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Last year, more than 40,000 injuries were reported from the use of nonmotorized push scooters for the whole year. This year so far, there have been more than 68,000 injuries. That's almost 30,000 more than last year, and the summer's not even over yet. The number of deaths also increased to 13 nationwide, compared to five last year.

Statistics show that most of the injuries happen to kids under the age of 15 and that the younger the child, the more severe the injury.

What kind of injuries are the most common?

By far the most common injuries are broken bones and joint dislocations in the upper extremities, but there are also a lot of lacerations, contusions, abrasions, https://www.vcvzgsj3r2.online/ - https://www.vcvzgsj3r2.online/ strains, and sprains.

How can kids avoid these injuries?

Protective gear is the most important way of preventing injury, and an estimated 60% of injuries could be avoided by using equipment like a helmet and elbow and kneepads. But you should not ride at night, and you should avoid traffic because some of the most severe injuries involve result from collision with cars. Avoid gravel or uneven pavement that can make the scooter unstable, and wear sturdy shoes for better protection and control.

One of the inherent problems with scooters is their fundamental design. It’s easy to put your weight forward, which can make it harder to control if you take a turn too sharply. And although many injuries to the wrist occur when people fall over, wrist guards are not recommended because they make it more difficult to grip the handlebars. Gloves may offer better grip and protection to the hands.

How old should a child be before riding a scooter?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that children under 8 years old should only be riding scooters under close adult supervision. Children under 12 shouldn’t ride motorized scooters, which can reach much higher speeds and require brake - http://venturebeat.com/?s=require%20brake and accelerator coordination.

Are motorized scooters - http://photobucket.com/images/motorized%20scooters legal?

It varies from place to place and you should check with your local authorities to find out what the regulations are in your neighborhood. But many places do not allow them in the street or public areas.

How can parents tell if their children are ready to ride a scooter?

One good indicator is how well they ride a bike. Since the skills are similar, if your child is confident on a bike, they probably have the skills for a scooter, too. If they are a little shaky, they probably aren’t ready yet.

To summarize, The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends the following safety guidelines:

For more safety tips, visit the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission official Web site.©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

The Early Show talks to Dr. Jordan Metzl.

What has been your experience? Do you see kids in your own practice taking supplements like creatine and ephedra?

I have parents call me all the time asking about sports supplements. Some already have children taking them. Others are considering it and want my opinion. And in all cases I say the same thing: Children should not take these supplements.

Are there any long-term dangers from taking creatine?

Little is known about the long-term effects of taking creatine because there have never been any safety studies done on children. However, it has been linked to muscle injury and kidney problems. Another interesting point: There was a study this year that found kids as young as 11 were taking it.

Now let’s talk about ephedra, another supplement popular with young athletes.

Ephedra is not as widely used as creatine, but it is potentially more dangerous. In fact a study in the New England Journal of Medicine has linked ephedra to 18 deaths in California alone over the past 2 years.

Ephedra is found in many over-the-counter products and works by stimulating the heart and central nervous system. Athletes - https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&q=Athletes use it to lose weight, increase metabolism, and burn fat.

But since ephedra is classified as a natural supplement it is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore very hard to pull off store shelves.

Many children take these supplements behind their parents’ back. But you say there are some common warning signs they should look for:

Team Test

If one child on a team is taking a supplement, there is a high probability others are too. This is why I encourage parents to keep in close contact with the coaches and other parents. And while we've been focusing a lot of attention on boys this morning, https://www.kulmfuelf.online - https://www.kulmfuelf.online this is also a big problem with girls.

Rapid Weight and Muscle Change

This is something we would see in a teen taking creatine or other more dangerous performance-enhancing substances such as anabolic steroids. A teen will, in a very short span of time, gain a considerable amount of weight and begin to get "cut."

Irritability and Hyperactivity

This is common among teens on ephedra. They are often moody and have a hard time keeping focused, because they are overstimulated. If your young athlete's grades start to fall suddenly, you may want to ask him or her if they are using ephedra.

Are there any supplements that are okay for teens to take?

No, because supplements have not been tested in children. So if you have a child playing a sport who is looking to bulk up, it's importnt you tell them that gradual is the way to go. Get them involved in a strength training program or have them talk to a nutritionist, who can suggest what foods can help them get bigger.©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

After concentrating on a career that brought her to the presidency of the National Organization for Women, Kim Gandy had her first child at 39 and the second at 41.

"I got married at 35 and knew that I wanted to have kids," says Gandy.

