KEY: ER =enlisted recruit; OA =officer accessions (includes Academy unless specified); Academy = service academy
Note: The Armed Forces began to include hepatitis B vaccine in their list of basic immunizations for new recruits in 2002.
Source: "A Report for The Armed Forces Epidemiological Board" August 1999 [43]

Posted on Sun, Aug. 30, 2009
Missouri veteran injured by vaccine ineligible for benefithttp://www.kansascity.com/105/v-print/story/1415095.htmlBy DAVID GOLDSTEIN
The Star’s Washington correspondent

WASHINGTON | It wasn’t a bullet or roadside bomb that felled Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez three years ago, after just nine days in Iraq.It was an injection into his arm before his Marine Corps unit left the United States.

It left Lopez in a coma, paralyzed and unable for a time to breathe on his own. He can walk now, but with a limp. He has to wear a urine bag, has short-term memory loss and must swallow 15 pills daily to control leg spasms and other ailments. 

Yet the Springfield, Mo., man does not qualify for a special GI benefit of up to $100,000 for troops who suffer traumatic injuries.

Seemed “pretty traumatic to me,” Lopez said.

“I could have easily died or not been able to walk because of that. It destroyed my world.” 

Lopez suffered a rare reaction to the smallpox vaccine. The vaccine is not mandatory, but the military strongly encourages troops to take it.

Even though his medical problems would not have occurred had he not been deployed, the benefit was denied.

Never mind that qualifying injuries don’t have be the result of combat, that a service member could be eligible because of a car accident on the way to the grocery store.

The hang-up? His injuries were caused by a vaccine.

Just following what is considered to be the intent of Congress, say officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The benefit is “for traumatic injury, not disease, not illness, not preventive medicine,” said Stephen Wurtz, deputy assistant director for insurance. “It has nothing to do with not believing these people deserve some compensation for their losses.”

The VA was unable to say how many claims have been rejected because of vaccine-related injuries. Wurtz and others familiar with the program said it wasn’t many.

The Military Vaccine Agency, which oversees the troop vaccinations, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat and a member of the Armed Services Committee, has drafted a bill named after Lopez to widen the program to include vaccine-related injuries.

She became aware of his case when he and his mother stopped by her Senate office last year. Lopez had come to Washington to compete in the wheelchair portion of the Marine Corps Marathon.

“The (benefit) program was created with a broad mandate to provide financial assistance to folks with serious injuries and given to VA to determine the outlines,” said Stephen Hedger, McCaskill’s legislative director and an Army veteran of Iraq. “It took a narrower approach and defined in greater detail what injuries and illnesses qualified for payment.

“Our view is it was way too narrow.”

The program is called Traumatic Servicemember Group Life Insurance; TSGLI for short. Congress created it in 2005 — retroactive to Oct. 1, 2001 — to provide short-term financial help to severely injured service members until their disability benefits kick in.

The money comes from a $1 fee each month on top of the regular military life insurance premium.

The compensation is intended to cover expenses such as the costs of having a family member temporarily relocate near a military hospital where a loved one is recovering. Another cost could be retrofitting a service member’s home to accommodate a wheelchair or other medical equipment.

As of July 1, the program had granted nearly 6,700 claims, a 63 percent approval rate, and paid $394 million in compensation, Wurtz said.

Lopez seemed to fit the profile. His injuries affected his normal daily activities, one of the hurdles to clear for coverage.

While Lopez’s health insurance through the military has covered all of his medical expenses and the VA has paid for his medical costs since he was discharged in June, his family has faced financial hardship. 

His mother, Barbara Lopez, took a leave from her job as a high school secretary to move to Maryland to be with him during his six weeks at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. But she had to give up a part-time job as a cashier.

They also had to build a ramp and widen a door to accommodate his wheelchair at her home in Springfield, where he spent his recovery. 

Barbara Lopez said she heard about TSGLI from families of other injured troops at Bethesda. Unlike theirs, her son’s application was turned down. She still can’t fathom it.

“In his spinal column, he has quite a bit of permanent scarring,” Barbara Lopez said. “He takes medication to help his legs. He can walk unassisted, but never far, and he can’t stand for very long. I kind of feel Joe was out there fighting the same fight they were. He should be just as eligible.”

The military began the smallpox vaccination program in 2003 because of post-Sept. 11, 2001, fears that terrorists might attack the U.S. with germ warfare. Plans for the invasion of Iraq were also under way. The military was concerned that Saddam Hussein might use biological weapons against American troops.

On rare occasions, as in Lopez’s case, the vaccine can be as dangerous as the disease. Side effects can range from a simple rash to swelling around the brain and heart, and even death.

Like the inoculation for anthrax, another pre-combat injection, troops are supposed to be informed of the side effects and told that taking the vaccine is optional. But many have said that it was made abundantly clear that refusing was not a good idea.

“No one said ‘no,’ ” Lopez said. “I had no qualms. I had no reason not to.”

He enlisted in the Marines while still in high school. He said everyone ought to serve the country in some way. He was also looking for adventure and “knew I’d have lots of good stories.” 

Lopez became a radio operator with a Marine Reserve unit out of Kansas City. He was sent to the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 to help after Hurricane Katrina. A year later, in September 2006, he was in Iraq.

Even in the short time he was there, he experienced some close calls. But one night, less than two weeks into his tour, he started feeling as if he had the flu. Then he couldn’t sleep. He had trouble with his balance and couldn’t walk. He had to crawl on his hands and knees to the latrine.

Within days, he was taken to hospitals in Iraq and Germany. Doctors placed him in a drug-induced coma. He didn’t wake up until Bethesda.

That was three years ago. Now Lopez has his own place and is a sophomore at Missouri State University in Springfield. He is thinking about graduate school, about teaching.

“Before, I just kind of coasted,” Lopez said. “Now I know I take some things a lot more seriously. I’m more driven to succeed.”

He has had to go back the hospital a few times. 

He is angry about what happened. 

“It’s like I’m being penalized because I got the vaccine,” Lopez said.


 

 Vaccine Cover-Up Worst In Military History




Gulf War veteran believes illness related to anthrax vaccine
Published 09/03/2007 By Rick Wagner

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9002821
____ 
KINGSPORT — Todd Sanders says he and thousands of other Gulf War veterans may be running out of time to live.

Sanders believes that’s because of the mandatory anthrax vaccine he and others received in the Army.

Late last year, at age 41, the Kingsport resident had a pacemaker installed to keep his heart rate and blood pressure up, but he still blacks out from low blood pressure from a condition called sinus bradycardia neurocardiogenic syncope.

His other medical problems include chronic fatigue, neurological symptoms, muscle deterioration, memory loss, ringing in the ears, double vision, confusion, depression, anxiety, incontinence, sleep apnea, respiratory distress, and extreme muscle and joint pain.

Sanders’ medical condition, however, has not been diagnosed as an illness related to his military service, so he does not receive any financial compensation for his illness. Sanders, a master auto mechanic who can no longer work, has not been able to obtain unemployment pay, military disability or Social Security disability, and this has put a severe financial hardship on his family.

Sanders is now seeking letters of support from veterans who have similar symptoms and received the anthrax vaccine.

He’s asking that anyone with past military service with similar medical issues fill out a Veterans Affairs Form No. 21-4138 — Statement in Support of Claim. The form is available at www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/vba-21-4138.pdf.

Enough of those letters, according to Sanders and spokesmen for the military and VA, might convince the VA hospital system that his condition is related to his military service and open the door to receiving free health care from the VA system, including the Mountain Home Medical Center in Johnson City.

Sanders is an ASA master technician, General Motors master technician and Chrysler master technician.

“Days that I can do a little bit, I will,” Sanders said.

He has worked as a mechanic, for nine years at the old Sherwood Chevrolet in Johnson City, about five years at Courtesy Chevrolet in Kingsport, and almost four years at Carl Gregory Chrysler-Plymouth in Johnson City.

“You very seldom find somebody who would work as hard as he would,” said Keith Cutshall, who has known Sanders for 14 years.

“He’s just a good person,” Cutshall said. “It’s just a shame to see him going through this and can’t get any help.”

James Johnson, a serviceman at Carl Gregory who has known Sanders for 13 years said, “He’s very meticulous. He’s always done top-quality work.”

“He would be working on a car, kind of get a dizzy feeling and go over to his toolbox. The next thing you knew, he was sliding down his toolbox to the floor,” Johnson said.

Sanders’ doctors ordered him to stop working Jan. 26.

A neurologist is trying to find out what is causing this latest round of blackouts.

“The co-pays and deductibles we’ve been paying are overwhelming,” Sanders’ wife, Paula, said.

Johnson said the physical toll, however, was even greater.

“You could watch him deteriorate over time. You could see it happen.”

High school sweethearts, Todd and Paula Sanders attended North High School. They have been married 23 years and have a daughter, Tasha, who is a full-time nursing student who works at Holston Valley Medical Center.

Paula Sanders has worked in the snack distribution business and now works for Unilever in retail sales.

While Sanders believes he may have or be getting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, at least he is still among the living. The Internet is full of stories about Gulf War veterans who have died well after the war.

“Everybody he tried to find in his brigade, either he can’t find them or they’re dead,” Paula Sanders said.

Parallel stories told

Bill Robertson, one of Todd Sanders’ best Army buddies from Georgia who also served in the 3rd Infantry Division during Desert Storm, is among those already dead from what Sanders and others believe is Gulf War Syndrome. Sanders contacted his friend about a year and a half ago.

“Every single symptom Bill Robertson had, my husband had — every single one,” Paula Sanders said.

Robertson, who died in late December and had ALS, told Sanders he believed his condition was caused by the anthrax vaccine.

“That’s what they figure with me — I’ve either got multiple sclerosis or ALS,” Sanders said.

Robertson was deployed to Iraq, while Sanders stayed in Germany.

However, Sanders said both received the vaccine. He said they also were exposed to depleted uranium the military used to strengthen armor, chemicals used by the military and whatever else was in the environment of Iraq.

A recent study that received worldwide attention said that Iraqi munitions American troops destroyed had sarin, a nerve gas that could be causing or aggravating Gulf War Syndrome.

Sanders said he and Robertson may have gotten that exposure from military vehicles — Robertson from serving in Iraq and Sanders in Germany from cleaning vehicles used in Iraq.

But Sanders said he believes — and that Robertson believed — their condition was caused by the anthrax vaccine, which made him sick and almost caused him to pass out when he first received it.

Sanders said he believes the squalene — used to make the immune system quickly develop immunity — in too large doses make the immune system attack itself. The approval of that anthrax vaccine, which is no longer used, was expedited by the Food and Drug Administration.

“I started getting insomnia, joint pain and soreness immediately,” Sanders said. 

He continued his military service, started in 1987, until a discharge in 1992. And although he had some times with few symptoms, he said his energy and strength never went back to pre-vaccine levels.

Sanders was able to work for years, but he said things got quickly and progressively worse starting in 2001. And he began having blackouts.

Stories nationwide and worldwide abound of veterans with similar health ills, including British soldiers who report similar problems getting their government to recognize the connection between their condition and military service.

But Paula Sanders said she and her husband take some comfort in the outcome of a 21-year-old soldier’s recent success in getting his heart problem disability — and plans to install a pacemaker — recognized as service related by a military discharge board.

David Brace, the 21-year-old soldier, received a newer anthrax vaccine that is supposed to be safer.

The Brace and Sanders families, along with Dr. Meryle Nass of Bar Harbor, Maine, have been communicating over the Internet about common threads in various cases nationwide. Nass in late July testified at a hearing of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Subcommittee on Health.

Nass said Gulf War Syndrome symptoms overlap closely with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity and irritable bowel syndrome.

Sanders said about 700,000 soldiers received the anthrax vaccine in the first Gulf War, with more than 1 million receiving a later version of the anthrax vaccine.

Nass said 200,000 “Gulf War I” veterans have chronic “Gulf War” illness related to their deployment and cited a Washington Post article that said 199,000 Gulf War veterans receive compensation for such illnesses. But Sanders is not among the 199,000. 

Sanders on a new mission

Blackouts or not, with the help of his wife, Todd Sanders’ new full-time mission is trying to get the word out to other Gulf War veterans. And to get the support letters from veterans who have similar symptoms and received the anthrax vaccine.

But one problem that Sanders and others who served from 1987 to 1992 face is a lack of medical records. Working through the office of U.S. Rep. David Davis, R-1st District, Sanders was able to get copies of his military entry and exit physical exams. 

Everything else, including the record of his anthrax and other vaccines received while in service, are gone. He said a VA official once told him they were “inadvertently destroyed.”

In a nutshell, Washington, D.C.-based Veterans Affairs spokesman Jim Benson and Northern Virginia-based Department of Defense spokesman Terry Jones said veterans seeking full VA health care must show their injury, illness or disability is connected to their military service.

They said the letters of support can help Sanders.

However, Benson and Jones also said they were not aware of a mass loss or destroying of records from the Gulf War era, although Sanders said they have been told by VA officials and others that medical records went missing for many who served in the Gulf War. 

As for Todd Sanders’ claim, Jones said he would contact folks in the DOD in an attempt to help find Sanders’ medical records. And although he’s never met or talked with Sanders, he did have a friend who served in the Gulf War.

“He said there was something to it,” Jones said of aftereffects of the war. “He did eventually die.”

Cathy Brace, the mother of the 21-year-old veteran with heart problems, recently wrote that the problem with vaccine records that do exist is that they bear the date of when the vaccine was recorded, not when it was actually given, although Jones said he never heard of that happening.

One other option to get some VA medical care is based on income levels, but the Sanderses made too much last year. However, with Todd having almost no income this year, Paula said he may be eligible next year. They have been turned down twice this year and their appeal denied for income-based VA assistance.

Sanders plans for future

Sanders said if he can convince the federal government his condition is related to his military service and get some civilian and/or military disability, his goal is to work on behalf of other veterans with Gulf War Syndrome.

“Once we get ours done, I think we’ll be able to help people a whole lot,” Sanders said.

Lori Cutshall, wife of Keith Cutshall and a friend of the Sanderses who attends church with them at Christ Fellowship, has helped set up an account for donations to help pay for his medical care.

Donations, which are tax deductible, can be sent to Christ Fellowship Church, attention Melinda Williams, 260 Victory Lane, Kingsport, TN 37664. The memo line of checks should be filled out “Todd and Paula Sanders.” For more information call the church at 349-0600.

To contact Sanders call 247-1987 or e-mail schweinfurtautowerks@charter.net or paula.sanders@lorwings.net.

 





Excellent websites to reference:

Anthrax Vaccine Network    AnthraxVaccine.org    Major Sonnie Bates  



http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html.......don't miss this..



Despite promises that hospitalizations after anthrax vaccinations would be reported, the Pentagon withheld data on more than 20,000 cases.

Daily Press - Hampton Roads, Virginia

BY BOB EVANS 
247-4758 
December 4, 2005 
First of four parts
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-71613sy0dec04,0,6004666.story?coll=dp-widget-news

bevans@dailypress.com 247-4758

The Pentagon never told Congress about more than 20,000 hospitalizations involving troops who'd taken the anthrax vaccine, despite repeated promises that such cases would be publicly disclosed.

Instead, a parade of generals and Defense Department officials told Congress and the public that fewer than 100 people were hospitalized or became seriously ill after receiving the shot from 1998 through 2000.

They also showed Congress written policies that required public reports to be filed for hospitalizations, serious illnesses and cases where someone missed 24 hours or more of duty.

But only a sliver of those cases were reported, while the rest were withheld from Congress and the public, records obtained by the Daily Press show.

Critics of the vaccine, veterans' advocates and congressional staffers say the Pentagon's deliberate low-balling of hospitalizations helped persuade Congress and the public that the vaccine was safe.

Keeping the actual number of illnesses secret contributed to a shorter list of government-recognized side effects for the drug, giving patients and physicians a false idea of what might constitute a vaccine-related illness or problem. Doctors are expected to know the full list of side effects and alert federal drug safety officials whenever they see a repeat of those symptoms.

Repeated evidence of the same adverse side effect after a vaccination is one of the most telling signs of a systematic problem with a drug or vaccine, as opposed to a coincidental relationship, vaccine safety experts say.

During the Daily Press' investigation of the vaccine and its effects, the newspaper found three cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease - that the military hadn't reported. The disease destroys muscles and nerves, is always fatal and rarely hits people younger than 45.

One of the three cases involves Navy Capt. Denis Army of Virginia Beach. Army died in 2000, after developing symptoms less than a week after his first anthrax vaccination - and a few days before his 45th birthday. His widow filed the first public acknowledgement of his death and its temporal connection to the vaccine this year. That occurred after she talked to a Daily Press reporter and learned that she could file a report with the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS.


SAILOR'S DEATH NOT REPORTED BY MILITARY

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristin Shemeley died of ALS in 2001, at 29. Her symptoms began about two months after her third shot, a sworn legal document detailing her illness says.

Before Shemeley died, she spent 14 months in Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where she was regularly visited by high-ranking military officers, said her mother, Ginger Shemeley of Quakertown, Pa. She says her daughter repeatedly told those generals and admirals that she was suffering because of the vaccine and even pleaded with one of them to stop giving it to troops. Several of those generals and admirals had promised Congress that such cases would be publicly reported to VAERS.

The military never filed a VAERS report on Kristin Shemeley. Ginger Shemeley filed one after her daughter died.

Col. John Grabenstein, director of the military's vaccine agency, said no one from the military intentionally misled Congress or the public. He said the 20,765 hospitalizations merely followed vaccinations in time, without documented proof of a cause-and-effect relationship.

He said a statistical analysis showed that those who'd been vaccinated weren't more likely to be hospitalized or likely to seek medical treatment than those in the military who hadn't been vaccinated from 1998 through 2000.

Some medical experts say this approach doesn't adequately address the problems of many people who report illnesses after anthrax vaccination. That's because the approach is limited to comparing rates of illness involving one symptom or disease - instead of the complex combination of symptoms and illnesses that many veterans report after getting their shots.

The data that the Daily Press used to document the underreporting of hospitalizations came from a report that Grabenstein supplied in response to the newspaper's request. It's never been made public until today.

It covers 1998 through 2000, when the Pentagon did detailed evaluations every three months to compare hospitalizations, clinic visits and medical treatment data for those who'd been vaccinated, compared with troops who hadn't. This quarterly analysis stopped and hasn't been done since, Grabenstein said.

The practice of not reporting all hospitalizations continues.

Quarterly analysis of the vaccine's effects ended just as the nation's only manufacturing site for the drug regained its license. That was in 2002, after federal inspections found many safety and other problems that prompted a shutdown and renovation that began in early 1998.

The company's current manufacturing techniques provide greater potency compared with earlier versions of the drug, said the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm. The manufacturer, BioPort Inc., says there's no difference in the drug made since 2002 that might cause health problems.


TOP GENERAL NOT TOLD MONITORING TO END

The decision to discontinue the quarterly health monitoring program means that the biggest gap in research about the vaccine remains: There are no systematic long-term studies of the health of those who've taken the drug. Most studies that the Pentagon cites as support for the vaccine's safety involve monitoring that lasted days to a few months.

None lasted as long as five years, the minimum length of time recommended by a nationally recognized panel of scientists assembled by the Institute of Medicine in 2002. The institute is a nonprofit organization that provides expert advice to Congress and other government agencies.

After the quarterly reviews of the vaccine's effects stopped, more than a million troops were forced to take the vaccine - until a federal judge ruled last year that the drug had never been adequately licensed for protection against anthrax use in warfare.

He ordered the military to make vaccination voluntary. The Pentagon is appealing that ruling. Lawyers argued the case Thursday, and a decision is expected by February.


VACCINE MONITORING STILL IMPORTANT

Grabenstein said he decided to halt the quarterly studies after consulting the chairman of the Institute of Medicine panel and its staff, and with doctors affiliated with the military. He acknowledged that he didn't consult the general who ultimately was responsible for the anthrax program.

The chairman of the institute panel, Brian Strom, said he didn't recall what was discussed at the time about the quarterly reports. But he said, "I think they should continue to be using it," in case there's a problem.

Another panel member, Linda Cowan, said she's sure the committee expected quarterly reviews to continue and pointed to a number of the panel's recommendations and findings that she said clearly contradicted Grabenstein's interpretation of its report.

Strom and Cowan emphasized that they thought the vaccine was still safe.

Beth Clay isn't so sure. She directed the staff of Congress' House Government Reform Committee investigation into the anthrax vaccine from 1998 to 2001. She continued working on the subject as a congressional staff member through 2003, after her Republican boss was no longer chairman of the committee.

