the most exposure to the germ

> were the ones who should consider additional treatment.

>

> The broadcasts can be seen at http://webcasts.sph.unc.edu/

>

> about/webcasts.

> New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services also

> declined today to recommend taking the vaccine. " At this

> point, it's really for the postal worker to decide, " said

> Otterbourg, a spokeswoman.

>

> She also said that the department had sent messages to

> hospitals and doctors around the state that said there was

> " only a minimal theoretical risk " of contracting inhalation

> anthrax after 60 days of treatment with antibiotics.

>

>

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/22/nyregion/22POST.html?ex=1010588058 & ei=1 & en

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