That's why the latest ad campaign by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine hits a nerve with her. The billboards, which warn women about dangers that could impede pregnancies, include one that warns women about getting too old to have children.

"Knowing that there is a biological clock ticking frankly, I think, is something that most women of a certain age are really quite aware of," says Gandy.

Not so, say the doctors behind the ads. They say more and women are waiting to start families and many will end up childless. The number of women in their 30s and 40s having children has quadrupled since 1970 while women in their 20's giving birth has fallen by a third. And the reproductive experts say women have a false assumption that it will be easy to get pregnant no matter how long they wait.

"Women assume because they are still having regular cycles and they are in pretty good health--this biological clock hasn't kicked in yet. But in many it has," says Dr. Michael Soules of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

Celebrity images of women like Jane Seymour giving birth to twins at 44 and Madonna - http://search.un.org/search?ie=utf8&site=un_org&output=xml_no_dtd&client... having her latest child at 41 only fuel that misinformation. Fertility in all women drops sharply at 40, https://www.qkykvbjl8.online - https://www.qkykvbjl8.online at the same time the chance of miscarriage and birth defects increases.

The reality is that even modern medicine can't guarantee an older woman will get pregnant: Infertility drugs and in vitro fertilization can only do so much. Even with these medical breakthroughs, only 2% of all babies are born to women over 40 every year.

"Our pregnancy rates with IVF [in vitro fertilization] and any other advance treatments go down considerably based on a woman's age," says Dr. Soules

The doctors behind the ad campaign say it's either warn women now that the clock is ticking or face them later when time has run out.©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material - https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

This "new generation" of hearing aids works by transmitting sound to the delicate bones of the inner ear, stimulating them in the same way that normal sound does. A conventional hearing aid, on the other hand, works by simply amplifying sound through the ear canal to the outside of the eardrum.

A new device made by Soundtec uses an external component that fits in the ear canal. It picks up sound and transmits it in the form of electromagnetic waves to a tiny magnet attached to one of the small bones in the inner ear. The magnet vibrates the bones in the same way that a normal ear works to produce sound.

Most patients reported much better quality of sound than a conventional hearing aid, especially in the higher ranges. Some reported that they were able to hear more sounds. It is expected to get FDA approval soon.

For many people, https://www.acmhcoah.online - https://www.acmhcoah.online conventional hearing aids work pretty well. But some people complain about feedback, distortion, and other distracting effects.

The new device is implanted surgically by cutting a small flap in the eardrum. It takes about 30 minutes and, in most cases, can be done with a local anesthetic. The eardrum heals in 8 to 10 weeks, and the patient can start using the device then.

A similar device, made by Symphonix, used the same principle--to stimulate the bones of the inner ear magnetically. But the difference is that this device uses a small microphone that transmits sound to the magnet through a receiver implanted in the scalp behind the ear.

That means there's no need to put anything in the ear canal. But the surgery involves implanting the receiver in the bone behind the ear as well as the implantation of the magnet and requires a general anesthetic.

These devices are suitable for moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss, where the nerves in the inner ear are affected. It's the most common type of hearing loss, typically caused by loud noise exposure - https://www.biggerpockets.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&term=exposure or aging. You should talk to your doctor about the options available to you, but for those who don't like the way traditional hearing aids sound, these devices are an alternative.

The Symphonix device with the microphone and implanted receiver can run about $15,000 to $20,000 with all the surgical costs. The Soundtec device will be around $4,000 to $5,000. They are not normally covered by insurance.

By comparison, a typical high-end digital hearing aid goes for around $3,000 or $4,000.

The FDA says the Symphonix device has some risks. Some patients reported pain and fullness in the ear. The surgery is reversible, however, and there are studies underway to see if there are any long-term side effects. Most patients didn't have any trouble.©MMII CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

play friv games - https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=726029521185519&id=625... "We're encouraging moms and dads in direction of do one thing that may possibly effectively shift against their character and have a shift - take bundled," says a charity.

Mothers - http://realitysandwich.com/?s=Mothers and fathers need to choose up on-line gaming toward superior comprehend the pitfalls and rewards it poses for their kids, according towards a main website protection charity - http://www.encyclopedia.com/searchresults.aspx?q=protection%20charity .

In just the British isles, 81% of under-18s consistently engage in on the net online games with a surge in just the recognition of people which let various players toward discuss for the duration of perform.

"We comprehend that mothers and fathers who continually get hold of included with their children's pursuits online are improved put in direction of guide them throughout some of the challenges they could possibly encounter," Carolyn Bunting, leader govt of Web Items, instructed Sky News.