Clay said the military's decision not to report all the hospitalizations gave the public and Congress a rosier picture of the vaccine than it deserved.

"We were never given this data," she said. "Had we seen this, the committee would have had significant questions" and would have demanded more information about the program.

After reviewing the report obtained by the Daily Press, Clay said it raised several questions about the vaccine's safety. She said Congress was never told about the detailed level of data in the report but was assured regular monitoring of the vaccine and its health effects would continue.

Terminating the quarterly reviews would seem to break those promises, she said. "It's just appalling that they didn't keep up with this," she said.


LINK BETWEEN VACCINE, HOSPITALIZATIONS?

Steve Robinson is executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a lobbying and advocacy group for veterans. He said he was stunned when he learned that the reviews had stopped: "They track the flu vaccine and not the anthrax vaccine, which is totally crazy to me."

He said discovery of the hospitalization data showed that the Pentagon couldn't be trusted to monitor the vaccine's safety.

"You can't let Enron investigate Enron, and you can't let DOD (the Department of Defense) investigate DOD," he said. "We work with the people who have been hurt by this vaccine every day."

No one knows how many, or how few, of the 20,765 hospitalizations are directly attributable to the vaccine. Ruling out certain illnesses, such as broken bones or injuries from falls or other accidents, might appear a safe bet. But military doctors have documented cases where broken bones and other injuries from falling were the result of vaccine-induced loss of consciousness affecting the nervous system - sometimes beginning months after vaccination.

The difficulty of figuring out what's related and what isn't is why safety officials encourage people to file reports even if they're not sure.


WHY PENTAGON DIDN'T FILE HOSPITAL REPORTS

Still, medical experts consulted by the Daily Press said it's unlikely that the vast majority of the 20,765 hospitalizations resulted from the vaccine. They said that if all hospitalizations had been filed with VAERS, it would have overloaded the system and caused problems for experts trying to analyze the data.

Grabenstein said those were among the reasons that the full number of hospitalizations was not reported. Another reason, he said, was that examinations of the data showed that if there were adverse effects from the vaccine, they were so infrequent, they weren't detectable by statistical analysis. Doing this type of analysis - instead of simply reporting the incidents to VAERS - provided a more definitive look at the health effects of the vaccine, he said. As a result, "we decided not to file" public reports about all hospitalizations, he said.

Those considerations weren't relayed to Congress or the public.

During the years covered by the hospitalization report obtained by the Daily Press, dozens of sick veterans who'd received the shot went to Capitol Hill, complaining of various health problems. Some got the shot for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, in which the vaccine had its first widespread use. Others were members of the military forced to take the shots under a mandatory program that began in 1998.

Their complaints had common themes: Fatigue. Chronic pain in joints and other symptoms of arthritis. Tingling in their feet, arms and hands. Mental lapses. Often, more than one of the symptoms were present, making diagnoses difficult.

Sympathetic doctors testified that these complaints were indicative of autoimmune problems, in which the body's natural protective mechanisms go haywire and start attacking healthy cells and tissue. The doctors said that could result if the vaccine overstimulated the vets' immune systems. The vaccine primes the system to develop protection against anthrax.

Bewildered and sometimes-angry members of Congress asked how many vets were affected. Pentagon doctors and generals used the cases reported to VAERS - fewer than 100 hospitalizations or other "serious events" from 1998 to 2000 - or said the number was so small, it couldn't be detected.


VACCINE REPORTS ARE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE

The two sets of numbers for how many hospitalizations followed the shot come from a comparison of two sets of data kept by three federal agencies.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain the only database open to public inspection, VAERS. VAERS is the nation's first line of defense in identifying possible problems with vaccines after they've been licensed, said Susan Ellenberg, who led the FDA's efforts to monitor vaccine safety from 1993 to 2004.

During congressional testimony before the House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations in July 1999, Ellenberg explained how and why the system worked.

VAERS was established to help identify and head off problems once a vaccine is licensed and more people are taking it, she said. The few hundred people typically involved in vaccine or drug testing and licensing trials can't mimic the diversity of age, race, gender and other biologic variables encountered once the vaccine gets widespread public use, she explained.

Reports to VAERS by civilian doctors and hospitals are mostly voluntary, based on suspicion of a connection between an illness or injury and a vaccination, Ellenberg told Congress.

Doctors and others are encouraged to file a report, known as a VAERS-1, even when they aren't sure there's a cause and effect, she said. That's because VAERS requires as many reports of problems as possible, so experts can identify possible patterns and investigate further, she said.


GENERALS' TESTIMONY PROMISED REPORTS

During the same congressional hearing, Lt. Gen. G. Robert Claypool - then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for health operations policy - assured Congress that military doctors, hospitals and medical officials were filing VAERS-1 forms, too.

And, he said, they were expected to report even more cases than civilians - including all hospitalizations.

"The duty to report adverse medication events has been codified for many years," Claypool testified. "The joint regulation requires submission of a form VAERS-1 for all adverse events resulting in more than 24 hours of lost duty time or any period of hospitalization. These requirements represent a higher standard than in comparable civilian community health care settings."

There was no mention that the word "all" didn't mean all hospitalizations.

Two months later, Lt. Gen. Ronald R. Blanck, then the Army's surgeon general and the top Pentagon official responsible for the anthrax vaccine program from 1998 to 2000, gave similar assurances to Congress.

He said, "We have a reporting system that when either of those two criteria are met, that is, either a patient is hospitalized following an anthrax immunization or misses duty because of it for greater than 24 hours, we have an active reporting system. That must be reported to us. We, in turn, report it to the Food and Drug Administration, and they have a group that reviews those reactions."

Clay and other congressional aides say these assurances came in private, too. "We had lengthy conversations that they were supposed to report," she said.

But the numbers reported were very low. And the Pentagon stuck with them for years to persuade the public that the shot was safe.

In December 2003, Pentagon officials conducted a news conference to rebut a judge's ruling that the shots had been given illegally and that troops had been used as "guinea pigs." Grabenstein was asked whether he had "any data on the numbers of people who have had bad adverse reactions to the vaccine and would have required hospitalization."

He said that only 69 hospitalizations had been reported to VAERS for the anthrax vaccine from 1998 through 2000. A panel of civilian experts had analyzed each, he said, and decided that 11 were results of the shot. The 69 cases were "a complete, exhaustive list of what was reported," Grabenstein said.

Grabenstein told the Daily Press that his statement wasn't misleading. He said no one should expect all hospitalizations after vaccination to be reported to VAERS - despite the Pentagon's written policies - because the number included cases unrelated to the vaccine, sometimes years after vaccination.

He said, "The simple answer is it's so obvious, it's never appeared in the memo."


NO EXCEPTIONS NOTED IN POLICY MEMOS

The memo, "Policy for Reporting Adverse Events Associated With the Anthrax Vaccine," serves as the standing order for all military personnel. It reads: "For the purposes of reporting anthrax vaccine adverse events, a Form VAERS-1 must be completed and submitted using service reporting procedures for those events resulting in a hospital admission or time lost from duty for greater than 24 hours or for those events suspected to have resulted from contamination of a vaccine lot."

The memo lists additional circumstances requiring a report, but nothing that would permit excluding hospitalizations after vaccination. It refers to the Pentagon's formal regulations, which don't include the exclusions that Grabenstein cited.

The data on all hospitalizations after anthrax vaccination comes from the Pentagon's Defense Medical Surveillance System, or DMSS. This computerized tracking system pulls medical records for every shot, clinic visit, hospitalization or other instance of medical treatment for active-duty military personnel.

Experts in health care and statistics say it's one of the most important medical databases in the world. That's because of its precision, its millions of patients, and the diversity of drugs and vaccines used by the armed forces. By design, it's more complete and accurate than VAERS. Unlike VAERS, its data isn't open to the public.


EXPERTS: NO EXCUSE FOR SECRET DATA

The Institute of Medicine report that Grabenstein cited as supporting the vaccine's safety and his decision to end the quarterly monitoring program also says the DMSS database should be open to researchers outside the government, with precautions to protect the privacy of individuals' health records.

This hasn't been done. Grabenstein said the military had not been able to figure out how to protect individuals' health records and make it work.

Strom of the institute panel and other experts say it should not be that difficult. "There's no excuse," he said. "We use these kinds of data sets in Medicaid and Medicare data all the time. There are technological solutions."

Cowan, another member of the panel, said the institute's recommendation was based, in part, on the military saying it couldn't afford all the analysis that the data was good for: "That way, you get the most of what the American people have invested in."

Strom said keeping the data from the public only bolstered the perception that the military was hiding the truth about the vaccine.

Walter Schumm is a professor of family studies and an expert on statistical methods at Kansas State University. He said he and other researchers would love to get the DMSS data. He's a retired Army colonel who's spent more than a decade using statistical analysis to examine the vaccine's safety - after friends and others in uniform began complaining about health problems after the shots.

Schumm has used other data made public on the anthrax vaccine to publish several scientific papers that poke holes in the safety assertions made by Pentagon doctors and researchers.

Good science involves people with different approaches to the same problem having a chance to test their theories, Schumm and others say. Their findings might cement the safety assertions, he said, but no one knows for sure until the military loosens its hold on the facts and data.

He said, "If you let independent people have the data, you risk losing control. In combat, letting things get out of control gets people killed, so loss of control is a very sensitive issue. I'm just sure they're trying to protect their program." 



Victims of vaccine?
N.C. troops say military program is unsafe
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/9763416.htm?1c

ELIZABETH LELAND

Charlotte Observer
Sun, Sep. 26, 2004

Two days after a military nurse injected Lavester Brown with the anthrax vaccine at Pope Air Force Base near Fayetteville, his heart failed. Brown was 34, an avid athlete, career military. Doctors had warned him to avoid vaccinations, he said, because of a reaction to a malaria drug in the early '90s. But when Brown told superiors, he said, they warned he could be kicked out of the military if he didn't get vaccinated for anthrax.

Brown was afraid: of the vaccine, of losing his job. He had a wife and four young children to support.

"I kept telling them, `I can't take the shot.' "

The vaccination is mandatory, part of the military's war on terrorism. Brown had been in the Air Force 14 years and was trained to follow orders. So when a commander, a major, a captain and a first sergeant all ordered him to be vaccinated, Brown, a technical sergeant, rolled up his sleeve and took the jab.

He is now awaiting a heart transplant.

Thousands of soldiers have suffered unexplained illnesses after getting the anthrax vaccine, ranging from muscle aches to death. The federal Food and Drug Administration says the vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines, but cases like Lavester Brown's raise troubling questions:

Is the vaccination safe?

Should the military require troops to take it?

There was concern about the anthrax vaccine long before the threat of global terrorism.

In the 1990s, the FDA found problems with quality control procedures at the only U.S. company that makes the vaccine, then owned by the state of Michigan. The FDA warned that if the problems were not corrected, the company could lose its license. The state halted production in 1998 and began renovations, then sold the plant to BioPort.

After terrorists hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, and anthrax-laced letters killed five people and infected at least 13 others, demand for a vaccine erupted. In January 2002, the FDA gave BioPort approval to
distribute its vaccine to the military. The FDA and the Department of Defense and BioPort all say the vaccine is safe. A vocal group of current and former military personnel, doctors and members of Congress claims it is not. Three lawsuits challenging the vaccine are now in federal court.

To the emergency room

Brown knew nothing of the controversy on Friday, Feb. 27, when he got the fourth in a series of six anthrax shots.He rarely got sick, not even a cold. He didn't drink. He didn't smoke. He stood 5 feet 11 1/2 inches and weighed 207 pounds, but so much was muscle, he looked lean. The day after the fourth anthrax shot, Saturday morning, he played basketball at the gym as usual but quickly tired. He went to the emergency room that night, he said, and a military doctor diagnosed a gastrointestinal infection.

By Sunday, he felt as if his body was filling up with fluid. The muscles in his neck throbbed and bulged. He had trouble breathing. Back at the emergency room that night, he said, a doctor again diagnosed
gastrointestinal infection. Something else is happening, Brown remembers saying. I can't breathe.

He said his wife, Ebony, insisted on X-rays. "When they looked at the X-rays," Brown recalled, "the doctor got this look on his face. I knew something was terribly wrong."  Brown said his heart was so enlarged, it had almost stopped pumping. He now takes medication to keep it beating until a transplant becomes available. He has dropped to 151 pounds, and walking only a few feet exhausts him. Friday, he was medically retired from the Air Force.

Before he got sick, Brown sometimes worked two jobs to provide for Ebony and their four children, ages 5 to 12. Now Ebony works and the children help care for him, and that's been a tough transition. "I wish we had done our homework before Lavester got in line (for the vaccine)," Ebony said. "We trusted the military."

Mandatory shots

Until recently, anthrax had been considered primarily a livestock disease. People can be infected in three ways -- through skin contact, by eating infected meat or by breathing airborne spores -- but it's rare. The military became convinced that Iraq had developed biological weapons, including anthrax, and might pack its Scud missiles with the deadly bacteria. Nearly everyone who inhales anthrax dies if not treated.

In 1998, the Defense Department made vaccinations mandatory.

Since then, about 1.2 million military personnel have received the vaccine, six doses over 18 months, followed by yearly boosters. (Several hundred thousand, a Pentagon spokesman said, got the vaccine during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.)

Out of 4.7 million doses given since 1998, the government says it has received 3,817 reports of adverse reactions, from headache, fatigue and fever to cancer, cardiac arrest and autoimmune diseases. The reaction rate, the government says, is about the same as for other adult vaccinations.

Studies have reached conflicting conclusions.

The Pentagon cites a 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine, a private, nonprofit scientific group, that said a better vaccine is needed, but that the current vaccine is "acceptably safe and effective." Other studies link the anthrax vaccine to Gulf War illness, a medically unexplained fatigue suffered by veterans of the first Gulf War. One study found more adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccine than to other vaccines, and urged doctors to report all reactions so the scope of the problem could be determined.

Many cases, critics say, still go unreported.

Dead at 29

Christine Nilson, who lives in Wilmington, hadn't heard about the controversy over the anthrax vaccine until after her husband, Erik, died.Now she's convinced it killed him. Erik Nilson flew CH-46 helicopters for the Marine Corps and was vaccinated twice, before two separate six-month deployments to the Mediterranean. 
Soon after he came home for the second time, in October 2001, Christine noticed the whites of his eyes had yellowed. Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington discovered bile duct cancer, a slow-moving, usually fatal cancer that most often attacks people over 60.

Nilson was 29 and had a 2-year-old son, Luke.

He was, Christine said, "a man's man," who loved hunting, fishing and the Marines. He had had a rough childhood, she said, and often told her he wanted nothing more than to be a good father.

Six months after the cancer was discovered, Erik Nilson died.

Christine Nilson said no one from the military ever mentioned a possible connection with the anthrax vaccine. The national Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System has no record of Nilson's death.

But the more Christine Nilson read, the more she believed there was a connection.

"There is," she said, "no other explanation for it."

Rapid-acting diseases

Other service members have died of rapid-acting diseases after getting the vaccine, including Army cook Sandra Larson of Kansas. Four weeks after her sixth anthrax shot, she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare disorder resulting from failure of bone marrow to produce blood cells.

She died two months later. She was 32.

The package insert on the vaccine, approved by the FDA in 2002, cites her death and the deaths of five other vaccinated military members. But a panel of civilian doctors concluded that none of the deaths was related to the vaccine.

The Pentagon has linked only one death to the vaccine: Rachel Lacy, a 22-year-old Army reservist, who died in April 2003 of a pneumonia-like illness after receiving five vaccines, including anthrax. The Pentagon said
the vaccines may have triggered the illness that led to her death, but that "the evidence was not conclusive."

Critics say the government is stonewalling the way it did with the herbicide Agent Orange in the Vietnam War and with Gulf War illness.

"The first thing they do is fight, deny, obfuscate ...," said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group for veterans. "Meanwhile people are getting sick." About 10,000 Vietnam veterans receive disability benefits because of exposure to Agent Orange, and tens of thousands of others suffer illnesses. An estimated 100,000 Gulf War veterans suffer a range of symptoms, including memory and thinking problems, fatigue, joint pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and rashes.

No proof, no medical help

Robinson said he has spoken with hundreds of veterans who said they had adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccine, but they can't prove it and are not getting the medical help they need. They complain of chronic fatigue, bone and muscle pain, migraine headaches, short-term memory loss and cognitive impairment."While anthrax is a threat," Robinson said, "the American public, much less the military, should not be given an inferior vaccine."

Meryl Nass, an internist in Bar Harbor, Maine, who has testified before Congress about the vaccine, said she has treated dozens of soldiers and corresponded with thousands more.

"I've seen so many people with the exact same thing, the same story," she said. "They can't think straight. They have pain in different parts of their bodies ... and they're fatigued." Usually, she said, they have something else wrong, too: multiple sclerosis or lupus or a sleep disorder.

As a doctor, Nass said, the last few years have been an emotional roller coaster "watching 1 million be vaccinated when I knew at 100,000 what was happening."

Forced vaccinations

In federal court, two lawsuits are pending against BioPort, a third against the Food and Drug Administration, the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The lawsuits challenge whether the vaccine is safe, effective, even necessary.

On Dec. 22, 2003, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., blocked the Pentagon from forcing soldiers to get vaccinated. He ruled that the FDA had never approved the vaccine for use against inhaled anthrax. The military, he said, could not make troops "serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs."

Eight days later, the FDA approved the vaccine against inhaled anthrax.

Although Sullivan called the timing of the order "highly suspicious," he lifted his injunction.

The military once again ordered vaccination.

Refusal, court-martial

As many as 500 active-duty personnel have been dismissed from the military for refusing vaccination, according to congressional testimony. At least 100 have been court-martialed.Tom Kaufmann, an airman first class at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, refused to be vaccinated in December 2002.

He had read about problems at the manufacturing plant, he said, as well as about illnesses among people who got the vaccine. Kaufmann, now 22, was demoted, then discharged under "conditions other than
honorable."

"My first sergeant repeatedly called me a coward, saying I was afraid of war, afraid of serving my country," Kaufmann recalled. "I told them that I wanted to deploy. I wasn't against the war."

He was, he said, only against the vaccine.

. Anthrax comes from the Greek word for "coal" because infected skin forms ugly black lesions. . The rod-like bacteria were discovered in the 19th century. Louis Pasteur created the first vaccine in 1881. . Anthrax spores can live in soil for decades. People contract the disease in three ways: through skin contact, eating infected meat or breathing airborne spores.

Most Common Adverse Reactions

erythema, headache, arthralgia, fatigue, fever, peripheral swelling, pruritus, nausea, injection site edema, pain/tenderness and dizziness.

Less Frequent Adverse Reactions

cellulitis, cysts, pemphigus vulgaris, endocarditis, sepsis, angioedema and other hypersensitivity reactions, asthma, aplastic anemia, neutropenia, idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, lymphoma, leukemia, collagen vascular disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, polyarteritis nodosa, inflammatory arthritis, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, immune deficiency, seizure, mental status changes, psychiatric disorders, tremors, cerebrovascular accident (CVA), facial palsy, hearing and visual disorders, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, syncope, glomerulonephritis, renal failure, spontaneous abortion and liver abscess. Infrequent reports were also received of multisystem disorders defined as chronic symptoms involving at least two of the following three categories: fatigue, mood-cognition, musculoskeletal system.

Fatalities

cardiac arrest (2), myocardial infarction with polyarteritis nodosa (1),aplastic anemia (1), suicide (1) and central nervous system lymphoma (1)

SOURCE: FDA-approved package insert for anthrax vaccine

Elizabeth Leland: (704) 358-5074; eleland@charlotteobserver.com.

Other recent articles:

The shots of war
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/17/Floridian/The_shots_of_war.shtml
"Cristina Kutz thinks the anthrax vaccinations that she and other troops must undergo devastated her health. Her complaints are not unique, but doctors don't back her up."
By SUSAN ASCHOFF, Times Staff Writer, Published September 17, 2004



Mon May 21, 2007 8:34 am (PST) Report: Thousands of Soldiers Sickened by Vaccine 

A U.S. military health officer says thousands of U.S. troops have had severe reactions to some of the vaccines they received before going overseas — and the Pentagon is covering up the problem. 

Symptoms range from joint aches and pains — to death, according to the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to protect his job. 
One victim is former Marine Lance Corporal David Fey of Clermont County, Ohio, TV station WLWT in Cincinnati reported. 

Fey said that on Nov. 28, 2005, he was one of a group of Marines who lined up for an undisclosed injection. 

After receiving the shot, Fey gained 30 pounds of water, his eyes swelled up, and he developed a rash on his hand, he told WLWT. 

