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State Smallpox Vaccination Plans Due

Today is the deadline for states to send the federal government their plans to vaccinate half a million health care workers against a disease that hasn't broken out anywhere in the world since 1977: smallpox. Before anyone can be vaccinated, though, President Bush must release the vaccine -- a decision that he could make as early as this week. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

Copyright 2002 NPR

Since he joined NPR in 2000, Knox has covered a broad range of issues and events in public health, medicine, and science. His reports can be heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, and newscasts.