"We're aiding mom and dad in the direction of do everything that could perfectly transfer in opposition to their nature and consist of a go - order integrated."

Adele Jennings did particularly that.

Her daughter, Amber, is 15 and performs on the web online games at minimal once a working day.

"I looked in the direction of be nagging her all the season, and then I was wanting to know she's upon her own, inside of her bedroom, investing all this time in just there... what is she truly performing?" Mrs Jennings explained.

Mother and father urged in the direction of engage in on the net online games with children to superior comprehend hazards and benefits Vittozzi VT

Dad and mom want towards take work out how engineering may possibly impact their youngsters, gurus say Innumerable mother and father proportion related things to consider.

An Website Items survey unveiled that along with problems about activity participate in with strangers, 50% of moms and dads are concerned with regards to gaming addiction and the total of individual details that their little ones are sharing.

Nevertheless hesitant in direction of stop her daughter executing anything at all she appreciated, Mrs Jennings experienced a transfer herself.

"I'm merely amazed! It truly is as a result different in direction of what I idea it was," she told Sky Information.

"Obviously as with something there is constructive and poor still it truly is supplied Amber and I a romantic relationship hence we can talk over becoming safe and sound on the net. And at this time that I comprise even more of an comprehension concerning it, I believe that she feels she can discuss towards me."

play friv games There is a "gaming working experience gap" concerning mothers and fathers and children. Near 42% of moms and dads admit they have never ever performed an on-line match.

Nevertheless with technological innovation at this time this kind of a massive aspect of everyday daily life for youthful Those, gurus say the attraction of gaming is not diminishing.

"Lots of little ones require employment in just gaming, and there will be even more game titles coming with digital reality and augmented truth of the matter," Ms Bunting mentioned.

"So there will be contemporary technological innovation coming around the hill which parents need in the direction of acquire their mind close to and perform out how it could influence their young children."

Bastille Day 2010

Planes flew over the capital trailing red, white and blue smoke. Parachuting soldiers dropped onto the Champs-Elysees bearing African flags.

Soldiers from 13 African countries that are celebrating five decades of independence marched down the Champs-Elysees ahead of French troops. African leaders watched from the stands.

President Nicolas Sarkozy rode down the avenue in an open military vehicle. His wife, singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, watched from the stands and later signed autographs. A downpour drenched troops and the crowd during part of the parade.

A unit of female soldiers from Benin opened Wednesday's parade. Other countries invited were Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo. Ivory Coast, 무료 룰렛 게임 - http://www.hengy.net/?p=68388 which has tense relations with France, declined to send troops, but its defense minister attended.

Another traditional Bastille Day event, the lavish garden party at the presidential palace, was canceled as France's government, like those around Europe, tries to rein in runaway debt. Skipping the party saved about $992,000, government spokesman Luc Chatel said.

The holiday marks the July 14, 1789, storming of the Bastille prison in Paris by angry crowds, which helped spark the French Revolution - http://www.usatoday.com/search/French%20Revolution/ .

The invitation of African leaders forced Sarkozy to defend himself from critics. A host of associations protested about alleged human rights violations by some of the African leaders and said Sarkozy was glorifying the "Francafrique," the French nickname for what many see as cronyism between France and its former African colonies.

During a lunch with African leaders Tuesday, Sarkozy insisted the invitation was not an "expression of colonial nostalgia, or a French temptation to take over your independence celebrations."

Sarkozy said he wanted to celebrate historic bonds and "build the future together."

He also said the government would submit a draft law to ensure that veterans from France's former colonies are entitled to the same sums in pension payments as their French counterparts- a long-standing source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/search?q=long-standing%20source of tension.AP:

One day after President Obama laid out the end game for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, he talked about America's role in the world after the war. Delivering the commencement at West Point on Wednesday, he said isolation - https://www.change.org/search?q=isolation is not an option but not every problem has a military solution.

"Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail," he said. "And because the costs associated with military action are so high, you should expect every civilian leader -- and especially your commander-in-chief -- to be clear about how that awesome power should be used."

What will what some are calling the Obama Doctrine mean for the U.S. military?

The West Point Class of 2014, which had entered the academy in the midst of Iraq and Afghanistan, heard their commander-in chief swear off fighting any more wars like that.

"A strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is naive and unsustainable," Obama told them.

But he went on to outline a strategy that promises to send them to countries every bit as foreign and remote as Iraq and Afghanistan - http://www.shewrites.com/main/search/search?q=Afghanistan .