He wound up in a hospital back in Ohio, close to death from kidney failure. He survived, but says he is still in pain and awaits a kidney transplant. 

Fey’s mom Cindy began examining her son’s medical records, and she said the shot he received was not listed in the records. The military claimed he never received a shot. 
Eleven months later, those records were changed, with a handwritten note stating that the shot was a flu vaccine. 

The military health officer said the number of troops who have gotten sick after receiving vaccines is in the thousands, and he believes U.S. troops are receiving experimental vaccines. 

The Defense Department insists that the vaccines given to the troops are safe. 
But the officer told WLWT: “This is the worst cover-up in the history of the military. When the issue of the use of the vaccine comes out, I believe it will make the Walter Reed scandal pale in comparison.” 

Editor's Note:
a.. Doctor Warns of the Hidden Dangers of Vaccines. 
 



 



Vaccine survey shows trouble at DAFB
Review of data shows those who got anthrax shot at Dover were more likely to fall ill


By HIRAN RATNAYAKE and LEE WILLIAMS / The News Journal 
10/19/2004

http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/10/19vaccinesurveysh.html



 www.milvacs.org

Take the time to visit this website. This touching poem reveals the heart of website.

We will not desert you.
You, who have donned the uniform of our country and pledged your life to defend us,
We pledge to defend you with our honor, our work, the sweat of our brows,
Until you are no longer a medical experiment;
Until your pain is treated, and treated correctly;
Until your voice is heard and you are no longer ignored;
Until your sacrifices are recognized and you no longer have to defend yourself against your own government.
You do us honor in the face of those who would shame you.
We will walk with you.
We will not desert you.
 



http://www.channel4.com/apps26/news/news_story.jsp?storyId=851048

Squalene found in Anthrax vaccine 
Breaking News: Britain 

Published: 17-Mar-03; 03:23
By: ITN 

Samples of anthrax vaccine have been found to contain a banned substance which could threaten troops' health.

 



Nov 25 2002
http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?objectid=1240
1732&method=full&siteid=50081

By The Journal
  
Army veterans have branded a new report into Gulf War Syndrome commissioned by military top brass a "whitewash" after it said exposure to noxious chemicals was not the cause of their illnesses. The report, produced by the Government-backed Gulf War Illness Research Unit (GWIRU), concluded that health problems reported by veterans could not be blamed on vaccines used during the 1991 war, as some had claimed. The findings were last night greeted with anger by Shaun Rusling, North-based chairman of the National Gulf Veterans' Association, who said the report lacked both impartiality and credibility.

Many Gulf War Syndrome sufferers, backed by alternative academic research, believe that their condition is related to the use of organophosphates in insect repellent issued to soldiers fighting in Iraq and Kuwait. Others have linked the symptoms - which include muscle fatigue, loss of co-ordination and even problems encountered by sufferers of autism - to the use of vaccines and even the depleted uranium ammunition during the conflict. The Journal-backed campaign for justice for sufferers has now been running for almost a decade.

The MoD funded the latest research, carried out at Guy's, King's and St Thomas's Joint School of Medicine in London, in what they say was the most intensive neurological study of Gulf War soldiers in Britain to date.  Forty-nine veterans with neurological symptoms - national estimates say a total of 35,000 are suffering some sort of illness - were given exhaustive medical examinations, alongside a further 29 who had experienced no problems. The results were then compared to servicemen who had fought in Bosnia, as well as other personnel.

While the research team found there was no evidence that Gulf War veterans' symptoms were linked to brain damage, they did agree that their general health was poorer than that found in other groups of soldiers. That, says Mr Rusling, who served as a medic during the Gulf War, is a complete contradiction. "This is not surprising, given that the paper was funded by the MoD. Veterans were exposed to low level radiation, classified vaccines and anti-nerve gas pills in the Gulf.  "This has become a national disgrace, but the more the MoD tries to hide this away, the more they will be disbelieved. "All these desperately ill servicemen can't be wrong, but the MoD seems to be well and truly above the law."

But Professor Simon Wessely, who co-authored the report, said it was now clear that the health effects plaguing many of those who served in Operation Desert Storm was not associated with the brain or nervous system. "There is no smoking gun," he said. "There is no new disease that causes Gulf War Syndrome. There is a Gulf War health effect."

However, Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Sunderland University who has advised several veteran's groups, also claims the findings are seriously flawed. He believes the problems stem from damage to the central nervous system. "For this survey not to find any evidence of  neurological damage makes me very suspicious," he said. "I find this research unpersuasive and statistically insignificant." A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "We note that the authors found no evidence for a specific neuro-muscular disorder that could be linked to deployment in the Gulf conflict. This should reassure all veterans.".    
 



VOLUME 38, NO. 34, September 24, 2002 
Gulf War syndrome linked to anthrax vaccine
http://www.medicalpost.com/mdlink/english/members/medpost/data/3834/57A.HTM

By Pam Harrison

NEW ORLEANS - Symptoms of the elusive Gulf War Syndrome have now been linked to antibodies that target squalene, an experimental adjuvant used in some batches of anthrax vaccine received by 2.4 million U.S. military personnel as protection against the threat of bioterrorism.

Dr. Pamela Asa and colleagues from the Tulane University medical school here examined the association between symptoms of the syndrome and the anthrax vaccine used during the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP) initiated by the U.S.  government in 1997. Researchers initially tested serum samples from six anthrax vaccine recipients and all six tested positive for anti-squalene antibodies. They then tested sera from 25 vaccine recipients and 19 controls who had not received the vaccine.

Thirty-two per cent tested positive for anti-squalene antibodies compared with 16% of controls. However, when researchers divided recipients into groups according to the lot of vaccine received, they found four lots of vaccine had been given to 17 of the 25, and in this group, eight subjects or 47% tested positive for anti-squalene antibodies.

None of the recipients who had received the vaccine from any other lot used during the AVIP campaign tested positive, a significant difference between the two groups despite the small number of samples tested, researchers note. Results of the study were reported in Experimental and Molecular Pathology. "Our testing for anti-squalene antibodies in persons receiving anthrax immunization as part of AVIP identified many antibody-positive individuals," researchers write. This is in contrast to the absence of anti-squalene antibodies observed in sera collected prior to immunization, they add. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration dismissed the amount of squalene found in certain lots of the anthrax vaccine as being too low to have an immunological effect.

But the immune system is "exquisitely sensitive to small quantities of antigen" and no lower safety limits have been set for squalene when used as an adjuvant in a vaccine. Symptoms of the syndrome include joint and muscle pain, dizziness, chronic headaches, low-grade fevers and memory loss.
 




http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-492718,00.html

The needle and the damage done

By Tim Reid
London Times
26 November 2002

Hundreds of American soldiers have suffered serious illness after being compulsorily injected with a controversial Anthrax vaccine, a batch of which has been found to be contaminated

   ON THE MORNING of December 17, 1998, Ronda Wilson, a supremely fit, strikingly beautiful American helicopter gunship pilot, was heading for military stardom. Just 21 and the only woman in her squadron, she had recently defeated her 63 male fellow pilots to earn the coveted Top Gun award in her first gunnery flight test. She was without peer in her cavalry unit, so skilled at handling the OH-58 Delta Warrior, armed with Hellfire missiles and .50-calibre machine guns, that she was described by her commanding officer as “one of the most outstanding pilots of her generation”. 

On that morning, at Fort Stewart, Georgia, she received a routine order that was ultimately to destroy her faith in the military family and American government which she loved beyond question, and which she says “I was willing to die for”. She was told to “go get your jabs”. 

She was never told what the injection was for, and felt no need to ask. It  was, she later discovered, the first in a six-dose course of anthrax vaccination. It was the moment she became part of the US government’s compulsory, highly ambitious anthrax vaccination programme for all 2.4  million of its military personnel; the project was authorised by President Clinton himself, it had begun eight months before, and it was halted 18 months later amid damning congressional verdicts, lawsuits and accusations of a top-level cover-up. 

There were many things Wilson was not told about the 0.5ml phial of milky liquid that was being injected into her arm. It was manufactured by a company that today, after a new lease of life for the vaccination programme, has begun to distribute millions of doses to immunise “high-risk” US troops heading to the Persian Gulf for an attack on Iraq. (British soldiers will not be immunised with this vaccine, but with a home-grown version, produced at Porton Down). 

Critics of the vaccine, who include congressmen, senior military officers and more than 450 American servicemen who have been court-martialled or forced to leave the military for refusing to take it, say its ability to combat inhalation anthrax has never been proven and it has never been tested on humans; it has never been licensed to combat inhalation anthrax; and its long term effects have never been known. Those claims are supported by a congressional committee which issued a scathing and alarming report into the efficacy and supervision of the vaccine, and the immunisation programme, in April 2000. 

Its critics also claim it is being forced on the country’s soldiers as part  of a politically-inspired attempt to persuade the American public that an effective vaccine against an anthrax terror attack exists, and that its soldiers are safe from Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological arsenal. 

The Pentagon, and BioPort, the manufacturer, together with the Food and Drug Administration, which licenses US drugs, fiercely deny these claims. The Times has looked at thousands of pages of government, FDA, Army, congressional and medical reports stretching back 30 years. The extraordinary story of this anthrax vaccine, suddenly thrust on to centre stage in a new age of global terror, is one of high-level politics, furious scientific dispute, big business and great controversy. 

One thing is certain — this vaccine has a history. Questions persist on two levels: the ability of the company that manufactures it to produce it safely, and the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine itself. There is testimony and documentation that raise the question of why the American military establishment and successive White House administrations have persisted with a company and a vaccine that by their own admission have suffered problems. It is a history that the hundreds of thousands of US troops about to receive the compulsory immunisation, and who have no right to refuse it, are not being told about. 

Of all the things Wilson was not told about her first jab, perhaps the most crucial was this: that 10 months earlier, in February 1998, after an inspection of the Michigan laboratory that manufactures the vaccine, the plant had its authority to make the vaccine suspended by the FDA. 

The inspection followed five years of warning letters citing concerns over the plant’s record-keeping and violations in safety, potency consistency and sterility. The February 1998 FDA report, which effectively prevented the plant from manufacturing fresh supplies of the vaccine for three years, and a copy of which has been obtained by The Times, is damning. The 95-page report found lots of the vaccine contaminated, a filtration process not authorised by the FDA, problems with cleanliness and the sterility of equipment and a failure to ensure a uniform potency of the drug. 

“The firm routinely redates Anthrax Vaccine lots that have reached their labelled expiration date,” the report says. And it states: “Lot FAV036 was at room temperature for 20 hours, the filling operation was aborted, it was placed back in the refrigerator.” According to military records it was a dose from Lot FAV036 that was given to Wilson that December morning, eight months after the FDA report had been sent to BioPort. 

“The patient reported no significant reactions with the first shot,” her final military medical report states — written in April 2001 when a depressed, emaciated and mentally confused Wilson was discharged from her unit — “except for an immediate large painful local reaction at the injection site (described as being slightly smaller than a golf ball). The pain extended from her shoulder to her elbow. The military medical community reassured her this was normal. She also reported the onset of about three headaches a week.” 

After her second jab, from a different lot, in January 1999, she developed “irritability, loss of memory, fatigue. By late February to early March nausea and diarrhoea started. One week after her third anthrax vaccine dose her gastro-intestinal symptoms worsened further, evolving into her current disabling state of illness.” 

That current state is pitiful. Wilson, who four years ago was in superb health and in charge of one of the most potent weapons in the US armoury, can barely drive a car. She has lost a third of her body weight and suffers such agonising cramps every day that she is forced to curl up in a fetal position for hours at a time. She has stiff joints, chronic fatigue, anaemia, difficulty with simple sums, memory loss, blackouts, permanent abdominal pain and, according to her medical report, “loss of cognitive function”. 

She is sure the anthrax jabs caused her physical and mental degeneration, but understands the difficulty in proving it. The final medical report concluded: “There were no other risk factors present . . . that could account for her symptoms. The anthrax vaccination may have adversely affected her immunological balance. There is a clear temporal association with the onset of her illness and her anthrax vaccination. While it is not possible to scientifically prove causality between anthrax vaccination and the onset of her illness, it is impossible to disprove causality.” 

Wilson understands those problems of proof. What has destroyed her trust in everything she once held dear — the US military, the US government and her husband, a fellow pilot who has now left her — is that for 18 months she was led to believe she was a freak, the only soldier to have become ill after the injections, a strange one-off. Military doctors would diagnose stress, Aids, leukaemia, anything except a possible link to the vaccination. And, she says, as soon as she became ill, “they couldn’t wait to get rid of me”. 

But in the summer of 2000, at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, she met another soldier reduced to a sad husk by, he claimed, an anthrax jab. He began to tell her what he had learnt about the vaccine, and about the hundreds of soldiers who claim it has made them chronically ill with fatigue, auto-immune diseases, severe joint pain and infertility. 

It was a story that left Wilson feeling “betrayed by everything I once believed in”. Sitting in her rented flat in Savannah, Georgia, and often close to tears, she asks: “How could they not tell me the history of this drug, to make me believe I was an aberration?” 

Jon Irelan, a retired Army major and US Ranger, was on a tour of duty in Saudi Arabia in 1999 when he was given four anthrax jabs. Soon he was losing his hair and suffering fevers and muscular weakness, mood swings and bed-sweats. Ultimately he discovered that his testicles had shrivelled up and died. He will be on testosterone injections for the rest of his life. “Right from the beginning they refused to send me to an American medical facility,” he says. .“They kept sending me to Saudi doctors. They told me it was a freak reaction. There were guys being airlifted to the Army Hospital in Germany for ingrowing toenails. I thought I was an anomaly.” 

In June 2000 Irelan, back in the US, contacted his congressman, Washington State’s Jack Metcalfe, who sat on the House Government Reform Committee which was investigating the vaccine. “His office told me I was not alone. Then I started receiving calls from others, telling me I was not crazy. The calls have not stopped. “I would have been happy to accept this if I had been told the problems with the vaccine. Shit happens. But they treated me like a dog.” 

In October 2000, Irelan gave evidence before the House committee. “Members of Congress,” he said, “I appear before you today to tell you that I would willingly lay down my life for the United States of America. But what I wish someone would explain is why it has been permitted to perpetrate this unproven drug on my fellow soldiers.” It was a question worth asking, because a long paper trail shows how concerned the US Government has been about the vaccine for more than 15 years. 

The first anthrax vaccine was designed in the 1950s to protect wool-mill workers from cutaneous anthrax, which enters the body through breaks in the skin. In 1970 the federal government issued the only licence to manufacture a similar vaccine to the Michigan Department of Public Health. That later became the state-owned Michigan Biologic Products Institute (MBPI). That licence was based on a scientific study of an earlier vaccine which had suggested an effectiveness against inhalation anthrax. “There was a presumption of effectiveness, but it has never been tested, which is a legal requirement,” says a congressional aide on the House Government Reform Committee, which had called for the immunisation programme to be suspended in April 2000. 

By the late 1980s MBPI, with antiquated facilities, was making small batches of the vaccine, about 15,000 to 17,000 doses every four years, selling them mostly to people in the animal hides business. It was the only US company making an anthrax vaccine. With the reduction in the relevance of nuclear weapons, the Cold War now over, the US Army had begun to take an interest in chemical and biological warfare. It investigated the possibility of contracting MBPI to supply the US military with the vaccine. This was before vaccinations became politically sensitive, and the Army and Pentagon statements are now a matter of public record. They are striking in their  bluntness. 

In 1985 a US Army report stated: “There is no vaccine in current use which will safely and effectively protect against all strains of the anthrax bacillus. A licensed vaccine against anthrax . . . is currently available for human use. The vaccine is, however, highly reactogenic, requires multiple boosters to maintain immunity and may not be protective against all strains of anthrax bacillus.” 

In 1989, a year after the Army had gone ahead with ordering 300,000 doses from MBPI, a letter from the Pentagon to Senator John Glenn stated: “Current vaccines, particularly the anthrax vaccine, do not readily lend themselves to use in mass troop immunisation for a variety of reasons, a higher than desirable rate of reactogenicity, and, in some cases, lack of strong enough  efficacy against infection by the aerosol route of exposure.” Then came the Gulf War. Amid claims that the vaccine may have caused the illness of thousands of troops after 150,000 were vaccinated — allegations never proved — hearings were held by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. 

In December 1994 it stated: “The efficacy of the vaccine against biological warfare is unknown.” In the 1994 medical textbook Vaccines, Colonel Arthur Friedlander, the US Army’s chief anthrax vaccine researcher, wrote: “The current vaccine against anthrax is unsatisfactory for several reasons. The vaccine is composed of an undefined crude culture . . . the degree of purity is unknown . . . the presence of constituents that may be undesirable may account for the level of reactogenicity observed.” This is the same vaccine — the same ingredients, if not the same batch — being administered to troops today. In October 2000, Col Friedlander gave evidence to the House committee. He said: “This vaccine is safe and effective, and it’s the best vaccine we have to protect against this disease.” 

Col Friedlander says he has taken the vaccine himself. There is no reason to believe his assertion before the committee was not genuinely held. One thing, however, had changed: the determination of the US government to immunise the entire military. 

Throughout the 1990s, MBPI had been manufacturing millions of doses in the conditions so damned by the February 1998 FDA inspection, as political demands for the vaccine grew. In 1996 the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 19 US troops. Pan-Arab terrorism had begun in earnest. The spectre of biological terrorism was becoming a genuine political concern. So  the Army again looked at the anthrax vaccine. This time the plan was bold: a mass immunisation programme for all 2.4 million servicemen and women. 

In 1995 the Army contracted the SAIC Corporation, consultants to the Pentagon, to submit a plan that would enable them to obtain an FDA licence for inhalation anthrax. In its report, the SAIC’s plan clearly identified the vaccine’s legal status: “This vaccine is not licensed for aerosol exposure expected in a biological warfare environment.” Under US law, the lack of such a licence meant that soldiers could not be given the vaccine without their “informed consent”, a hurdle that would have made a mass immunisation programme impossible. 

On September 20, 1996, MBPI submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA. Again, one of its purposes was clear: “To obtain a specific indication for inhalation anthrax.” That IND application has never been acted upon by the FDA. Six months later the FDA’s stance on the vaccine appeared to change. In 1997 a new Defence Secretary, William Cohen, made combating bio-terrorism a priority. On March 4, 1997, four days after the retirement of the long-serving FDA Commissioner David Kessler, the Assistant US Defence Secretary (Health Affairs), Dr Stephen Joseph, wrote to the acting FDA  Commissioner, Dr Michael Friedman. Dr Joseph said the Defence Department had “long interpreted” the vaccine as being effective for inhalation anthrax. This was six months after the IND application. 

Dr Friedman replied on March 13. It was a response that seemed to clear the regulatory hurdle for a mass immunisation programme: “While there is a paucity of data regarding the effectiveness of Anthrax Vaccine for prevention of inhalation anthrax, the current package insert does not preclude the use.” The insert said the vaccine was licensed for “at risk” industrial and  veterinary workers. It did not specify the type of infection. 

Meanwhile, MBPI was in financial trouble. In June 1998 a private consortium named BioPort, headed by a Lebanese businessman, Fuad El-Hibri, bought the company for $24 million. A major shareholder and director of BioPort was Admiral William Crowe, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the Reagan and Bush Senior administrations, and a friend of El-Hibri; the two met while  Crowe was Ambassador to the UK. 

Less than a month after the sale of MBPI, BioPort landed an exclusive $29 million contract with the Pentagon to “manufacture, test, bottle and store the anthrax vaccine.” Admiral Crowe has vehemently denied that he knew of the deal before BioPort purchased MBPI. He also insists that the vaccine is safe. 

Within months, BioPort too was in trouble. Unable to rectify in time the problems highlighted in the FDA’s February 1998 inspection report, the new owner, like MBPI before it, was unable to ship any new vaccine. It appealed to the Pentagon for more money. By June 2000 the Anthrax Vaccine Immunisation Programme (AVIP) had all but ended, due in large part to dwindling supplies.  Not until January this year was BioPort authorised to start shipping new vaccines. But between March 1998 and January 2000, according to the Pentagon’s own figures, 2.1 million doses of stockpiled, pre-February 1998 vaccines were administered to 535,000 troops. Only in August did the FDA prohibit BioPort from using any pre-1998 vaccine. During that period the Pentagon spent over $100 million of taxpayers’ money renovating the plant. It is also paying about $20 a dose, more than three times the original price negotiated three years ago. And critics point out that no matter how much  money has been spent renovating the plant and cleaning up the manufacturing process, the vaccine itself, given to troops heading to the Gulf today, has not changed. 

