Fourteen more Vermonters are now vaccinated against smallpox. The state Health Department held its first smallpox vaccine clinic Thursday in Burlington. Most of the recipients were health department employees.
They are part of the first phase of a national effort to vaccinate health care workers. Six of Vermont’s public health nurses had been vaccinated in January. All of them volunteered to work with others around the state who would be assumed to be the first to respond if there is an outbreak of smallpox.
Vermont, Connecticut, Nebraska and California were the first states to receive doses of the smallpox vaccine. In Vermont, up to 2,000 people eventually may get the shots.