Countries like Burundi, Uganda and Senegal, where American troops have already been training government forces, or https://www.ngcn4gsrh.online - https://www.ngcn4gsrh.online Chad and Niger, where American drones have been flying surveillance missions, hunting for al Qaeda affiliates and other radical Islamist groups.

"I believe we must shift our counter-terrorism strategy to more effectively partner with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold," Obama said.

Sending American soldiers to train local troops has one major hitch. Countries in which terrorist groups take root are frequently run by corrupt, unpopular, weak or incompetent governments. One example: American efforts to train Libyan government forces in the wake of the fall of Muamar Qaddafi have been put on hold as the country descends into anarchy. Instead of training Libyan troops, U.S. forces are standing by aboard the amphibious ship Bataan, awaiting an order to evacuate all Americans from the country. Another example: U.S. drones are helping the Nigerian military search for those kidnapped school girls, even though the Nigerian military has a history of human rights violations.

Still it puts fewer American lives at risk, is much less expensive and is frequently done in secret, all of which makes it easier to sell politically.

ESCUINAPA, Mexico -- A caravan of thousands of Central American migrants is speeding its journey to the U.S. border, breaking up into smaller groups as buses and trucks carry some hundreds of miles in a day while others behind remain stranded - https://www.academia.edu/people/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=stranded .

Authorities have been struggling to deal with the first sizeable group of 357 migrants who arrived in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico, https://www.kgxcf5p77.online - https://www.kgxcf5p77.online aboard nine buses. Tijuana's head of migrant services said the group arrived Tuesday and immediately went to a stretch of border fence to celebrate.

Cesar Palencia Chavez said authorities had offered to take the migrants to shelters immediately, but they initially refused, saying they wanted to stay together. But he said that after their visit to the border, most were taken to shelters in groups of 30 or 40.

On Tuesday, the U.S. government said it was starting work to "harden" the border crossing from Tijuana to prepare for the arrival of migrants. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced it was closing four lanes at the busy San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry in San Diego, California. It said the closures were needed "to install and pre-position port hardening infrastructure equipment in preparation for the migrant caravan and the potential safety and security risk that it could cause." 

On Thursday, 1,100 Marines from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California were deployed to support border security, CBS San Diego affiliate KFMB reported. They were primarily tasked with installing concertina wire and pre-positioning jersey barriers, barricades and fencing.

Migrant caravans heading to the U.S. became a campaign issue in U.S. midterm elections. President Trump has ordered the deployment of over 5,000 military troops to the border and has insinuated without proof that there are criminals or even terrorists in the group. 

Many say they are fleeing rampant poverty, gang violence and political instability primarily in the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.  

Iran's Foreign Ministry said the scientist, Shahram Amiri, was on a flight home, traveling through the Gulf nation of Qatar and was expected to arrive in Tehran on Thursday.

Iran — and at one point, Amiri — claimed the CIA had kidnapped him; the United States said Tuesday that nothing of the sort happened. Amiri disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009, surfacing in videos but otherwise remaining out of sight until he turned up at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington on Monday evening, asking to be sent home.

That prompted the Obama administration's first public acknowledgment that Amiri had been in the United States. "Mr. Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and he is free to go," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

While Iran has painted the entire episode as an abduction, Amiri's disappearance last year fueled reports that he had defected to the United States and was providing information on Iran's nuclear program. The United States and its allies accuse Tehran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon, a claim Iran denies, saying its program is for peaceful purposes.

With his family facing possible consequences in Iran, Amiri seemingly changed his mind said he wants to go home and face whatever that hard line regime has in store for him, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

In an interview with Iranian television he said he could explain everything about what he called "my ordeal" over the past 14 months

His return and the bizarre string of videos by him that emerged over the past month raised the question of what went wrong. In one that seemed to be made in an Internet cafe and was aired on Iranian TV, he claimed U.S. and Saudi "terror and kidnap teams" snatched him. In another, professionally produced one, he said he was happily studying for a doctorate in the United States. In a third, shaky piece of footage, Amiri claimed to have escaped from U.S. agents and insisted - http://www.healthncure.net/?s=insisted the second video was "a complete lie" that the Americans put out.

"I expect they got to his family," said Clare Lopez, senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and a former operations officer for the CIA. "Now he'll go back and save them." ABC News reported that Amiri called home this year because he missed his wife and son in Iran and that his son had been threatened with harm.