Six months after the FDA inspection of the plant, Captain Tom Rempfer and Major Russ Dingle, officers in the Connecticut Air National Guard, were asked by their commanding officer to look into the vaccine. Misgivings about the jabs had begun to spread, and it was felt that their investigation would put the minds of fellow pilots at rest. 

It didn’t. The two officers wanted to go public when they discovered the FDA inspection report. Senior officers in their unit, they say, ordered them to keep their discovery secret. They then refused to take the jab, and were ordered to resign their commissions. Both pilots have filed federal lawsuits against BioPort challenging the effectiveness of the vaccine. The sister of  Sandra Larson, a soldier who died three months after her sixth jab, has also been joined by Ronda Wilson in suing BioPort. Their lawyer, Alan Milstein, says he hopes to bring a class action involving hundreds of former  servicemen. Their cases, they say, have been greatly helped by the House of Representatives. 

In April 2000, after days of testimony, the House Government Reform Committee released its verdict on the vaccine. It stated: “The AVIP programme . . . leaves the Department of Defence captive to old technology and a single, untested company . . . based on a dangerously narrow scientific and medical foundation. The safety of the vaccine is not being monitored adequately.” As  a health care effort, “the AVIP compromises the practice of medicine to achieve military objectives.” 

It derided the “preposterously low” adverse reaction rates reported by the Pentagon, which is “more concerned with public relations than effective force protection”. It adds: “Adverse events following vaccination are reported by women at twice the rate among men.” And it concludes: “AVIP raises an ominous question: who protects the force from ill-conceived force protection?” The House committee, chaired by Dan Burton and Christopher Shays, both Republican congressman, recommended that the AVIP programme be suspended. Lawrence Halloran, a senior aide to Shays, says: “The FDA was leant on by the Department of Defence in 1997, and took a shortcut. They interpreted the old licence on the fly, giving the vaccine approval. It is not a standard you would find anywhere else. No other drug manufacturer would be given approval for a product like this. 

“The committee concluded that it is not licensed for inhalation anthrax. There is no question it is harmful to some people’s health. To persist with using this vaccine at the expense of developing a new one is a scandal.” 
So how can the Pentagon be allowed to vaccinate troops with such a discredited product? “Because they can,” Halloran says. “They felt a desperate need to have something at hand, and this was already on the shelf. After the Gulf War they panicked, and felt they had to do something. They have the weight to intimidate the FDA into ignoring the problems.” 

In August the FDA acknowledged problems with the vaccine. The product insert was altered dramatically. It said the vaccine could harm people with immunity disorders, could cause a host of serious long-term adverse reactions and could already be responsible for six deaths and a number of birth defects. According to the Pentagon, of the 535,000 troops inoculated, 1,578 have reported adverse reactions with 208 classified as “serious”. 

The insert warnings were based in part on a report by the US General Accounting Office earlier this year, which stated that adverse reactions occur in five to 35 per cent of people who take the injection, vastly higher than a previous Pentagon claim of only 0.2 per cent. The GAO also criticised the pressure exerted on troops not to report adverse effects, so as not to jeopardize their military careers. 

James Turner, a Pentagon spokesman, says: “The vaccine is safe and effective. Period.” He points to the FDA’s own evaluation of the vaccine. Kim Brennan Root, of BioPort, refers to the product insert, which states: “BioThrax is also indicated for individuals at high risk of exposure to bacillus anthracis spores.” She says: “It doesn’t say it is licensed for one type of anthrax  over another. There are three types: inhalation, cutaneous and intestinal. The critics keep pointing to the 1996 IND application. They say the license does not specify inhalation anthrax. Well, the license merely specifies that it protects against the disease, regardless of what form you contract. If you follow the critics’ line of argument, we would have to expose people to high levels of inhalation challenge. We have monkey studies which support the effectiveness of the product for all three types.” 

In August the FDA gave a 25-page, point-by-point response to a Citizen’s Petition filed by Major Dingle. It stated that in 1972, when the FDA assumed responsibility for regulating the drugs industry, independent panels reviewed the vaccine, concluding that it is “safe and effective”. Referring to its own February 1998 inspection of BioPort, the FDA states: “Inspectional observations do not necessarily render the anthrax vaccine unsafe or  ineffective.” 

Their assurances are of little comfort to Ronda Wilson. She says: “Everybody said I should get over my anger. But anger is the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. I have lost my marriage, my career, my dreams, my future, my pleasures. I would have died for my country. But I didn't think I would die like this.”

 



My name is Dennis Drew. I am an active duty service member stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas. This is a summary of how my life has changed after receiving the anthrax vaccine in March 2003: I had just completed basic training in very good health and shape. I did fracture my  pelvis, but I kept on going, determined to finish. That has healed now. I  graduated March 19, 2003 and was then stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas. On  March 24, I received the anthrax and typhoid vaccines in preparation for  deployment. On March 27th, I woke up feeling ill. I felt like I was getting the flu. I had body aches, sore throat, nausea and a headache.

Later that day I started feeling worse. I began to get a sharp pain in my chest and was having trouble breathing and started sweating for no reason. On March 28th, I returned to Maine to see my family before I was to leave for Iraq. I got worse as I was there and ended up going to Maine Medical Center where I was diagnosed with severe pneumonia and myocarditis. My symptoms have gotten worse ever since. I came back to Ft. Hood the first week of April and went to the medical clinic for a follow up. I was told I had permanent damage to my heart. I began feeling worse and eventually checked in to the emergency room. They ran tests on me and even sent me to San Antonio for additional testing. The doctors down there called me a 'medical mystery.' I have been to the hospital emergency room more times than I can count and was made to wait hours before I was seen. Every single time I was told that there was nothing wrong with me and they sent me home. The last week of April my family moved down here and had to take care of me. Now, I can hardly walk or stand for more than 5 minutes. I have chronic headaches, muscle weakness, chronic fatigue, nausea, chest pains, numerous colds, memory loss and a 30lb weight loss.

Over the past few months of dealing with this, my unit was not supportive. They treated me terribly and a few of my superiors told me I was faking. I went to sick call almost daily, which turned out to be the best thing I could have done. There, I was always made to see different doctors and got many different diagnosis; such as lupus, chronic myocarditis, lyme disease and rheumatoid arthritis. However, blood tests later showed these diagnosis to be false. My Commander noticed I wasn't getting better. In an attempt to help me, he had me assigned to a doctor in internal medicine, Dr. Klotz. After 2 or 3 visits and a few tests, Dr. Klotz said he didn't know what to do for me anymore. He had suspected a vaccine reaction in the beginning and filed a VAERS report to the CDC. When he told me he didn't know what to do for me anymore, I asked to go to Walter Reed thinking maybe they could determine if I was having a vaccine reaction. He told me I could not go until he knew what was wrong. His suggestion was that I wait 3-6 months and if I wasn't better, they would consider a discharge. I don't understand why they would consider discharging me without sending me to Walter Reed. After all, I thought I was supposed to be getting the best medical attention possible. My whole experience thus far with the medical care at Ft. Hood has been a joke. I ended up contacting Walter Reed myself and they wanted to see me, but I couldn't go without a doctor here recommending that I needed to go.

Eventually, with the help of a higher ranking friend, I was able to get in touch with a doctor at one of the clinics. I met with him for almost 2 hours and he recommended me to Walter Reed. I was then referred to Col. Dalzell at the clinic to be my PCP. She also thought I was having a vaccine reaction and with the help of Walter Reed, was able to get me there quickly. Finally, on July 28th, after much difficulty from my unit, I arrived at Walter Reed. However, right before I was supposed to leave for Walter Reed, I was made to have a psychiatric evaluation performed by Major Jennifer Lang. I met with her for an hour and we discussed my family, my frustrations with the medical care I had been receiving and we also talked a little about my illness. After just an hour of talking and no prior knowledge of my current medical situation, she concluded that I have a somatization disorder- basically, that I am making all of this up and just wanted people to feel sorry for me. I thought it was absurd that she could even say something like that after only 1 visit and no prior knowledge of what I had been going through. My case worker at Walter Reed saw the diagnosis and thought it was premature and unnecessary. After a having a variety of tests run on me at Walter Reed, they determined that I had chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia caused by the anthrax vaccine. I also have small vessel ischemia in my brain, but they are still uncertain of its origin. I was also made to have a neuropsych evaluation. After talking with the doctor for 30 minutes, he then handed me off to his assistant and she administered the test. I just got the results a few days ago and the doctors diagnosis was that I was a malingerer and that I was suffering from somatization. I was really upset about this. I have no reason to be making this up. Some people have suggested that it is stress-related, but this cannot possibly be true. Yes, I have dealt with many stressful circumstances recently, but I am no malingerer. When I was at basic training I had to deal with not seeing my wife and son for 6 months. I also missed the birth of my daughter and fractured my pelvis. All of these events were stressful, but I was able to deal with them fine. My goal was to retire from the military after 20 years of service, not to end up like this. I can't pick my 2 small children up. I can't go places or do anything. It has affected not only me, but my wife and children as well. I can't get a second job to support my family and my wife can't work because I can't take care of our kids or myself. Our finances have been destroyed. I hate not being able to be the best husband, father and provider that I can be. If I am making all of this up, I am losing a lot more than my health. This is a large burden that my family and I have to carry around because not many other people want to accept the blame for what has happened to me. This is a great burden to deal with and it makes it even harder when I have people that don't believe that I am truly sick. I have nothing to hide. I would love to invite anyone who doesn't believe in the adverse reaction of the anthrax vaccine to come spend a day in my home- to see first hand what my family and I go through. We will fight for the rest of our lives so that myself and other military personnel like me will be acknowledged as having a reaction to the anthrax vaccine. We are not malingerers and we are not fakers. We are just victims of wanting to serve our country. Even after all I have been through, I still don't want out of the military. I am proud of what I signed up to do. However, I have been told that discharge is in my best interest and that is what will happen to me. 

We are people too with a real illness and deserve to be treated fairly. These past 6 months I have tried to be fair and respectful to the healthcare system of the military but I can't stand by anymore. I realize that there could be some retribution from the Army about this but I am an American citizen and I have the right to voice my opinion. The best advice I can give to anyone suffering through any vaccine is to be persistent- very persistent. Go to sick call as much as you have to. Keep records of everything. My wife, kids and I will most likely be dealing with this for the rest of our lives and we will fight until the day we die for other people like us. 

Thank you very much.
Sincerely,

Dennis W. Drew
 



http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/17/health/17TROO.html?tntemail1

BIOLOGICAL DEFENSES
Pentagon Faces Difficulties in Smallpox Shots for Troops
By DENISE GRADY

But the presence of people in the military who must avoid the vaccine may pose logistical difficulties. Such people must also avoid close contact with others who have been recently vaccinated, because for two to three weeks the vaccination site can shed the live virus, vaccinia, used in the vaccine. 

Australian SAS could be offered experimental vaccines
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/21/1040174434938.html
By Fia Cumming, Political Correspondent
December 22 2002
The Sun-Herald

Australian SAS troops are likely to be offered experimental vaccines against anthrax, mustard gas and bubonic plague if they are deployed to a war on Iraq.As a US decision on whether to attack Iraq looms, preparations for an Australian contribution are winding up. Vaccination plans for British and American troops are already under way, but the Australian Defence Department will not reveal which vaccines may be offered to Australian soldiers. A spokeswoman said the information could be used by other countries.

"It's a matter of operational security," she said. "We vaccinate in line with a threat and risk assessment, based on what operational environment they are entering into." Iraq is known to have had stocks of VX, a liquid nerve poison, sarin and tabun nerve gases and anthrax, and is suspected of having other biological and chemical agents.Australian troops - mainly SAS - may be offered the vaccines on a voluntary basis, because of the problems which arose after the Gulf War. American, British and Australian defence personnel said they developed mysterious and lingering illnesses, known as Gulf War syndrome, as a result of the vaccines.

The Howard Government last weekend received 50,000 imported doses of smallpox vaccine as a precaution against a terrorist attack. But because of its risks, the vaccine will not be used unless the disease is released by a terrorist. Australian Defence Association executive director Michael O'Connor said providing vaccines was normal when troops went overseas.

 
Gulf War report a whitewash - veterans

Nov 25 2002
http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.
cfm?objectid=12401732&method=full&siteid=50081

By The Journal

Army veterans have branded a new report into Gulf War Syndrome commissioned by military top brass a "whitewash" after it said exposure to noxious chemicals was not the cause of their illnesses.The report, produced by the Government-backed Gulf War Illness Research Unit (GWIRU), concluded that health problems reported by veterans could not be blamed on vaccines used during the 1991 war, as some had claimed.

The findings were last night greeted with anger by Shaun Rusling, North-based chairman of the National Gulf Veterans' Association, who said the report lacked both impartiality and credibility. Many Gulf War Syndrome sufferers, backed by alternative academic research, believe that their condition is related to the use of organophosphates in insect repellent issued to soldiers fighting in Iraq and Kuwait.

Others have linked the symptoms - which include muscle fatigue, loss of co-ordination and even problems encountered by sufferers of autism - to the use of vaccines and even the depleted uranium ammunition during the conflict. The Journal-backed campaign for justice for sufferers has now been running for almost a decade. The MoD funded the latest research, carried out at Guy's, King's and St Thomas's Joint School of Medicine in London, in what they say was the most intensive neurological study of Gulf War soldiers in Britain to date.

Forty-nine veterans with neurological symptoms - national estimates say a total of 35,000 are suffering some sort of illness - were given exhaustive medical examinations, alongside a further 29 who had experienced no problems. The results were then compared to servicemen who had fought in Bosnia, as well as other personnel. While the research team found there was no evidence that Gulf War veterans' symptoms were linked to brain damage, they did agree that their general health was poorer than that found in other groups of soldiers. That, says Mr Rusling, who served as a medic during the Gulf War, is a complete contradiction.

"This is not surprising, given that the paper was funded by the MoD. Veterans were exposed to low level radiation, classified vaccines and anti-nerve gas pills in the Gulf. "This has become a national disgrace, but the more the MoD tries to hide this away, the more they will be disbelieved. "All these desperately ill servicemen can't be wrong, but the MoD seems to be well and truly above the law." But Professor Simon Wessely, who co-authored the report, said it was now clear that the health effects plaguing many of those who served in Operation Desert Storm was not associated with the brain or nervous system. "There is no smoking gun," he said. "There is no new disease that causes Gulf War Syndrome. There is a Gulf War health effect."

However, Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Sunderland University who has advised several veteran's groups, also claims the findings are seriously flawed. He believes the problems stem from damage to the central nervous system. "For this survey not to find any evidence of neurological damage makes me very suspicious," he said. "I find this research unpersuasive and statistically insignificant." A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "We note that the authors found no evidence for a specific neuro-muscular disorder that could be linked to deployment in the Gulf conflict. This should reassure all veterans."


Exhaustive exams... I love it... My husband had one of  those 'exhaustive exams' because of his ongoing gastrointestinal problems since the Gulf War.  It lasted about 3 minutes, the Dr  didn't even know how to fill out the paperwork for the report to the administration, and NO ONE followed up with my husband... makes me exhausted. 
 



    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20021224-9999_1m24sick.html
      Deadly bacteria infection overwhelmed MCRD recruit 
     
                         By Jeanette Steele 
      UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 

      December 24, 2002 

                All recruits entering MCRD are vaccinated against the meningococcal bacteria, which usually affects young people . Still, Malone said the vaccine isn't always effective, as in Zavala's case.      



From John Rappaport's StratiaWire's Newsletter:

Monday, December 23, 2002

UPDATE---SMALLPOX VACCINE OP

DECEMBER 23. I have had time to consult with several very good sources, and this is what is happening with the smallpox vaccine. There is a full-court press on the major media to keep them from saying, THE GOVERNMENT HAS REVERSED ITS POSITION ON THE VACCINE. THE GOVERNMENT SCREWED UP BIG-TIME. How long this pressure will succeed we don’t know. But so far the media campaign of OMISSION is working. The dumbed-down public is buying the moment-by-moment coverage without connecting the dots.

Too busy shopping and making plans for the holidays. In point of fact, the government could have begun leaking its reversal-of-position info a lot earlier, but now is perfect. Xmas rules all. The amazing “confession” data re the vaccine FROM THE MAINSTREAM PRESS is a series of planned leaks. This is all orchestrated, for reasons I’ve been mentioning in recent articles. It’s being made to look like responsible medical bureaucrats have the public interest at heart. Some of them do. But overall, this is a story about heavy protection of the vaccine industry from exposure, since the smallpox vaccine is so dangerous and toxic.

The CDC is now scrambling to do two things: one, tell those thousands of community vaccine centers they have been setting up, all across America, to back off on the smallpox shot; and two, retain the STRUCTURE of those centers, a new infrastructure for all sorts of medical OPS (covert operations), including, of course, vaccines to be given in the event of a PURPOSELY STAGED “biowar attack.”

However, because the prior propaganda about the importance of getting the smallpox shot was so successful, there will be people who insist on getting the vaccine. Some of them will get very sick, and some will die.The government is not willing to simply say, “Well, we warned you.” That is not enough. That is not going to carry the day. So as many of these deaths as possible will be attributed to other causes. But it is likely there will be problems. As I write this, legal experts are working to figure out how the government should deal with the liability, and PR firms are weighing in, too, to concoct spin trips to minimize bad press. Odds are, the vaccine manufacturers will stay out of the spotlight. 

Whatever heat there is to take, the government will take it. This, in fact, was the whole point of the VAERS system of liability payouts that was put into effect in 1986. Get the drug companies off the hook and involve claimants in a maze of government pros who could stall God from making it rain. Okay? So now we have to ask, if the government has been making an amazing reversal of opinion and policy in the last week on the smallpox vaccine, why did they ever support mass vaccinations in the first place? Why say yes and then say no later on, when the liability exposure is so fraught with danger?

This part of the story is definitely DEVELOPING, as they say in the news business.

Was Bush told to launch the mass vaccination program by people who were stupid, who didn’t understand what could happen? Did Tommy Thompson, Bush’s secretary of health and human services, tell him to do this? Thompson knows nothing about these matters, as far as the science is concerned. If the urging for a green light came from Thompson, then HE had been briefed by others first. Was Bush urged to give the green light by George Tenet, the CIA director? Did Tenet think he had good information that a smallpox bio-attack might be imminent? If it was Thompson or Tenet, who had briefed these men first? We know that Bush is impulsive, and that he gets advice from his people and tends to jump into action without reflection.

There is another possibility. Somebody ran an OP on Bush. Somebody wanted him to do exactly the wrong thing. Somebody wanted to him to be the dupe for an eventual vaccine disaster of enormous proportions. A Gerald Ford with his absurd swine flu vaccine fiasco. Only much worse. Can you imagine the damage Bush would have suffered (and could still suffer) if he had given the final okay for a mandate to vaccinate the whole nation? People dying like flies, photos, the whole war on terrorism cast as a medical screw-up of the first order? 
Bush’s Waterloo.

Judging from the rising tide of negative opinion about the vaccine coming from the CDC and NIH over the last few months, it’s unlikely that the original instigator for this mass vaccination program came from official channels at these two giant federal agencies. And you see, as long as the major media refuse to pursue the story of the government 180-degree turnaround on the smallpox-vaccine issue, reporters are not going to ask Bush, “Who convinced you this was a good idea in the first place?”

I have spoken with my prime source on propaganda matters, Ellis Medavoy. He said, “You have to look for layers of people here. You have to build a chain of people to see where the idea for this mass vaccination came from. It’s quite possible that someone within the intelligence cartel was the real source. Someone who WANTED a disaster. Because disasters are what create the kind of chaos certain people want. (I have referred to these elements in past articles as the Plan B people). They are not satisfied with the slow-drip method of gaining more control over the global population. They want to burn down everything to the ground and build a steel-trap society on the ruins.”

Bush is still up against it. The Army is vaccinating lots of soldiers. How successful will the cover-up of deaths be? Well, it’s a lot easier to manage that behind the military walls than out in the public. Bush is still on the hook as the dupe. How do you make a dupe? You feed him information which merges with his general outlook, you give him a detailed suggestion as to action, and you stand back and let him go to work.

In the case of instituting that VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) in 1986 that took vaccine manufactures off the liability-payout hook, the federal government allowed anti-vaccine activists to propose VAERS, activists who thought that GOVERNMENT was a better protector of the people than DRUG COMPANIES.

