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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush received a smallpox vaccination Saturday, fulfilling a promise he made when he ordered inoculations for about a half-million U.S. troops.
He showed no immediate ill effects from the vaccine, which can sicken and in rare cases kill those who get it. An hour after being inoculated in his left arm, Bush was carrying his dog in that arm as the president walked to his helicopter.
Bush said last week the vaccine would be mandatory for those forces in "high-risk" parts of the world.
"As commander in chief, I do not believe I can ask others to accept this risk unless I am willing to do the same," Bush said at the White House on Dec. 13.
Smallpox was eradicated in 1980, but with war in Iraq a growing possibility, the president said then that the United States was evaluating "old threats in a new light" after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Bush, 56, received the inoculation at 12:15 p.m. EST at the White House, before departing for the president retreat at Camp David in Maryland.
It was administered in the White House's medical unit by a senior immunization technician from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, with White House physician Richard Tubb looking on, White House spokeswoman Jeanne Mamo said.
"He feels fine and there are no side effects," she said. Bush smiled and waved at well-wishers as he walked across the South Lawn and departed for a long weekend at Camp David.
Experts estimate that 15 out of every 1 million people vaccinated for the first time will face life-threatening complications, and one or two will die. Reactions are less common for those being revaccinated.
The military inoculated more than 150 people in the past week against smallpox, but about 100 others were exempted because of medical complications, officials reported Thursday.
The vaccine will be made available to civilian health care workers who would come in contact with the first victims of a biological attack. Experts say that group numbers about 450,000.
After weeks of debate, Bush decided against a nationwide campaign to educate -- and eventually inoculate -- the entire country, though that step could come later.
For most people, the risk of bioterrorism does not warrant vaccinations, he said, adding that neither his family nor his staff would receive it.
Routine smallpox vaccinations ended in the United States in 1972, meaning nearly half the population is without any protection from the virus.
Health officials are not sure whether those vaccinated decades ago are still protected from the disease.
It wasn't immediately clear whether Bush had previously taken the vaccine.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
