Princeton Begins Meningitis B Vaccinations
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone. I'm John Berman in New York. Let's look at our "Top Stories" right now. The railroad line involving that deadly train derailment in New York is announcing new safety upgrades. Metro North will install reinforcements at critical curves and movable bridges. Signals will also alert train engineers to reduce speed when approaching the curve where the train derailed last week. That train jumped the tracks while heading into a curve at 82 miles per hour. That is nearly three times the posted speed limit. Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner in court today to face sentencing for kissing and grabbing three women. Filner resigned from office after 19 women accused him of offensive behavior during his tenure as mayor and as a U.S. congressman. He is not expected to go to jail, but he will be on probation for three years. Concern over the spread of Meningitis B has heightened on the campus of Princeton University with eight cases reported since March. Starting today, the University is offering thousands of students a vaccine, one that has not been licensed for use in the U.S. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now. Elizabeth -- students have a choice to make now.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, they certainly do. And again, it's important that we use the word "choice". No one is making these students do anything. They can either get the vaccine or they can leave themselves vulnerable to getting meningitis. So let's look at the consequences of each of those choices. So if you leave yourself vulnerable to meningitis, meningitis can cause terrible side effects. Things like hearing loss, brain damage, kidney damage, loss of limb. And one of those things will happen to one in five people who get meningitis; so one in five will get one of those things that or something similar that I listed. And one in ten people who get meningitis will die from it. Now let's look at the consequences of getting the vaccine well obviously you get vaccinated so that's good. But you can get mild soreness at the injection site and you may possibly get a temporary fever. Those are some of the more common side effects. There are extraordinarily rare side effects that are much -- that are much worse, but again, those are extraordinarily rare.</s>BERMAN: Yes the possible outcomes to your getting meningitis seem awfully bad. So what are medical experts telling you? What advice are they giving?</s>COHEN: You know we asked several doctors, what would you do if your child were at Princeton? What would you advice your child to do? And they said, absolutely, I would tell them to get the vaccine. One of them said, "My child would be first in line to get the vaccine." He said meningitis can just -- it can get you very sick, very, very quickly.</s>BERMAN: It is a serious, serious issue. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for being us. I appreciate it.</s>COHEN: Thank you.</s>BERMAN: Still to come, just eight days after they were married, a Montana woman is accused of pushing her husband to his death. She says it was an accident. But prosecutors say, not so fast. We'll break down this case. Coming up next.