Hello? The medical monopoly IS a joint venture of government and drug companies. More coming… Although I haven’t been able to obtain the medical records of those Marines in San Diego who are falling ill and dying, I believe that at least some of them are the victims of the smallpox and/or anthrax vaccine. I’m still looking for better confirmation. This ranks as a maybe right now.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that hundreds of sailors aboard the USS Roosevelt have come down with the flu. Of course, no details on exactly how the blood of these people was tested to make that diagnosis---and we don't know whether the sailors have recently been vaccinated. The ship is in the Atlantic Ocean on exercises, and is third in line to go to the Middle East---so it's possible the crew has received smallpox shots. If this outbreak is really a vaccine reaction, it's being covered up. Maybe we're seeing a reaction to a flu vaccine.

MSNBC is reporting on a new survey done to see what Americans know and don't know about smallpox and the vaccine. The conclusion? Americans are confused about the most elementary facts. There is a clue here for us: The complete government turnaround on ITS position vis-a-vis the vaccine is now being laid off on the public---"The government is not talking out of both sides of its mouth, it's the public that has all the wrong ideas." And this MSNBC piece also tells us how the press is going to worm its way out of confronting the White House about that 180-degree turnaround---again, the "confusion" is going to be laid at the door of the public. Repulsive.

US soldiers are caught in the crossfire of the government's 180 re the vaccine. As far as we know, the smallpox vaccinations are proceeding in the military. This is happening with NO announced evidence that any nation is preparing to use, or can use, smallpox as a bio-weapon. If Bush publicly calls off the vaccine program for the military, then he exposes the whole hoax. The Pentagon brass tend to view "their boys" as the healthiest specimens in the world, and so they convince themselves that the vaccine will do little harm.

UPDATE: A few hours after I wrote that last paragraph, MSNBC posted a report on the first round of military smallpox shots---ONE THIRD OF THE SOLDIERS IN THE INITIAL SMALL GROUP WHO WERE CALLED IN FOR THEIR SHOTS WERE EXEMPTED FROM GETTING THEM, BECAUSE OF PRIOR EXISTING CONDITIONS, OR BECAUSE THEY WERE LIVING WITH PEOPLE WHO MIGHT EXPERIENCE A SEVERE REACTION IF THE VIRUS FROM THE VACCINE JUMPED FROM THE RECIPIENT TO THEM.

This represents yet another fast-breaking phase in the complete government turnaround re this vaccine. BOOM.

However, this "careful medical screening" the Army is doing right now to identify those who should be exempted from the shot? What will happen soon when the big wave of 500,000 soldiers is due for the vaccine all at once? The usual style is, get in line, roll up your sleeve, keep moving, keep your mouth shut. That's exactly how they can process so many people. They are going to sit these 500,000 guys down, one at a time, and put them through an extensive interview to determine whether they should get the shot? No possible way.

So there are three choices. One, they quietly cancel the whole vaccine campaign. Two, they shoot up all the soldiers and lie about the damage and death that actually results. Three, they stage a bio-war attack with the smallpox germ and thereby justify giving them all the shot---in which case vaccine deaths are blamed on the "bio-attack."

NOTE: I'M NOT DEFENDING THE IDEA OF GIVING ANYBODY THIS SHOT. I'M DESCRIBING HOW THE HEALTH AUTHORITIES ARE WORKING THEIR VARIOUS SCAMS.

There are still very important snakes in the grass. As Jane Orient, MD, points out, the Homeland Security Act, which was passed without a single congressional hearing or testifying witness, contains, in Section 304, Subsection C, a provision that empowers the secretary of health and human services (Tommy Thompson, at the moment)to declare states of emergency. He can order "countermeasures" against bio-attacks. He can order quarantines and detainments for "categories of individuals" he invents according to his own guidelines. This broad power, undefined, opens the door for all sorts of medical/police actions.

So although Thompson says he's not taking the smallpox vaccine himself, don't assume we are looking at a moment of enlightenment.

“What good fortune for those in power that the people do not think.”  ~Adolf Hitler

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise." ~Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1923

“It also gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see how unaware the people around us are of what is really happening to them."  ~Adolf Hitler

 




 




Our veterans were abandoned 
BY CONN HALLINAN
Special to The Examiner 

    AS THE U.S. RAMPS up for invading Iraq, we should know that we are sending our troops into the most toxic battlefield on earth.     And should those soldiers suffer the huge number of disabilities that Gulf War I vets do, they can expect their government, in the words of U.S. Rep. Christopher Shey (R-N.C.), to have "a tin ear, a cold heart and a closed mind." 

    For 11 years, more than 100,000 Gulf War vets have complained of chronic fatigue, headaches, joint pains, memory loss, cancer and birth defects. For 11 years the Department of Defense (DOD) has known the cause but systematically denied that the disabilities were anything but psychosomatic.     But, layer by layer, the lies have come undone. A recent study in a British medical journal demonstrated that British Gulf vets were three times as likely to be disabled as all other vets. 

    The study is hardly a bolt from the blue. The Centers for Disease Control concluded in 1995 that Gulf War vets suffered illnesses at 12 times the rate as non-Gulf War vets.     The stonewalling started when young soldiers were inoculated with an experimental anthrax vaccine that included squalene, an additive with dangerous side effects. 

    The Defense Department denies the vaccine included squalene, but a University of Tulane Medical School study found squalene antibodies in 36 out of 38 Gulf vets suffering from the syndrome and a high incidence of similar disorders in vaccinated vets who never served in the Gulf. The DOD won't release information on the vaccine because it is "classified." 

    The Pentagon also maintained that none of our troops had been exposed to chemical weapons, in spite of the fact that Army logs indicated the presence of chemical weapons on Jan. 20, 1991. When Sen. Donald Riegle (D-Mich.) requested those logs, he was told they didn't exist. Eight months later the logs were finally released -- with most of the pages missing. 

    It was not until 1998 that the DOD admitted that as many as 130,000 troops (the vets claim more) were exposed to chemical weapons after the destruction of the Iraqi arms depot at Kamisiyah.   The DOD says it never said anything about the exposure because "scientific research and medical research do not indicate that this type of exposure is harmful," according to Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Dian Lawhon. 

    But the Army never researched the matter and ignored a 1974 Swedish study showing that small doses of chemical weapons did produce long-term effects.  The tragedy here is that because the Pentagon lied, the vets' complaints were dismissed. 

    "Because doctors were told that chemicals had not been used, many veterans were sent straight to the psychiatric department," said Paul Sullivan of the Gulf War Veterans of Georgia. By July 1995, 95 percent of vets seeking disability had been turned away because doctors thought they were nut cases.  When research was done, it was ignored. A 1997 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center study demonstrated that the interaction of nerve gas pills (another experimental and dangerous drug given the troops), insecticides and nerve gas produced a rare disorder called "organophosphate-induced delayed polyneuropathy," which is essentially Gulf War Syndrome. 

    With an Iraqi invasion looming, this is hardly an academic issue. As Shaun Rusling, chairman of the British National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association, said, "Our troops, who will be exposed to the same as we were 11 years ago, need to know that should they be ill or injured, they will get the best medical care and proper pensions." 

    The track record on our side of the Atlantic suggests quite the opposite. 

    Comment: letters@examiner.com 

    Conn Hallinan is a provost at UC Santa Cruz.

 



Anthrax vaccine stories

Sgt. Sandra Larson's story:
http://www.house.gov/reform/hearings/healthcare/00.10.03/rugo.htm  


Our Anthrax information web site: http://www.dallasnw.quik.com/cyberella/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Anthrax-no/files/VAERS.pdf 
DESTROY QUARANTINED VACCINE:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?robi2662&1
PETITION TO OVERTURN/REPEAL FERES DOCTRINE http://www.i-charity.net/ptn/80
To visit Dr. Meryl Nass's web site, go to: http://www.anthraxvaccine.org
Tom Colosimo's website: http://www.tomcolosimo.com
Also visit: Anthrax Vaccine Benefit vs Risk: http://www.avip2001.net AND
http://www.MajorBates.com/ 
Anthrax Vaccine Network  http://www.anthraxvaccine.net
Sgt. Sandra Larson's story:
http://www.house.gov/reform/hearings/healthcare/00.10.03/rugo.htm  
http://www.house.gov/reform/hearings/healthcare/00.10.03/accountability.doc
Tom Heemstra's new book -
http://www.anthraxadeadlyshotinthedark.com/index.html
 





From a doctor who was damaged by the vaccine and is very ill..........and on the anthrax-no list I'm on
All I can say is to take TONS of vitamin C in the form of Sodium Ascorbate - everyone, especially husband.
I'll send the vitamin C info again to the list

Amy,

. I am a PFC in the us army.. tomorrow i will be given the anthrax . vaccine.. I plan to refuse, i want to know what will happen to me, . what I should know, and what could help in my defense.. I am a . female, if that is any sort of information, have been in for 2 1/2  years, and have around 9 months left in service.. I have had a  perfect service record before..  what can I do?   help and advice,  please?

First, see if you can get out legally without having to get the anthrax immunization.  If you have any significant illnesses at present -- old injury or disease or disorder that impairs you in any way and it was NOT self-induced for the purpose of your becoming disqualified or was otherwise "illegal" in any other context -- you can request a Fitness-for-Duty MEB/PEB designed to either result in your being physically disqualified for continued military service or non-deployable outside CONUS.  This works even for conditions existing prior to your joining the Army that were exacerbated by military service.  (See the regulations for guidance.)  It's not much of an idea but it's an idea.
Consult a civilian attorney first.

Officially, the order to get the anthrax shot is still considered legal. If you refuse to obey it you'll get whatever the Army wants to throw at you for disobeying a legal order.  Consult a civilian attorney first.   If you're wealthy enough, you can take the DOD to court about the legality of the order.  This will take several years and several thousands of dollars, but with a good attorney who know his way around the errors in AVIP, you should win for yourself and all those who sue DOD on the same grounds afterwards.  Consult a civilian attorney first.

If you take the shot, monitor your health carefully.  Be sure you keep copies of ALL your medical records, including laboratory tests and x-rays.  Document the dates you get all your shots and the dates you reported to sick call for local or systemic reactions to them.  When you get sick enough to present unmistakable physical signs of your anthrax-induced autoimmune disease to your Army physician, get a diagnosis first and then request a Fitness-for-Duty MEB/PEB.  If they let you separate rather than giving you the Disability Retirement you have coming to you, be sure that within four months of your separating from active duty in the Army that you get a Fitness-for-Duty MEB/PEB.  A separation  physical alone is never enough.  YOU MUST GET THE PRE-SEPARATION MEB/PEB.  This guarantees that the Army knows you're sick and if they don't give the 100% Disability Retirement you deserve as a sick anthrax shot recipient, you can take them to court once you've separated to get all the benefits you have coming to you.  It also makes it automatic to get VA Service Connection for your illnesses after you separate.  Consult a civilian attorney.

I know this wasn't very helpful, but it's where things stand now. Nevertheless, it's kind of generic in the sense that it's applicable to all.

Best of luck,

Frank Fisher, MD
Previously: LTC USAFR MC FS

 



NATIONAL GULF VETERANS & FAMILIES ASSOCIATION OFFICE TEL. 
NO. 01482 808730 OR FAX 01482 808731 
24 HOUR HELPLINE 01482 833812 FAX NO 01482 833816

URGENT PRESS RELEASE - MONDAY 6TH JANUARY 2003

ANTHRAX VACCINE GIVEN TO TROOPS PREPARING FOR GULF WAR CAUSES VACCINE DAMAGE AND ILL HEALTH 

EX SOLDIER WINS LAND MARK CASE AT LEEDS FOR VACCINE DAMAGE - OSTEOPOROSIS

Former Army Royal Engineer Soldier Mr Alex Izett from Glasgow recently won a  landmark case against the Ministry of Defence at an Independent Tribunal hearing in Leeds. Alex who had been waiting 3 years to have his case heard for Osteoporosis and depression caused by vaccinations classified secret given to him before the Gulf War. The Tribunal found Mr Alex Izett had depression and osteoporosis from the vaccinations given at the time of the Gulf War 1990-91.  It must be noted Mr Alex Izett did not serve in the Gulf War he was vaccinated to go but did not go!!!

The Tribunal findings:

Mr Rudin Chairman of the ENT/31692/2002 Leeds found

1. We accept you were vaccinated and we looked at the MoD letter 24.1.01 we  note the posity of the vaccination date we therefore accept the evidence Autoimmune induced osteoporosis caused by vaccines.

2. We have also looked at psychiatry report dated 29-2-01 and accept classified secret injections not listed in Army Medical Documents and that you have depression.

3. We also note exposure to squalene, further we have looked at Dr Juliet Compston's report endorsed by Prof. Simon Wessely of the Kings College London, we concur and endorse the findings

Mr Izett was represented by Mr Roy Gibson of the National Gulf Veterans & Families Association based in Hull, who stated  "This is a very significant case that shows the vaccines given to Mr Izett at the time of the Gulf War caused his ill health of depression and osteoporosis, it is of course significant that the Ministry of Defence denied everything!  I would imagine the Ministry of Defence are very concerned.

THIS ANTHRAX VACCINE IS CURRENTLY BEING GIVEN TO SOLDIERS OF 2 AND 3 PARA WHO ARE EXPERIENCING FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS ALREADY.

For further comment ring NGVFA on 01482 833812 or Alex Izett on 0049 5439 6094600 
     mcjock@t-online.de

 



Peer in plea over Gulf War veterans
Manchester Evening News - 10:00am Dec 13

MANCHESTER peer Lord Morris has accused the Ministry of Defense of causing distress to thousands of Gulf War veterans suffering a mystery illnesses.He said it was "doubly distressing" for veterans, some of them terminally ill, to have to wait until next year for a vital report on their illnesses.

Lord Morris has campaigned to prove that the illnesses were caused by a cocktail of injections given to the troops, but the MoD has so far refused to accept that there is such a thing as Gulf War syndrome. "Why are some illnesses treated as Gulf War-related in the US but not here?" asked Lord Morris in the Lords. "Why, 12 years on, when we could soon be involved in a second Gulf War, have we not learned the lessons of the first?"

Lord Morris said the MoD had been defeated in several court cases when they refused to hand over Army pensions to people with Gulf War illnesses. And he pointed out that a vicar, Gulf War veteran the Reverend David Peachell was discharged by the Church of England on the grounds of Gulf War illness and given a pension. Lord Morris asked what implications the case would have for other servicemen and women.

The Defence Minister Lord Bach said that despite the Church of England's decision the MoD continued to believe that no Gulf War illness had been identified. But he insisted that even though there was no recognition of Gulf War syndrome that did not prevent veterans getting a pension. He said more than 4,800 Gulf veterans had received pensions, one in four of them for disablement accepted as linked to their service in the Gulf.

  



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2638125.stm

Wednesday, 8 January, 2003, 10:02 GMT 
Troops fears over anthrax vaccine Soldiers at Army Infantry Training School, north Yorkshire  Troops will not be forced to have vaccines, say ministers Troops being sent to the gulf ahead of a possible war with Iraq have expressed concern about the safety of anthrax vaccines they are being given. The Gulf War Veterans and Families Association says it has been inundated with enquiries from servicemen worried about the possible side-effects of the vaccine. 

The group said it had also heard from troops who said they had become ill after receiving the jab.   Individuals who have contacted our helpline have said they are feeling ill and their mates are feeling ill Tony Flint, GWVFA However, ministers have insisted the vaccine is safe and that no one will be forced to have it against their will. 

Tony Flint of the GWVFA said its telephone helpline had received many calls in recent weeks from concerned troops.  The GWVFA represents thousands of servicemen who believe their health suffered after they were given a cocktail of vaccinations in the 1991 Gulf War. 

Worried 

Mr Flint told the BBC: "Regular servicemen have been phoning us worried about the vaccine, asking for our advice, because they know, like we know, the vaccines are a major cause of our illnesses. "From what we have learnt so far, members of the Parachute Regiment have already had the anthrax vaccine and they are reporting to us that they are getting side-effects. "Individuals who have contacted our helpline have said they are feeling ill and their mates are feeling ill."  
  
  I can assure you the vaccine is safe

Dr Lewis Moonie, Defence Minister
Mr Flint raised concern over the tests carried out on the vaccines before they were given. 

"The British haven't done any real test work on it all," he claimed. "All our evidence comes from the States and from their evidence, 30% of those that receive the vaccine become ill and six have died." Joyce Riley, of the American Gulf War Association, also expressed concern. "My concern about the anthrax vaccine is that it has been proven to be unsafe. It is not a tested vaccine. "What we are seeing from those who have been given the vaccine is usually something to do with blackouts, with seizures and motor problems. 

"We are finding that these people become affected by skin lesions, they develop sores and problems that just never go away." Vaccine 'is safe'  But defence minister Lewis Moonie insisted that the vaccine is safe. He told the BBC: "I can assure you that it has been given to many, many people over a long period of time and there has never been a case of serious side-effects. Not one case. "Of course it's been tested. It is not widely tested, because anthrax is not a common disease, but it is given very widely. 

"I can assure you the vaccine is safe. It has side-effects - all vaccines like this do. 

"You may get soreness at the site of injection and you may get a flu-like illness after it. But there are no serious complications." Dr Moonie added: "It is being offered to people who may be going into a theatre where they may be exposed to it. "It's being offered to them on a voluntary basis and nobody is compelled to have it."  Troops were given large amounts of information about vaccines they were offered and were able to discuss any concerns with medical officers, he said. 

 



Toxic ammo is tested in fish areas
U.S. Navy uses depleted uranium in coast waters; activists may go to court 
        By LARRY JOHNSON, Thursday, January 9, 2003
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/103402_fife09.shtml


The Navy routinely tests a weapon by firing radioactive, toxic ammunition in prime fishing areas off the coast of Washington, raising concerns from scientists, fishermen and activists. The Navy insists the use of depleted uranium off the coast poses no threat to the environment. Depleted uranium, known as DU, is a highly dense metal that is the byproduct of the process during which fissionable uranium used to manufacture nuclear bombs and reactor fuel is separated from natural uranium. DU remains radioactive for about 4.5 billion years. Cmdr. Karen Sellers, a Navy spokeswoman in Seattle, also said there are no hazards to the servicemen and women on board the ships, adding that "all crew members are medically monitored" to ensure their safety.

But a coalition of Northwest environmental and anti-war activists say they are considering seeking an injunction to halt the tests. "The Navy is willing to put us all at risk, including its own sailors, to improve its war-fighting capabilities," said Glen Milner, ofGround Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, one of the groups weighing a suit to stop the Navy tests. Milner received information on the Navy's tests of depleted uranium ammunition off the coast in a memo released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

No major studies apparently have been done on the effects of such weapons in the ocean. Where depleted uranium munitions have been used in combat on land, such as in Iraq during the Gulf War, or in tests on land, such as Vieques island in Puerto Rico, they not only give off relatively small amounts of radiation, but produce toxic dust that can enter the food chain.

Seattle environmental attorney David Mann asked, "How can the Navy fire depleted uranium rounds and spread radioactive material into prime fishing areas off our coast?" Sellers, however, said that only 400 to 600 rounds would be fired during a typical test at sea. And even though these tests have been going on since 1977, she said Navy environmental experts say that the DU dissolves very slowly in the ocean. "It would be too diluted to distinguish from natural background uranium in the sea water," she said.

The weapon in question is the Phalanx, also known as a Close In Weapons System. Such a system is on virtually all U.S. Navy combat ships. It includes radar and rapid-fire 20mm guns. The guns are capable of firing up to 3,000 or 4,500 rounds per minute of depleted uranium, a superhard material prized for its armor-piercing ability.

The Defense Department says the military uses the munitions "because of DU's superior lethality against armor and other hard targets." Although depleted uranium emits radiation, a second, potentially more serious hazard is created when a DU round hits a hard target. As much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn on impact, creating a firestorm of ceramic DU oxide particles. The residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain.

Once in the soil, DU can pollute the environment and create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the U.N. Environmental Program The Defense Department said DU munitions are "war reserve munitions; that is, used for combat and not fired for training purposes," with the exception that DU munitions may be fired at sea for weapon calibration purposes."

Another Navy spokeswoman described those firings at sea as "routine" and says they occur regularly off both the East and West coasts. "If the firing is with DU, it's probably with what we call the Close in Weapons System, and it is routine," said Lt. Brauna Carl, a Navy spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., and a former gunnery officer who has worked with DU weapons. When asked if the tests of DU rounds posed any health hazards, she replied, "God, I hope not. All I know is I haven't started glowing."

But Milner says, "It just makes sense that if DU can contaminate land and get into the food chain, then it would do the same thing in the sea." Robert Alverson, president of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association in Seattle, said he was "very troubled" to hear that the Navy was using depleted uranium off the coast of Washington. "I don't like what I'm hearing," he said.