A U.S. official who was briefed on the case said Amiri, 32, "left his family behind, that was his choice." The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Whatever the reason for his disappearance, important questions remain about what of value, if anything, Amiri shared with American intelligence about the Iranian nuclear program. Before he disappeared, Amiri worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said he does not know what Amiri may have told U.S. officials, but he did say that the U.S. government "has maintained contact with him" during his stay in the United States. Pressed to say whether Amiri was a defector, Crowley replied, "I just don't know the answer."

Michael Rubin, an Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said he expects Iran to reap propaganda value from Amiri's return if he appears on Iranian TV to assert that he was kidnapped.

"What will happen now, however, is that the Iranians will score propaganda points, they will be able to televise a confession that may be more fiction than reality, but which regardless the CIA will have trouble refuting," Rubin said.

On Wednesday, Iranian state TV aired part of a phone interview with Amiri conducted a day earlier. He said that in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, three men told him to get into a car, sticking a gun barrel against his back. Amiri said the U.S. had planned to hand him over to Israel, which would release "false information against Iran" in his name.

Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi told state TV that Iran will pursue the case of Amiri's abduction through legal means.

Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told a news conference in Madrid on Tuesday that Amiri was found after having been kidnapped during the Saudi Hajj and taken to the United States against his will. He demanded that Amiri be allowed to return home "without any obstacle."

The Obama administration denied any kidnapping, saying Amiri had been in the United States of his own will and free to leave whenever he wanted.

Amiri's videos threw convoluted and unlikely twists into the story.

In the video that appeared on Iranian TV on June 7, Amiri was seen speaking into what appeared to be a Web cam. He said the date was April 5, that he was in Tucson, Arizona, and that he was abducted in Saudi Arabia by U.S. and Saudi intelligence.

"When I became conscious, I found myself in a plane on the way to the U.S.," he said.

But he did not explain how he was free to make the video.

Hours after that video was aired, another more professional one appeared on YouTube. In it, Amiri, wearing a sports jacket and sitting in an office, says into the camera that he is free, safe and working on his degree in the United States. But he gives no explanation for why he would apparently move to the U.S. from his pilgrimage without telling his family.

Yet another video appeared on Iranian TV on June 29. It shows Amiri saying the date is June 14.

"I have succeeded in escaping from American intelligence in Virginia," he said, adding that he was speaking from a "safe place" although he feared he could be rearrested.

Amiri is not the first defector to have second thoughts. During the cold war, 카지노 솔루션 - http://webdatartist.com/blog/index.php/2019/07/09/%ec%88%98%eb%b0%b1%eb%... Vitaly Yurchenko, a high ranking KGB officer defected and told the CIA about two spies inside American intelligence. Three months later, he went back to the USSR.

DR. MOHAMMED AKHTER, American Public Health Association: I think we are fully prepared to handle a small attack like this anthrax-type things. We are on top of it.

But when it comes to a larger attack, then we are not prepared, we are short in many, many places, because we do not have an early warning system in place that will let us know that an attack has taken place and that we should take prompt action. We don't have the capacity at the local level to deal with this. The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], our central place where people go for help, could be very much thinly stretched, and so they will not have the resources.

And I'm very pleased that Senator Frist has shown the leadership in the Senate to move this forward before the Congress, to have adequate resources allocated so we could be prepared as quickly as possible to deal with the bigger threat.

SCHIEFFER: Well, to kind of underline that, Senator Frist, what I was struck by--and I don't remember if it was Dr. Akhter or someone else, one of the other witnesses that was before your committee--but they said that 500 cases of anthrax, that if that happened, there is no hospital or contiguous group of hospitals that could handle 500 cases at once.

SENATOR BILL FRIST, REPUBLICAN-TENNESSEE: No, I think the points that need to be made . . .

SCHIEFFER: Is that true? I mean, do you agree with that?

FRIST: There's no question, if you were to use anthrax as a weapon of mass destruction--which Osama bin Laden and the terrorists have the capability to do, to my mind--If were you to use it, our system is underprepared, not unprepared, because we can respond. We've made huge progress in the last 2 years.

That's not what we're seeing now in New York or the threat you were talking about earlier here, or in Florida. The other response has been beautiful. It's been like a symphony. It's been the FBI working with the public health system the way they haven't had to in the past, 포커 이기는 법 - http://motelgrandeile.ca/?p=5134 with good surveillance, good communication, good laboratory response.

The problem would be is if that occurred all over the country or if an airplane flew over and exposed hundreds of thousands of people, you couldn't handle it in our public health infrastructure. You couldn't handle it at the local emergency room. I'm not sure we would have--we don't know, if it happened in several different spots--enough vaccine or antibiotics.