The Navy memo obtained by Milner described a June 2001 operation by the USS Fife, an Everett-based destroyer. The memo said the Fife would conduct gunnery operations with depleted rounds in what was described as areas W237C and W237F.

These areas are designated Navy Warning Areas and are about 25-100 miles off the coast between Ocean Shores and Ozette, south of Neah Bay, according to Milner. "These are certainly prime fishing areas" for some salmon, flounder and other bottomfish, Alverson said. "It is folly to be testing anything in this area that might contaminate the natural food supply."

"How would the Navy feel about eating fish caught there?" he asked. Alverson said even the perception that fish might be contaminated could scare consumers and have dire consequences. "If any species ever turns up with radiation, it would be devastating to the fishing industry," he said.

Leonard Dietz, a research associate with the private, non-profit Uranium Medical Research Centre in Canada and the United States, said that the degree of environmental contamination the DU rounds will cause in sea water depends on what kinds of targets were hit and how much DU was fired.

"Corrosion of the DU by sea water would occur over a long time," said Dietz, who with Asaf Durakovic, director of the center, and research associate Patricia Horan, published a landmark study on inhaled DU that showed Gulf War veterans still had DU in their urine nine years after the war.

"The end result is that the ocean becomes a dumping ground for the spent DU penetrators and they add to the (natural) uranium content of sea water," he said. The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action is one of five peace and environmental organizations already involved in a federal lawsuit against the Navy for violations of the Endangered Species Act over the Trident D-5 nuclear missile upgrade at the Bangor submarine base.

DEPLETED URANIUM HAZARDS

The Pentagon has sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium, saying there have been no known health problems associated with the munition. At the same time, the military acknowledges the hazards in an Army training manual, which requires that anyone who comes within 25 meters of any DU-contaminated equipment or terrain wear respiratory and skin protection, and says that "contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption."

Some researchers and several U.S. veterans organizations say they suspect depleted uranium of playing a role in Gulf War Syndrome, the still-unexplained malady that has plagued hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans.

* On the Net:

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action: http://www.gzcenter.org
U.S. Navy: http://www.navy.mil
   Iraqi birth defects, Gulf War Syndrome linked to depleted uranium

P-I foreign desk editor Larry Johnson can be reached at 206-448-8035 or
larryjohnson@seattlepi.com

© 1998-2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 




http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,860598,00.html

Guardian | Mystery surrounds secret 1991 vaccines
Mystery surrounds secret 1991 vaccines 
David Pallister
Monday December 16, 2002
The Guardian

Britain sent more than 53,000 troops to the Gulf war 12 years ago. They faced the threat of chemical and biological attacks and a series of medical counter measures were hurredly introduced. The range of vaccines was kept secret, even from the troops, to prevent the Iraqis learning how they were protected. 

But with the politcal furore over Gulf war syndrome, the Ministry of Defence published the full details - six years after the war - and admitted there were "significant deficiencies" in the programme. Each individual was given up to 12 vaccines. First there were the routine ones to prevent disease: yellow fever, hepatitis B, typhoid, tetanus, cholera and polio. Some received jabs for meningitis and hepatitis A. 

Then there were the anti-biological vaccines for anthrax and plague. The anthrax jab was given with one for pertussis (whooping cough) to make it work quicker, although this combination had never been tested on humans. Warnings about the risk from the Department of Health and the National Institute for Biological Standards and control were ingnored. After the war, research at Porton Down, the government's defence laboratory, concluded that the use of pertussis was ineffective. 

For protection against a chemical attack everyone took a tablet containing the drug pyridostigmine bromide, which some scientists now believe may have been a contributory cause of neurological problems in veterans. The troops were also exposed to potentially hazardous organophosphate pesticides, one of which was unauthorised and other, unidentified, ones were bought locally. 

When veterans first started complaining of ill health, the most predominant symptoms were similar to those for chronic fatigue. Others included: headaches, memory loss, muscle pain, nausea, gastrointestinal problems, loss of concentration, vision and balance problems and depression. It has been established that veterans deployed to the Gulf are two to three times more likely to report symptoms than those not deployed. 

Dozens of research experiments have been carried out since the late 1990s with the UK spending £8.5m and the US $213m (£133m). No conclusive results have been made but the early UK concentration on whether post-traumatic stress caused the illnesses has now largely been ruled out. 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 

 




Friday, 10 January, 2003, 12:44 GMT 
Gulf war drugs 'linked to infertility'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2645315.stm
Gulf War troops took drugs to protect against disease

Drugs given to soldiers involved in the Gulf War may have caused infertility and other sexual problems, a US government-funded study suggests. Researchers say tests on rats have shown that some of the chemicals can damage male reproductive organs. The drugs were given to soldiers to protect them against insect-borne diseases and nerve-gas poisoning during the 1991 conflict. Veterans' groups say many of their members have suffered fertility and other sexual problems since the war. 

Dr Mohamed Abou-Donia and colleagues at Duke University Medical Center tested the insect repellent DEET, the insecticide permethrin and the anti-nerve gas agent pyridostigmine bromide on rats. The rats were given equivalent doses to those given to soldiers. 

Extensive damage 

According to the researchers, these chemicals caused extensive damage to the cells in the rats' testes when they were given together. The damage was even more severe among those rats that were also exposed to moderately stressful situations. The damage affected the part of the testes responsible for producing sperm. The researchers have previously shown that the same chemicals can cause devastating changes in rats' brains. 

In a study published last year, they suggested the chemicals killed cells in key areas of the brain responsible for muscle strength; balance and coordination; memory, cognition and mood. In both tests, the rats appeared physically normal despite extensive intensive cell damage. 

"The chemically-treated rats don't look or behave any differently than normal rats, just as the soldiers don't show any outward signs of disease," said Dr Abou-Donia. "But under a microscope you can see clear and well-defined damage to a variety of testicular structures." 

Further study 

Dr Abou-Donia said he was planning further research to find out why the chemicals acted in this way. "The military used these chemicals with the best of intentions, to protect soldiers from indigenous diseases in the Gulf War region. Without protection, there may have been thousands of deaths. "But it appears that the precautions prevented one set of problems while creating another. 

"Now our task is to discern the mechanisms of illness in order to provide the soldiers with maximum protection and the least risk of chemically induced injury." The UK's National Gulf Veterans and Family Association welcomed the study. 

A spokesman said: "It backs up our experience over the last 11 years where we have found many veterans and their partners have complained of burning semen and high rates of gynaecological problems." The study is published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. It was funded by the US Department of Defense. 
 



Spate of Thyroid Cases Baffles Army 
http://www.healthcentral.com/news/NewsFullText.cfm?id=510860
Several cases of Graves disease -- 62 times higher than expected in young men
 -- struck a Special Forces unit in the 1990s. 

By Adam Marcus
HealthScoutNews Reporter 
     
        
TUESDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthScoutNews) -- A dramatic spike in cases of an overactive thyroid struck a U.S. Army Special Forces unit in the late 1990s, and Army doctors are at a loss to explain why. Military physicians say the unit, based in Fort Campbell, Ky., had eight cases of apparent Graves disease over a 21-month period ending in 1999. 

The revelations about Graves disease come on the heels of an order by President Bush -- whose mother has the condition -- that roughly a half million military personnel receive the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox vaccine is effective, but it causes deadly reactions in about one to two people per million who receive the inoculation.
 



From: TRempfer@aol.com
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 10:27:43 EST
Subject: Insight Magazine:  "Anthrax Program Reduced Reenlistments, Retention"

Anthrax Program Reduced Reenlistments, Retention

Timothy W. Maier, Insight Magazine, Jan. 2003

When a scientist sent a letter to the president warning that the United States faced great danger from weapons of mass destruction it was his intent to encourage the administration to take precautionary measures. The letter writer was Albert Einstein. His warning to President Franklin Roosevelt on Oct. 11, 1939, came in the midst of an emerging threat from Nazi Germany. It paved the way for the Manhattan Project, a nuclear program to counter Germany's plan to build an atomic bomb. Fourteen months ago another letter writer prompted the Bush administration to take precautionary measures against weapons of mass destruction. This time the writer added a lethal dose of anthrax that resulted in five deaths across the country and mass panic in the nation's capital. If the intent was to push or redirect policy concerning anthrax vaccination, the mission was accomplished. The attack put the Pentagon's anthrax-vaccination program back on track. The six-shot regime had been on the ropes after a series of congressional hearings and critical reports by Army Times and Insight that questioned whether inoculating 2.4 million troops would do more harm than good. 

As Insight noted [see "A Dose of Reality," Sept. 20, 1999, and "Why BioPort Got a Shot in the Arm," Sept. 20, 1999], hundreds of reservists, including many trained pilots, had resigned rather than face a series of vaccinations that in some cases had resulted in service personnel contracting aseptic meningitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome and lupus. The Pentagon and BioPort Corp., the sole provider of the anthrax vaccine, downplayed the risks and insisted all was safe. Insight since has learned that in August 2001 senior Pentagon officials explored alternative methods of countering possible anthrax attacks, including developing better antibiotics to fight the virus. Had this occurred it would have finished BioPort, which had poured its resources into building a state-of-the-art facility in Lansing, Mich., to mass-produce anthrax vaccines for the military and eventually the public. 

The program had been halted when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to approve a manufacturing license for BioPort. Even when the FDA finally gave the green light in January 2001, the Pentagon did not immediately roll out the program but continued to consider alternatives. The anthrax scare that began in October 2001 seemed to settle the matter but didn't. Not until May 2002 were vaccinations resumed even for a limited number of "at-risk" troops — nearly eight months after the anthrax attacks. And the identity of the troops receiving the vaccine remains a military secret. Now the Pentagon has announced that substantial quantities of vaccine will be manufactured and kept in reserve for civilian use in homeland security. 

Meanwhile, the FBI has been claiming that the anthrax attacks probably were committed by a domestic terrorist with access to a military lab at Fort Detrick, Md. The FBI still refers to Steven Hatfill as a "person of interest" in the attacks, but he has not been charged. Hatfill is in fact a bio-defense scientist who worked at Fort Detrick, but he has been an outspoken critic of the nation's failure to develop defenses for biological and chemical attacks. 

Hatfill warned Insight in 1998 how easily a terrorist could shut down Washington with a single dose of anthrax. When this magazine recently asked for a follow-up interview, Hatfill attorney Victor M. Glasberg replied, "It's not going to happen." Hatfill did hold a series of controlled press conferences, proclaiming his innocence. "I went from being someone with pride in my work, pride in my profession, to being made into the biggest criminal of the 21st century for something I never touched. What I've been trying to contribute, my work, is finished. My life is destroyed." 

While the FBI explores other leads, and victims of the attack continue to recover, the incident is far from forgotten. For a while the anthrax-letter attacks seemed to quiet critics of the vaccination program. The armed forces wanted to go to fight terrorism, reservists say, and under the circumstances few were willing to be viewed as "too wimpy" to undergo the six-shot regime. 

Congress meanwhile seems to have stopped questioning the program's value. Since the anthrax attacks, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, has remained silent rather than continuing his inquiry into why reservists ordered to take the shots were quitting at an alarming rate. Another frequent critic, Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, also has kept quiet on the issue. In fact, a Jones congressional staffer tells Insight the congressman has nothing to say about anthrax. 

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in June 2002 filed by a reservist who charged the vaccine is an experimental drug and therefore cannot be mandated, but critics of the program say an appeal could put the case back in court by April 2003 [see "First Response to Terror," Jan. 26, 1998]. Other service personnel resisting the mandatory anthrax vaccinations are preparing a class-action lawsuit, to be filed in the next few weeks, seeking injunctive relief to stop the program, Insight has learned. Providing ammunition for these lawsuits are decisions by the United Kingdom to make anthrax vaccinations voluntary and by Canada to stop the program altogether after its attempts to court-martial those who refused the shots failed. 

Now a 50-page General Accounting Office (GAO) report again has put into question the safety of the vaccine. The GAO criticized the program after conducting a survey with 843 randomly selected reservists from the Air Force and National Guard. 

The GAO review, which Rep. Jones ordered, reaffirms what Insight previously had reported. Alarmed service personnel are avoiding the shots by leaving the military at an alarming rate, and those who submit to the shots are becoming ill at a far greater rate than the Pentagon claimed. According to the GAO, between September 1998 and September 2000 about 16 percent of the pilots and aircrew members of the Guard and reserve had transferred to another unit (primarily to nonflying positions) to avoid or delay receiving the anthrax shots, moved to inactive status or left the military. Another 18 percent said they intended to leave in the near future. Of those who changed status or quit, 69 percent said it was because they didn't want to take the anthrax shots. 

Those who quit or were reassigned to nonflying positions were experienced pilots with more than 3,000 flight hours on average. In addition, the GAO noted that two-thirds of those surveyed did not support the vaccination program. While the survey was conducted prior to the events of 9/11, which may impact how reservists would respond now, the survey confirmed that the Pentagon had failed to convince reservists that the shots were safe or needed, ultimately resulting in the depletion of trained pilots. Moreover, the GAO says in no uncertain terms that the Pentagon has put one over on Congress by failing to produce data to support claims that the numbers of those leaving are comparable with normal attrition rates. 

Among those who took one or more shots, the GAO found that 85 percent reported experiencing some type of reaction. The overall rate reported for adverse reactions was nearly three times that published in the vaccine manufacturer's product insert, which claimed only 30 percent would experience some adverse reaction. Of those experiencing side effects, 24 percent had adverse effects considered serious enough for the shots to be discontinued. These systemic reactions included malaise and lassitude, chills and fever. The rate for these reactions was more than 100 times higher than claimed in the insert provided to those taking the shots. The rates may have been even higher, the GAO noted, because many adverse reactions were not reported to military command for fear of loss of flight status, negative effect on military or civilian careers and potential for being ridiculed. 

The GAO recommended that the secretary of defense direct the establishment of an active surveillance program to identify and monitor adverse events associated with each anthrax immunization. The program, the GAO suggests, should ensure that appropriate and complete treatment and follow-up are provided to those who have experienced adverse effects and to those who may experience them in the future. 

The Pentagon has refused to do so, citing a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) claim that there are "no data that indicate the need for the continuation of special monitoring programs." This "is misleading," the GAO charges, because the NAS actually suggested that the Pentagon regularly should study data for new trends and monitor reactions to vaccinations. Not to do so would lead to continued depletion of reserve forces, the GAO warned. 

"Unfortunately, the actual losses and expected losses as a result of this program represented some of the most experienced and highly trained individuals in these services and are people not easily replaced," the GAO noted. "It takes time and a great deal of money and other resources to develop trained, experienced pilots and other aircrew members to support the important missions of these reserve components, particularly in light of the current battle against terrorism."

Online at:
http://www.insightmag.com/news/320556.html 
 



The Truth About Anthrax And Biological Weapons

By Gary Krasner

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed—and hence clamorous to be led to safety—by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." —H.L. Mencken

Infectious disease experts were among those hardest hit by the September 11th terrorist attack. Prior to the attack, many will recall that these experts had been warning us to prepare for biological terrorism and new exotic microbial epidemics. Their credibility may have seemed tarnished after 6 thousand people perished from "mere" explosives, instead of biological agents. However, they seem to have made a quick recovery.

Ironically, their past success in instilling inordinate fear of infectious diseases has hampered even their own attempts to mitigate public alarm about anthrax. Their cohorts in the media have had similar difficulties. Except that the media's struggle to put the threat in proper perspective has been hindered by their desire for high ratings and selling newspapers. They also don't know enough to distinguish the genuine killing potential of chemical agents, from the dubious threat of biological agents.

Here's the truth of the matter. Anthrax is a livestock pathogen. The spores survive for about twenty years in the ground in rural areas. They normally have no effect upon humans, because a few anthrax spores cannot create an infection, and they do not come up from the ground in large quantities. A human must inhale about 10,000 spores to get sick. And such concentrations are never found in nature. Wool sorters inhale anthrax spores in small quantities continually (150-700 per hour), and only if they get a large dose will an infection begin. Some anthrax researchers who were interviewed in the media said that they often don't even wear protective masks; they just make sure not to draw close to it and breathe in the stuff. 

Anthrax is what's called a "gram positive" bacterium. This means it has the type of cell walls which are harmless, unlike the cell walls of "gram negative" bacteria, which attack tissue. Therefore, anthrax can only attack tissue by producing a special toxin which it excretes as a waste product. One cell or spore does not produce enough toxin to start an infection. Epidemiologically, anthrax more closely resembles a chemical toxin for humans: it is dose-dependent and not contagious. Fatal human cases show almost no bacteremia at all. Yet for some animals, there is such a heavy bacteremia that it was once supposed that death occurred through capillary blockade.

The reports of office or postal workers "testing positive" for anthrax are totally useless without comparing them to the normal background incidence of either asymptomatic carriers of the bacteria, or antibody positive individuals. A guess would be that there may be 10% of the population that are either carrying the numerous common wild strains, or who have residual antibodies from exposure to any strain of anthrax that occurred sometime during their lives, or from perinatal transmission, or even genetic inheritance. In New York City, for example, at one point, out of 1300 people who had been tested, only 4 people were found to have antibodies to anthrax. Without comparing that ratio to what would be found during normal times, one cannot claim that the immune response to anthrax among those 4 people was the result of exposure from the recent mailings. (Excluding cutaneous cases, of course.)

Increased surveillance in detection of anthrax spores in the environment is also creating something of a paradox. But only because we have no data on the normal presence of stray anthrax bacilli (virulent or not)—a microbe that appears naturally in certain environments. Some anthrax spores detected in very small quantities in "low profile" locations may not necessarily be coming from terrorists. Confirmation that the spores were processed in some fashion—electrostatic charge removed or coated with an anti-caking agent to help them remain suspended in the air—would rule out that they're naturally derived. But non-medical journalists do not know to ask officials such questions.

Among those tested, the few with symptoms (fever, cough, muscle weakness) may really just have the flu or a bad cold. Certainly, that infant with the rash wasn't unusual, particularly if he had recently received routine infant vaccinations. And anthrax wasn't even found at the ABC building where his mother brought him. It was all assumptions: (baby rash) + (network headquarters) = anthrax. The first man that had died came from a farming region where anthrax was common.

But more likely he died from the antibiotics that were administered to him. About a year ago, the NY Times reported that antibiotics could be leading to the deaths of 98,000 Americans each year. A month later, researchers revised that number down to 36,000, partly by eliminating antibody-resistant infections from the total. Nevertheless, fully 10% of our own body weight consists of bacteria. Bacterial cells outnumber total body cells by ten to one. And only about 1% of all known bacterial strains are pathogenic to humans. The other 99% are beneficial to us, and indeed, vital to all life on earth. Therefore, the disruption in the vital equilibrium of normal bacterial colonies in our bodies adversely affects our biochemistry so extensively as to make such estimates impossible to make. Thousands die from the flu alone each year—in actuality, from complications from the anti-catarrhal effects of taking antipyretics and antibiotics to suppress the symptoms.

The disequilibrium may even be the cause of major diseases. The epidemic of Crohn's disease in the last fifty years, for example, started with the introduction of antibiotics, and progressed in parallel with the increase in antibiotic consumption. One hypothesis is that a mutated form of normal bacterial flora morph into genetically super-resistant bacteria under constant selection pressure from antibiotic usage. A British study that tested 3545 subjects showed that the relative risk of developing Crohn's disease was threefold, and 2.5 fold for developing ulcerative colitis, after receiving live measles vaccination (vaccines contain antibiotics and other agents that have a germicidal effect).

Adding to this, is the fact that drug effects are rarely cited as official "cause of death", even when the cause is know to be a drug. And no comprehensive records are kept of medication-related deaths. Doctors and hospitals rarely report such deaths. That was the basis for a major study published in The Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), April 14th, 1998. The paper analyzed 39 studies of ADRs (Adverse Drug Reactions) in the United States to estimate the incidence of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions in hospital patients. The authors estimated that on average, 2,216,000 hospital patients experienced a serious ADR, and 106,000 deaths were caused by ADRs annually in the United States—making these reactions the sixth, and possibly (at most) the fourth leading cause of death. Furthermore, these figures were NOT due to mistakes by doctors in prescribing drugs or by patients in using them.They were solely from the effects of drugs that were properly administered.

Some health officials have been quietly acknowledging that detection methods that would absolutely establish exposure or infection do not exist. No cultural or biochemical characteristics serve to differentiate the pathogenic strain of anthrax from the many non-pathogenic saprophytic sporulating bacilli. And applying multiple antibiotics to a culture—particularly in the absence of immune antibodies in the blood—to see if it stops the growth, is too general and provides insufficient identifying information about the strain of anthrax—only one of which is pathogenic. Therefore, the invitro testing of blood cultures or nasal swabs is unreliable. Other medical technologies used by microbiologists have their own unique limitations. Gene testing—involving the amplification of a molecular signal many thousand times—inevitably introduces quantitation errors, and was never intended to distinguish different strains of bacteria.

Electron photomicrographs have also been somewhat overstated as a diagnostic tool. First, as with stained cultures, what you see is a static picture of the tissue sample while it's being bombarded with billions of electrons in a vaccum—which is obviously in the absence of normal immune system effects. What happened before and after is not observed. Were the cells invaded, or did they eat the virus as food? Also, the long and arduous preparation in making the sample "electron dense" introduces numerous artifacts, to the extent that it's hard to be sure what you started out with. If that's not enough, a computer graphic artist adds colors to the photo-image, because electron microscopes  "see" in black & white only.

Noble Laureate, Kary Mullis, Ph.D., invented the PCR test for retroviruses. In his newly released documentary, "Deconstructing The Myth Of Aids", journalist Gary Null asked Mullis to explain the apparent growing HIV epidemic. Dr. Mullis replied that what we were actually seeing was an "epidemic of HIV testing": In the beginning of the crisis very few tests were given. But as the scope of testing dramatically increased, we started to see more positive results. This was not proof of a growing epidemic.

Likewise, medical surveillance for anthrax toxicity—the symptoms of which merely mimic the flu—increased dramatically in recent weeks. Consequently, and not surprisingly, investigators found a handful of sick people that they attribute to anthrax. In the absence of the anthrax scare, cases with these symptoms would be hardly noticeable. As such, doctors wouldn't have bothered to test them for anthrax, and these cases would have therefore been recorded as an acute cold or flu, and treated with common antipyretics or antibiotics.

WEAPONIZING ANTHRAX
The latest contrivance is that terrorists might weaponize anthrax by drying a slurry and grinding it to particles 1-5 microns in size. (The bacteria are 1 by 3 microns.) The first problem is that the gunk would dry like glue; and after grinding, it would still be glue. Even if it were washed first, the bacteria would be sticky and would dry like glue. The second problem is that bacteria do not tolerate grinding. They are as fragile as egg shells. Grinding is how they are broken apart for biochemical tests. Even if only 1% were broken, the result would be a sticky gum, not a powder; and more like 99% would be broken before getting 5 micron particles.

On eight separate occasions between 1990 and 1993, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult tried to spray anthrax and botulinum toxins from trucks and rooftops in Tokyo, and each time it failed. No one was infected, or at least no one died. Main reason: The terrorists had problems developing effective spray nozzles for aerosolizing the agents in the 1 to 5 micron range necessary for them to lodge in the lungs.

The lethality of such airborne attacks depends largely on the size of the particle dispersed. Particles in the 1 to 5 micron diameter deposit efficiently in the lungs, while submicron particles tend to be exhaled. Particles above 5 microns tend to become trapped in the upper respiratory tract, where higher doses are required to start an infection. Those above 20 microns in diameter tend to settle to the ground quickly and, as a result, do not travel far downwind.

Anthrax bugs can also be delivered in the form of liquid slurries. Gastrointestinal anthrax is rapidly fatal in many cases. But experts say reservoirs aren't an attractive target for terrorists, because they'd have to dump large amounts of biological agents to overcome dilution. Also, water supplies are filtered and chlorinated to kill naturally occurring microorganisms, which would neutralize anthrax and other bacteria. In fact, terrorist contamination of water supplies is extremely rare, according to a study of such cases by Jessica E. Stern, author of "Would Terrorists Turn to Poison?"

Aum Shinrikyo is the only example of a terrorist group that tried a biological weapon for mass murder. The cult ended up turning to a chemical—sarin gas—to attack Tokyo subway commuters, killing 12 and hospitalizing about 1,000. In fact, threats or actual use of chemical or biological weapons account for only 52 cases out of more than 8,000 in the RAND Chronology of International Terrorism since 1968. Many are just scares. Wilkening counts more than 120 anthrax hoaxes alone which have been reported in the media nationwide since October 1998.

Biological warfare generally, is a flawed concept. The only route usually considered is airborne, because bombs and missiles create the delivery system. There is no natural disease in existence which is propagated in that manner. Even the airborne diseases require close contact with the source (infected person). The reason is because wind disperses the agents too thinly, and gravity brings them down too rapidly. Increasing the quantities massively will get a few persons, but only a few.

And then, very few of the diseases which are mentioned as biowarfare agents are suitable for airborne dissemination. Brucellosis is not. It is disseminated through body fluids. Plague is not. It is carried by insects from the blood of one animal to another. The insects do not pick it up from the ground. Government scientists even released airborn cholera in the NYC subway system, with no effects. The only way biological warfare agents can be used in a significant manner to create disease is to inject them into the victims.

"CONTROLLED" EXPERIMENTS
And even then, mortalities are not likely caused by the biological agents themselves. Biological pathogens used in serums on test animals, for example, contain toxic preservatives and adjuvants that are injected directly into their bloodstreams—bypassing normal immune system barriers. These injected agents also contain protein growth mediums that supports the pathogenic cultures. In the absence of digestive juices in the bloodstream, they immediately start decomposing and yielding known endotoxins from normal protein putrefaction. Consequently, animals often succumb to blood toxemia or septicemia and die. Their deaths are erroneously attributed to the pathogen being tested.

Volumes have also been written showing that animals make poor medical models for human diseases. Animals also react to drugs, vaccines, and chemicals very differently than humans, and also to other species of animals. Guinea pigs die from penicillin, but they can safely eat strychnine—a deadly poison for humans, but not for monkeys. Aspirin kills cats and sheep can swallow enormous quantities of arsenic. It's the main reason drugs are recalled from the marketplace, but only after a high enough death toll among humans is finally noticed. It all amounts to a waste of human and animal life.

There's also evidence indicating how easily stressed lab animals succumb to illnesses and die, from the poor conditions of their captivity, and the artificial food and environment they're subjected to. All of these additional factors contribute to faulty conclusions about the risk from biological pathogens.

Pathogenicity is also a function of the general state of health of the host, or target group. For example, the U.S. Government Bulletin, Hygienic Laboratory, No. 123, February 1921, is a series of telling experiments that were conducted by U.S. Government doctors to determine the true "contagious" character of "influenza." To achieve their objective, the experimenters subjected great numbers of volunteer Navy personnel to "exposure" by various "known methods of transmission": Ten volunteers were inoculated with secretions from the nose and throat and with blood from typical cases of influenza. Thirty men were inoculated by spray, swab or both of the nose and throat. Ten volunteers were placed close to selected patients who had the flu and were then exposed by being coughed in the face. The exposure continued for thirty minutes. Fifty volunteers were subjected to the same procedure at another location. One hundred were sprayed and dosed with cultures of the most virulent strains of flu possible to obtain and observed for seven days. The results were: "no appreciable reactions".

In nature, under normal conditions, maintaining health depends on keeping the host and the pathogenic microbe in equilibrium. It does not merely involve the total elimination of the latter. Yet it is this simplistic approach that influences conventional medicine today.

Famed bacteriologist, Rene Dubös (inventor of streptomycin; 1968 Pulitzer Prize winner) wrote a great deal on the limitations of the conventional Germ Theory, and the aforementioned artifactual outcomes from laboratory experiments. In his classic, Mirage Of Health (1959), page 89, he wrote:

"The ease and predictability with which Pasteur, Koch, and their followers produced disease at will in experimental animals seem miraculous in view of the difficulties that have so often been encountered in subsequent attempts to produce disease in man. Their success seems incompatible with the course of natural events. The fact of the matter is that Pasteur and Koch did not deal with natural events, but with experimental artifacts. The experimenter does not produce nature in the laboratory. He could not if he tried, for the experiment imposes limiting conditions on nature; its aims are to force nature to give answers to questions devised by man. Every answer from nature is therefore more or less influenced by the kind of questions asked."

"The art of the experimenter is to create models in which he can observe some properties and activities of a factor in which he happens to be interested. Koch and Pasteur wanted to show that microorganisms could cause certain manifestations of disease. Their genius was to devise experimental situations that lent themselves to an unequivocal illustration of their hypothesis—situations in which it was sufficient to bring the host and the parasite together to reproduce the disease. By trial and error, they selected the species of animals, the dose of the infectious agent, and the route of inoculation, which permitted the infection to evolve without fail into progressive disease. 

Guinea pigs always develop tuberculosis if tubercle bacilli are injected into them under the proper conditions; introduction of sufficient rabies virus under the dura of dogs always gives rise to paralytic symptoms. Thus, by the skillful selection of experimental systems, Pasteur, Koch, and their followers succeeded in minimizing in their tests the influence of factors that might have obscured the activity of the infectious agents they wanted to study. This experimental approach has been extremely effective for the discovery of agents of disease and for the study of some of their properties. But it has led by necessity to the neglect, and indeed has often delayed the recognition, of the many other factors that play a part in the causation of disease under conditions prevailing in the natural world—for example, the physiological status of the infected individual and the impact of the environment in which he lives."

THE BIAS
Since allopathic trained people run the health bureaucracies, every inflammatory (catarrhal) symptom of bodily elimination is assumed to be an infectious disease. All evidence of malnourishment, toxemia, or a toxicological agent is dismissed in favor of a microbiological agent—which are plentiful and are readily available candidates to blame. For the public health investigator, obscurity comes with the former. But the latter will accompany research grants, a published article in a leading journal, medical awards, recognition and prestige, and profits from patentable test kits, treatments or vaccines. And of course, blaming a microbial agent for a disease will always engender importance to the institutions of infectious disease, and make the public feel dependant upon their expertise, products and services.

The appendix contains a list of this historic bias, and the tragic consequences of it. 

THE "PROBLEM" FOR THE BIOLOGISTS:
While anthrax spores are resistant to heat and dryness, they're no match for rain. A downpour would wash most of them out of the air, where they'd become relatively harmless. Also, humidity and ultraviolet light decay the bugs. So does oxygen. Anthrax and botulinum spores multiply only in the absence of oxygen.

All these problems and more ranks anthrax and other biological agents as very poor battlefield weapons. Uncontrolled variables as wind direction, lengthy duration between infection and death, and all the rest makes biologicals much more inferior as weapons than are chemical agents, which can at least kill immediately and are more resilient to weather and decompose more slowly. It is therefore rank stupidity to subject soldiers heading to the battlefield with the debilitating and crippling effects of vaccines for small pox, or anti-toxins for botulism, anthrax, and all the rest. Those who can make onto the battlefield after all that are not left in optimum health to deal with the rigors of fighting in a war.

Another aspect beyond normal biodegradability, is the "problem" of bacterial Pleomorphism. Rod-shaped anthrax bacillus, for example, can literally transform into the spherical coccus from exposure to ultraviolet light. Pleomorphism refers to the transformation of one distinct strain of bacteria into other strains within a single life cycle. For example, the virulent tubercle bacillus could be made to degenerate into harmless non "acid-fast" cocci, and then into "diphtheroid" coccobacilli, just by altering their food or environment. This bacteriological phenomenon was observed throughout history by the noted microbiologists Antone Bechamp, Altman, Cohn, DeBarry, Dienkowski, Fremy, Galippe, Lankester, Koch, Kurth, Manwaring, Nagelli, Portier, Rosenow, Serval, Zops, Metchnikoff, J.Tissot, Raymond Rife, and currently, Gaston Nessons. 

Since all strains of bacteria can potentially share all bacterial genes, then strictly speaking, there are no fixed species in the bacterial world. According to Canadian bacteriologists, Sorin Sonea and Maurice Panisset (The New Bacteriology. Boston:Jones & Bartlett, 1983), all bacteria are one organism, one entity capable of genetic engineering themselves on a planetary scale.

Obviously, fixed species of bacteria is the central part of the biomedical model of specific etiology of disease (classifying a specific germ as the singular causative agent of a specific disease). Stability of the strain is also essential for it is to be effective bio weapon. But Pleomorphism implies that conventional infectious disease theory is based upon a faulty construct. Indeed, highly processed and concentrated biological pathogens aside, in the natural environment, the prior state of health of the host will usually determine the virulence of any natural
exposure.

The threat of biowarfare is exaggerated through a combination of ignorance, propaganda, and inordinate fears of infectious disease. Researchers, who should know better and often do, are getting paid to produce the agents, so they don't admit the futility of it. People without medical backgrounds cannot realistically evaluate the claims. Recently, some biowarfare experts have been candid about the low level of threat that anthrax poses. However, CDC and other health officials have grossly overstated the threat. They want the public to be frightened enough of microbial pathogens to: (1) acquiesce to increased public funding for basic medical research, treatments and prophylactics, (2) value the role of infectious disease "experts" and elevate their status in society, and (3) validate the disease paradigm—germ=disease; drug=cure; vaccine=prevention—into which the medical profession has invested so much in, and relies upon to sustain public perception of their importance. A fearful public dependant on medical salvation is what sustains the biomedical complex. In the distant past, it sustained religious institutions.

The terrorists had to have planned the anthrax mailings prior to September 11th. They knew that targeting the major news outlets would have the maximum media effect, regardless of the actual ineffectiveness of anthrax to kill many people. So, while federal agents are busy sorting through the mails, they can load rental trucks full of explosives, with perhaps radioactive waste. If Westsiders complain about available parking near Zabars today, tomorrow they might find their streets empty for the next 2000 years.

POSTSCRIPT:

The NY Times of Wednesday, October 30, 2002 carried an article by Dr.Lawrence K Altman, MD on the follow up study of the Center for Disease Control on last year's anthrax scare in news media offices, the US Senate and the Postal Service. The study found that 56% of personnel advised to take a regimen of antibiotics to prevent the consequences of exposure to inhalation Anthrax, did NOT complete the full course of therapy advised. Despite this, no cases of anthrax had developed, including some people who took absolutely no medication.

Federal Health officials recommended 60 days of antobiotic therapy to over 9,300 workers exposed to anthrax spores in 4 states and Washington, DC. Of these, 6,178 participated in the study. The group that did not take any antibiotics was 13%, or 787. They didn't even fill the original prescription for the antibiotic. Moreover, the study did not include people who were told to stop taking antibiotics after laboratory tests determined they had NOT been exposed to anthrax, The irony is that the conclusion drawn by public health officials was that there must be "improved compliance" in the future. "It undercored the importance of communicating risks to individuals and of counselling them." Instead, genuine scientists would have understood that a controlled experiment had just taken place, and should have allowed for the hypothesis that the antibiotic therapy has no efficacy.

[In December 2002, Dr. Anthony Fauci of HHS maintained that prophylactic antibiotic therapy was what stemmed any outbreaks of anthrax symptoms during the anonymous anthrax mailings. But he cited no studies to support
that contention.]

APPENDIX:

Thousands of lives have been sacrificed due to the bias in favor infectious disease theory. The following are some examples: 

—Scurvy was thought to be a microbial disease in the 19th Century, before it was found to be a Vitamin C deficiency.
—The high mortality of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19 was thought to be a contagious disease. Dr. Roger Cunningham isolated the gene fragment, hemophilus Influenza from secretions the sick. Instead of being contagious, this microbe is a normal inhabitant of our upper respiratory tract that flourishes after we get ill; not before.
—The U.S. Public Health Service insisted for over 10 years in the 1920s that pellagra was infectious, rather than a vitamin B deficiency as had been proposed by Joseph Goldberger (Bailey, 1968).
—Tertiary syphilis is commonly blamed on treponemes, but is probably due to a combination of treponemes and long-term mercury and arsenic treatments used prior to penicillin, or merely to these treatments alone
(Brandt, 1988; Fry, 1989).
—"Unconventional" viruses were blamed for neurological diseases like Kreutzfeld-Jacob's disease, Alzheimer's disease and kuru (Gajdusek, 1977). The now extinct kuru was probably a genetic disorder that affected just one tribe of natives from New Guinea (Duesberg and Schwartz, 1992). Although a Nobel Prize was given for this theory, the viruses never materialized and an unconventional protein, termed "prion," is now blamed for some of these diseases (Evans, 1989c; Duesberg and Schwartz, 1992). 

—Shortly after this incident, a virus was also blamed for a fatal epidemic—the SMON epidemic—of neuropathy, including blinding, that started in the 1960s in Japan, but it turned out later to be caused by the prescription drug clioquinol (Enterovioform, Ciba-Geigy) (Kono, 1975; Shigematsu et al., 1975).

—In 1976 the CDC blamed an outbreak of pneumonia at a convention of Legionnaires on a "new" microbe, without giving consideration to toxins. Since the "Legionnaire's disease" did not spread after the convention and the "Legionnaires bacillus" proved to be ubiquitous, it was later concluded that "CDC epidemiologists must in the future take toxins into account from the start" (Culliton, 1976). The Legionnaire's disease fiasco is in fact the probable reason that the CDC initially took toxins into account as the cause of AIDS (Oppenheimer; 1992)."
—"The pursuit of harmless viruses as causes of human cancer, supported since 1971 by the Virus-Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute's War On Cancer, was also inspired by indiscouragable faith in the germ theory (Greenberg, 1986; Duesberg, 1987; Shorter, 1987; Anderson, '99'; Editorial, '99'; Duesberg and Schwartz, 1992).
—For example, it was claimed in the 1960s that the rare Burkitt's lymphoma was caused by the ubiquitous Epstein-Barr virus, 15 years after infection (Evans, 1989c). But the lymphoma is now accepted to be non-viral and attributed to a chromosome rearrangement (Duesberg and Schwartz, 1992).
—Further, it was claimed that noncontagious cervical cancer is caused by the widespread herpes virus in the 1970s, and by the widespread papilloma virus in the 1980s—but in each case cancer would occur only 30 to 40 years after infection (Evans, 1989c). Noninfectious causes like chromosome abnormalities, possibly induced by smoking, have since been considered or reconsidered (Duesberg and Schwartz, 1992).
—In addition, Ubiquitous hepatitis virus was proposed in the 1960s to cause regional adult hepatomas 50 years (!) after infection (Evans, 1989c). In the 1980s the rare, but widely distributed, human retrovirus HTLV-I was claimed to cause regional adult T-cell leukemias (Blattner, 1990). Yet the leukemias would only appear at advanced age, after "latent periods" of up to 55 years, the age when these "adult" leukemias appear spontaneously (Evans, 1989c; Blattner; 1990; Duesberg and Schwartz, 1992).

 




Date:  Thu, 23 Jan 2003 21:08:10 -0800

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1182299.html 
Anthrax Vaccine May Have Been Thrown Overboard, Vets Say
Mike Wendling, London Bureau Chief

London (CNSNews.com) - A veterans' organization says a stockpile of anthrax vaccine found on a British beach may have been thrown overboard deliberately by sailors deploying to the Persian Gulf. Jim Moore, a spokesman for the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association (NGVFA), said Thursday his organization has no conclusive proof that the vaccine vials that washed up in Dorset, southern England, were thrown overboard. But Moore noted that the circumstances surrounding the vaccine find are suspicious.

"For anything to be accidentally washed overboard on an aircraft carrier is highly unusual," he said. "This gives us cause for concern and there are a lot of questions that need to be asked." The organization said it has heard anecdotal evidence of mistiming of vaccines from current service personnel. The NGVFA believes that improperly administered vaccines might be one of the causes behind "Gulf War Syndrome," a mysterious collection of symptoms that is thought to afflict 5,000 vets in Britain and 20,000 in the United States.

"People say you accept the risks when you sign up to join the forces," Moore said. "That's true, but the risk you accept is one of an enemy bullet or a landmine." "You don't accept the risk of being a guinea pig for a vaccine," he said. "All the same mistakes made in the Gulf War are being made again." Earlier this week, U.K. Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon announced that about 26,000 additional service personnel, or about a quarter of Britain's armed forces, would be deploying to the Middle East in anticipation of possible military action against Iraq.

Those numbers come on top of 5,000 British troops already dispatched to the region. A Ministry of Defense spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that an internal investigation into the vaccine find was underway. "We wouldn't like to speculate on where the vaccine might have come from at this stage," she said. "There has been a large amount of speculation in the press and this isn't helpful. The investigation will uncover the source of the vaccine."