That's what we can do, is build that public health infrastructure, and we're doing that rapidly. We're much better prepared now than we were a year ago or 2 yeas ago. Five years ago we weren't prepared at all.

SCHIEFFER: Gloria?

BORGER: But we're talking about anthrax right now, which is something that, as you both have said, is sort of controllable. What about if there is some kind of bioterrorist attack that involves a plague, that involves smallpox?

Is that something, Dr. Ahkter that really worries you?

AHKTER: Absolutely. There are times that you can't go to sleep because you know the weaknesses in the system.

Unlike anthrax, these other diseases can spread from one person to another, and so--and we have large numbers of people. In fact, all of us in this country are not protected against smallpox. And we know from our intelligence reports that many of the terrorists could get this, have access to it through the Soviet Union through other places.

And so, the best thing we can do is to really prepare ourselves, build our capacity, educate our people, so tht we could act as promptly as we can to really contain the very first case and then provide the treatment.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Frist, we were just talking about the possibility of someone trying to infect the nation with smallpox. Is that possible or likely?

FRIST: You know, it is. And when we look at the various agents, you can say anthrax, smallpox, tularemia, pneumonic plague, you can go down a long list. And that's what's important for us in public health, in public policy to be addressing.

Smallpox has huge consequence, much more than an atomic bomb if it were released, to my mind, much more today. Why? Because unlike anthrax, it's contagious.

There was an exercise called Dark Winter planned for actually 2001 using preparedness today. And we know by introduction on that model in three different states that within 3 months it spread to 25 states, spread overseas. There are no boundaries there. About 2 million people would be dead, 5 million people sick at the end of 3 months.

That makes it alarmist.

The good news is that smallpox has been eradicated from the face of the earth. The flip side of that is that we know there is some smallpox in this country, in Russia, and possibly in other countries.

SCHIEFFER: Well, people my age, we still have our vaccination scar, because when we were little kids we got vaccinated. They don't do that anymore. Should we start doing that again, Doctor?

AKHTER: No, I don't think we're ready right now. But this is one area where we need to be working together with the intelligence community, the public health community, to see the level of threat. If the level of threat ever rises, if there is one case of smallpox, I would be the first one sitting here advocating, saying let's prepare our nation and protect our people.

FRIST: Let me say to that that we are prepared with that first step. There is no treament. Smallpox is a virus. It's contagious - http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/search/index.cfm?term=&contagious&loc=en_us... . It takes about 10 days. So, right now if I had smallpox, you would be infected and we'd all be going around the country infecting other people.

We have to identify those cases. We have to have better surveillance. We have insufficient surveillance. As a doctor, I've never seen a case. First responders don't even know how to recognize the rash. We have to have better communication so if it's picked up in New Orleans or down in Florida or in California, they can communicate. We have inadequate communication today. And we need better laboratories.

I say all that because anthrax we're doing a great job with. The FBI is, the public health infrastructure is. But if we have another agent that is a contagious agent, we are underprepared today.

AKHTER: Absolutely.

BORGER: What do we do, though? Here we are talking about things like a possible smallpox, bubonic plague, or whatever. What can we say to people? Not to panic people, but to tell them, okay, there are ways you can prepare for this. There are ways you can recognize this. These are the prudent things to do.

AKHTER: I think what we need to tell people is not to worry. We are looking at all possible options. We are getting ready. We are getting prepared. There is very little that an individual can do until we find the first case.

And then we are setting up communications systems. We are working all together. We will let the public know. We are gathering the vaccines. We are putting our people together. We are educating the medical community. We are strengthening public health departments. That's what people need to know.

They shouldn't be worried about it. It's us, the folks in public health community and the government, who should be worrying and building and working hard to make sure that we are ready in case the unthinkable happens.

FRIST: And, Gloria, Secretar Thompson has said he has taken criticism for being too optimistic. But he's exactly right. When we started addressing this issue 2 or 3 years ago, we were unprepared. Today, anywhere in the country we can get 10 million doses of smallpox vaccine, which is plenty sufficient, I believe, for right now. Within a year we'll be able to get 40 million doses. Now, we may need to go higher than that, but our government is working very, very quickly.

Same thing with anthrax today. It is treatable. And it is treatable with antibiotics today, and we can get 2 million doses anywhere in the United States of America within hours.

So people don't need to be stockpiling. They don't need to be buying gas masks today. Our federal government is fulfilling its responsibility. Now we need to fill these gaps that are in there at the level of public health infrastructure.

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