The spokeswoman said that "hundreds, possibly thousands" of doses were found on the beach in Dorset, southern England. "Clean up is being handled by local fire fighters," she said. "The vaccine poses no health risks to the public, as there is no live anthrax contained within the vaccine." The spokeswoman said the vials containing the vaccine were numbered and that the MoD would eventually be able to trace the vaccine to a particular ship.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-01-26-bank-usat_x.htm

Some troops freeze sperm before deploying By Valerie Alvord, 

 special for USA TODAY SAN DIEGO 

 
Fear of vaccines and chemical and biological agents has some servicemen freezing their sperm before they ship out. Atwell says he was warned of the risks of infertility by a buddy in his unit who said "he had become sterile after a previous deployment and an anthrax vaccination." 




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2638125.stm

Wednesday, 8 January, 2003, 10:02 GMT 
Troops fears over anthrax vaccine Soldiers at Army Infantry Training School, north Yorkshire  Troops will not be forced to have vaccines, say ministers Troops being sent to the gulf ahead of a possible war with Iraq have expressed concern about the safety of anthrax vaccines they are being given. 

The Gulf War Veterans and Families Association says it has been inundated with enquiries from servicemen worried about the possible side-effects of the vaccine. The group said it had also heard from troops who said they had become ill after receiving the jab.  Individuals who have contacted our helpline have said they are feeling ill and their mates are feeling ill

Tony Flint, GWVFA However, ministers have insisted the vaccine is safe and that no one will be forced to have it against their will. Tony Flint of the GWVFA said its telephone helpline had received many calls in recent weeks from concerned troops. The GWVFA represents thousands of servicemen who believe their health suffered after they were given a cocktail of vaccinations in the 1991 Gulf War. 

Worried 

Mr Flint told the BBC: "Regular servicemen have been phoning us worried about the vaccine, asking for our advice, because they know, like we know, the vaccines are a major cause of our illnesses. "From what we have learnt so far, members of the Parachute Regiment have already had the anthrax vaccine and they are reporting to us that they are getting side-effects. "Individuals who have contacted our helpline have said they are feeling ill and their mates are feeling ill."   
  
  I can assure you the vaccine is safe

Dr Lewis Moonie, Defence Minister Mr Flint raised concern over the tests carried out on the vaccines before
they were given. "The British haven't done any real test work on it all," he claimed.  "All our evidence comes from the States and from their evidence, 30% of those that receive the vaccine become ill and six have died." 

Joyce Riley, of the American Gulf War Association, also expressed concern. 

"My concern about the anthrax vaccine is that it has been proven to be unsafe. It is not a tested vaccine. "What we are seeing from those who have been given the vaccine is usually something to do with blackouts, with seizures and motor problems. "We are finding that these people become affected by skin lesions, they develop sores and problems that just never go away." 

Vaccine 'is safe' 

But defence minister Lewis Moonie insisted that the vaccine is safe. 

He told the BBC: "I can assure you that it has been given to many, many people over a long period of time and there has never been a case of serious side-effects. Not one case. "Of course it's been tested. It is not widely tested, because anthrax is not a common disease, but it is given very widely.  "I can assure you the vaccine is safe. It has side-effects - all vaccines like this do. 

"You may get soreness at the site of injection and you may get a flu-like illness after it. But there are no serious complications." Dr Moonie added: "It is being offered to people who may be going into a theatre where they may be exposed to it. "It's being offered to them on a voluntary basis and nobody is compelled to have it." Troops were given large amounts of information about vaccines they were offered and were able to discuss any concerns with medical officers, he said. 
 



http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/1945929/detail.html
Marine Faces Court Martial For Refusing Anthrax Vaccine
Fusco Says Internet Leads Him To Believe Vaccine Isn't Safe

POSTED: 9:32 a.m. PST January 30, 2003
UPDATED: 10:02 a.m. PST January 30, 2003

SAN DIEGO -- A Camp Pendleton-based Marine faces court martial and possible prison time for refusing to be vaccinated against anthrax, it was reported Thursday. Cpl. Anthony Fusco, a Santa Clarita native, was charged this month with disobeying a lawful order and probably will be court-martialed in February, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Fusco, 22, a switchboard operator, told the newspaper he believes the vaccine isn't safe, based on his Internet research.  "They haven't really done any studies on long-term side effects," Fusco told the Union-Tribune. "I believe it's your own body. It's your own right to put something in your body." 

Fusco told the newspaper that he fears the vaccine might cause auto-immune diseases and birth defects when he and his wife decide to have children. Fusco is the only member of the 45,000-strong 1st Marine Expeditionary Force charged with refusing the vaccination since the military resumed the program last fall, 1st Lt. Dan Rawson, a Camp Pendleton spokesman, told the Union-Tribune. 

All members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station are expected to get the shot if they are likely to be deployed on combat-related service. Fusco is accused of the same offense for which at least 37 service members were convicted when they refused inoculations in the late 1990s. 
If convicted, Fusco could face a year in a military prison and a bad-conduct discharge.

 




Marine charged after refusing anthrax shot

Prison, bad-conduct discharge possible

By Jeanette Steele 
STAFF WRITER 
San Diego Union-Tribune

January 30, 2003
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/thu/metro/news_1mc30anthrax.html 


CAMP PENDLETON – Cpl. Anthony Fusco has become the first San Diego County-based Marine to face court-martial for refusing the anthrax vaccination since the military resumed the controversial program last fall. Fusco, a switchboard operator, said he believes the vaccine isn't safe, based on his Internet research. "They haven't really done any studies on long-term side effects," Fusco, 22, said in an interview. "I believe it's your own body. It's your own 
right to put something in your body." Fusco, a Santa Clarita native, was charged this month with disobeying a
lawful order and probably will go to a special court-martial in February, he said. If convicted, his maximum sentence would be a year in military prison and a bad-conduct discharge.

Fusco is the only member of the 45,000-person 1st Marine Expeditionary Force charged with refusing since the vaccinations resumed, said 1st Lt. Dan Rawson, a Camp Pendleton spokesman. For the military community, it is an old debate coming to the forefront again. Fusco is accused of the same offense that at least 37 service members were convicted of when they refused inoculations in the late 1990s. The Pentagon largely suspended its anthrax vaccination program in 2001 because of low supply from troubled manufacturer BioPort Corp. of Michigan.

With a potential war against Iraq, the Marines in September began inoculating troops bound for the Middle East and Southwest Asia. All members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station are expected to get the shot if they might deploy. The anthrax bacterium can be deadly, especially when inhaled. Spores enter the lungs and migrate to lymph nodes, where they produce lethal toxins that destroy vital organs. Five Americans died in late 2001 when anthrax-laced letters circulated through the postal system. Rawson said the Marine Corps has tried to educate troops about the safety of the vaccine – the same version given to service members in the late 1990s. 

"Whenever a Marine thinks about refusing the anthrax vaccine, that refusal is thought to be a misunderstanding of the purpose and efficacy of the vaccination," he said. "The Marine is given multiple opportunities to sit down one on one with a number of individuals in the chain of command and learn and have his questions answered. If that fails, charges can be brought." Fusco said he fears the vaccine might cause autoimmune diseases and birth defects when he and his wife decide to have children.

He studied a Web site called www.majorbates.com, which is a collection of articles and documents about the vaccine. The site is run by retired Air Force reservist Lt. Col. John Richardson, who launched it in 2000 after fruitless attempts to get the military to change its mandatory vaccine policy. Richardson disputes the military's claims of the vaccine's safety. "Objective information makes me believe it's not safe," he said yesterday. "I've talked to victims."

Fusco, who joined the Marine Corps in 1999 during the height of the earlier courts-martial, said he had never heard of the controversy until he was offered the shot, if he wanted it, while stationed in Japan later that year. He declined. In December, he was ordered to be inoculated when his 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit was scheduled for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in June. He refused. Fusco said he was removed from his unit and initially was offered nonjudicial punishment, which he intended to accept to avoid a negative discharge. With hopes of becoming a police officer, he worries that a bad-conduct discharge could hurt his chances. Then his superiors told him the deal was off, Fusco said. Now he has been told he faces a special court-martial, the second-highest kind of military trial.

Fusco said he still hopes for a less-severe general discharge. But if he doesn't get it, he won't be sorry. "Even if it's hard for me, I'll do my own business or something," Fusco said. "I'll make it. "I still don't hate the Marine Corps. I just think what they are doing is very wrong."

Jeanette Steele: (760) 476-8244; jen.steele@uniontrib.com
Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

====================================================

Two show 'significant adverse effects' to vaccine 


By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, January 30, 2003

http://www.stripes.osd.mil/article.asp?section=104&article=12226&archive=true

WASHINGTON — Two military members recently showed “significant adverse effects” to the smallpox vaccine, though the symptoms are not life-threatening, defense officials said. One of the two patients began showing the adverse signs over the weekend and the other on Tuesday, Army Lt. Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director for military vaccines, said Wednesday during a health conference. 

Because the two cases are being reviewed, he declined to provide information such as the patients’ sexes, ages, whether they are deployed overseas or serving in the United States, active duty or guard or reserve, or give a general description of the side effects and what type of medical treatment the two are receiving. However, once their case reviews are complete, which should occur within the next few days, Grabenstein said mu ch of that kind of information would be made public, to include being posted on the Defense Department’s official smallpox Web site: www.smallpox.army.mil .

“We want the whole story correct the first time,” he said.

Since President Bush ordered on Dec. 13 a mandatory smallpox vaccination program that eventually will tap roughly 500,000 troops, about 3 percent of those vaccinated have lost one or more days at work or reported side effects such as fever or malaise, Grabenstein said. There have been no reported deaths. To date, roughly 3,000 military health-care workers have gotten the vaccine. The number in the operational force is not releasable to the public, he said. However, both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration are updated weekly on the number and health status of vaccinated troops.

Targeted troops include those on emergency response teams, troops deployed to the front battle lines, and those living in high-risk areas of the globe. For security reasons, the high-risk areas are not being publicly identified.  It has been reported that troops deployed to the Middle East region have been vaccinated. Side effects from the vaccine range from flulike symptoms to, in extreme cases, death. Experts have estimated that one to four people out of every million vaccinated could die from the vaccine. In the past, about 1 in 1,000 vaccinated people experienced reactions that were serious, but not life-threatening, according to the Web site. Most reactions involved the spread of vaccine virus elsewhere on the body.

The vaccine is made from a live virus, and if the inoculation site is touched, and people touch another part of their body, it can spread. Historically, roughly 30 percent of those exposed to the disease die. And while the program is mandatory, some servicemembers with health conditions will be exempt, including those with compromised immune systems (such as those who are HIV positive), skin conditions like eczema, cancer patients, and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Servicemembers who are HIV positive can still serve; however, they are not
deployable.

 



About 209,000 Gulf War veterans have filed claims with the Veterans Administration, and 161,000 of them are receiving disability payments. 



http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/06/health/06NERV.html

Drug Tested in Gulf War Is Approved for Troops
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.


The Food and Drug Administration gave final approval yesterday to a drug used to help protect troops against one type of nerve gas that might be used in any war with Iraq. The drug, pyridostigmine bromide, was used, on an experimental basis, in the Persian Gulf war in 1991, and some groups argued that it could have been a cause of gulf war syndrome. The syndrome is vaguely defined, but veterans complained of fatigue, rashes, headaches, muscle pains and memory loss.

But an F.D.A. spokesman said several postwar studies "all assert that you can't attribute any aspects of gulf war syndrome to this drug." Much higher doses of the drug are used to treat myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease, the spokesman, Dr. Robert Temple, said, adding that the drug does not pass the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain. It was approved for myasthenia gravis in 1955.

At the front, pyridostigmine bromide is taken in tablets three times a day by troops in danger of being exposed to soman nerve gas. Soman is one of several nerve gases that kill by paralyzing the breathing muscles. The drug does not protect against sarin, a better-known, slower-acting gas in the same family.

The pills protect the periphery of the body. If troops are exposed to gas, they must immediately stop using them and inject themselves with atropine and pralidoxime, drugs that can reach the central nervous system and that already have F.D.A. approval. Troops are also supposed to wear gas masks and chemical protection suits. In the gulf war, pyridostigmine bromide was considered an investigational drug. Yesterday's agency approval was based on tests in guinea pigs and monkeys. The drug cannot ethically be studied in humans because they would have to be exposed to nerve gas. 

F.D.A. rules issued last June allow for approval of drugs for humans based on their effectiveness in animals when it is not feasible to do human tests, Dr. Temple said.  Because of the possibility of war with Iraq, "there was interest in having the drug approved," he said. Dr. Mark B. McClellan, the F.D.A. commissioner, said the approval would "help protect American troops and others from nerve agent attacks."
 




http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20030208-
9999_7m8kuwait.html
2 Marines who balked at vaccine deployed 

Both go to Kuwait, face penalty later 

By Jeanette Steele 
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 

February 8, 2003 

Two Marines who refused the military's mandatory anthrax vaccination are among thousands of Camp Pendleton-based troops deployed to Kuwait, according to officials.  The 1st Marine Division is deferring punishment and will allow them to serve in "duties that will not . . . unduly jeopardize them or their fellow Marines," said 1st Marine Division spokesman 2nd Lt. Eric Knapp.  There are no plans to court-martial them while in Kuwait, he said. That departs from previous Marine actions on anthrax refusal, which  involved removal from deployment status and quick punishment. 

It's unclear whether the two Marines have been charged, but in past years the Marine Corps has court-martialed others who refused the controversial vaccination. At least 37 service members were tried for refusing the vaccine when it was first mandated in the late 1990s. Another Pendleton Marine, Cpl. Anthony Fusco, currently faces court- martial for the same offense, which is disobeying a lawful order. The Marines said preparation for a possible war and a commander's judgment influence punishment decisions. The division commander is Maj. Gen. James Mattis, who led the Marine forces into Afghanistan in late 2001. 

"Although swift disposition of disciplinary proceedings is preferable in most instances, it is not unusual for operational commitments to delay such proceedings, especially when . . . related to real-world contingencies," Knapp said. A Marine spokesman at the Pentagon said the two will face punishment later. "All Marines who continue to refuse the anthrax vaccination will be held accountable . . . for disobeying orders, eventually," said Lt. Col. Stephen Kay, a Marine headquarters public affairs officer.  One of the Marines is Lance Cpl. Kevin Lotz, a 21-year-old machine gunner stationed at the Twentynine Palms Marine base. His division is headquartered at Camp Pendleton. The other Marine's name wasn't available. 

Lotz's mother, Kathleen Lotz of Arcata, said she's disappointed the Marines would punish him after he serves in a potential combat zone. "I can't believe they would put a Marine on the front lines, fighting a war and risking his life every day, then bring him home only to court-martial him and give him a bad conduct discharge," Lotz said. "All I can do as a mother is pray for his safety while in Iraq and trust in the history of honor the Marine Corps has."  By refusing the vaccinations, the two men put themselves at greater risk in an anthrax attack, Marine officials said. Anthrax is a deadly bacteria that the White House has said Saddam Hussein possesses and may use against U.S. troops. 

"They have been ordered to take the vaccine and counseled about the necessity for protecting their bodies from the dangers of anthrax,"Knapp said. "We expect them to take the vaccine and fulfill their enlistment oath." All other division Marines have been vaccinated, he said.
Jeanette Steele: (760) 476-8244; jen.steele@uniontrib.com 

 




http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/uk.cfm?id=71872003

Sun 19 Jan 2003
Troops fear jab more than germ war

JASON ALLARDYCE

MORE than half of all British troops will go to war in Iraq without anthrax vaccinations because they fear the side-effects on their health more than the risk of germ warfare, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. Thousands of members of the Royal Navy, army and Royal Air Force have rejected the MoD’s strong recommendation that they accept jabs to protect against chemical and biological attacks.

If war breaks out, the majority of forces personnel who would fight in the Gulf would do so without protection against an anthrax attack. Their decision - which comes as Britain prepares to deploy a further 14,000 soldiers to the Gulf tomorrow - will acutely embarrass ministers because it suggests soldiers, pilots and sailors do not believe government assurances that the vaccine is safe.

Last night, opposition politicians accused the government of mishandling its vaccines policy and jeopardising the lives of servicemen and women. Within the Navy, which is central to Britain’s military build-up in the region, the refusal rate is as high as 72%, the MoD has confirmed. Over half of RAF personnel and a quarter of Army have also rejected the  MoD’s medical advice. The government is desperate to minimise British casualties in another war against Saddam Hussein.

Concern about vaccination has been growing within the armed forces as a result of publicity about the plight of Gulf War veterans. The government still refuses to officially recognise Gulf War Syndrome, despite claims by veterans that 500 have died and over 5,000 may be suffering from the syndrome, which they blame on being inoculated against biological weapons.  A recent industrial tribunal ruling accepted a link between the anthrax vaccine given to a 32-year-old Scottish soldier in 1991 and his osteoporosis and depression, which he blames for the break-up of his marriage.

The symptoms experienced by former Army Royal Engineer Alex Izett could not be blamed on anything he witnessed or experienced in the Gulf because, although he was on standby for service, he was not sent there. Within a few years of his vaccination, Izett developed stomach ulcerations, depression, brittle bones and violent mood swings which led to him striking his wife.

He told Scotland on Sunday: "I asked at the time what was in the vaccines and I was told, ‘You don’t need to know.’ I trusted them. I didn’t think my government would do anything that would harm me. "Later I became withdrawn and aggressive to the point that even a fly on the wall would annoy me. I have no trust in the British government. They have taken away everything I ever had: my livelihood, my marriage and my health, and yet they have still not learned from their mistakes because they are still administering these vaccines."

Similar concerns in the US, where anthrax vaccinations are mandatory, have led to an exodus by highly trained and experienced pilots from the services to avoid the vaccine. Opposition politicians and veterans campaigners voiced grave concerns about the British vaccination programme. Tory defence spokesman Bernard Jenkin said: "People obviously feel that Gulf War Syndrome is far worse than anything they are going to get from the enemy. The government has completely failed to build confidence in their vaccination advice ."

The MoD confirmed that its medical officers currently recommend strongly that all personnel receive anthrax vaccinations, which the government insists are safe. The ministry refused to rule out mandatory jabs in future. An MoD spokeswoman said: "We think it is safe, but like any other medicines there are side effects. There is no evidence of long-term effects. We want those serving in the Gulf region to have access to the very highest level of protection available." But Maria Rusling, who manages the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, said she sympathised with the servicemen and women who had turned down the vaccines.

"The government has not learned from its mistakes. They must prove that this vaccine is safe and I don’t believe they have," she said. In response to the high refusal rate among military personnel, Rusling claims some in the service have been warned that ignoring the MoD’s advice to accept jabs could jeopardise their career prospects although this is denied by the Ministry. Tony Blair is expected to announce tomorrow that over 14,000 British soldiers and at least 150 Challenger II battle tanks will be sent to the Gulf to prepare for war as he steps up the pressure on Iraq. That will take Britain’s military presence in the region to around 25,000 personnel as the UN continues to scour the Gulf for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

jallardyce@scotlandonsunday.com

 




http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030127_855.html


3 Allege Reprisals Over Smallpox Shots
Three Civilians in Merchant Marine Say They Were Fired for Refusing 
Smallpox and Anthrax Shots


The Associated Press


CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas Jan. 27 — 
Three civilians in the U.S. Merchant Marine say they refused to be vaccinated against smallpox and anthrax and were fired from the crew of a ship loaded with Army vehicles. The ship's captain, Joseph Hood, said no one had been fired and declined to comment about the shots. The three were assigned to the Cape Taylor, one of three "ready reserve" ships docked at Corpus Christi. The ship is believed to be heading to the Middle East with Army tanks and trucks. The three civilians are part of the ship's crew of 27 and are among 20 who belong to the Seafarers International Union. "If they do not replace us they cannot sail, and that is Coast Guard rules," Erik Ortwein of Tacoma, Wash., told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times on Sunday. "A lot of people are worried about this."


Ortwein, Lino Remorin of McAllen, Texas, and Jose Camales of Puerto  Rico said Hood fired them Sunday after they refused to sign papers committing them to be immunized. They said Sunday was the first time they were told the shots would be required. "They gave us no information," said Ortwein. "No doctors, no physicals. I have no idea how this stuff was manufactured."




Troops are offered a vaccine to protect against anthrax

More than half of British service people heading to the Gulf have refused a voluntary Anthrax vaccination, the Liberal Democrats have revealed. Defence spokesman Paul Keetch MP said that of the 16,538 service personnel offered the jabs only 8,103 accepted. That was despite the fact the government believes Anthrax poses a "real threat to our armed forces", according to Defence Minister Lewis Moonie. He said that there were "no reservations" over recommending the injection but it would still remain voluntary "in accordance with long-standing medical practice". But that prompted Mr Keetch to accuse the government of failing to show leadership over the vaccines.

"By making immunisation voluntary, the Government has sown confusion among service personnel. 
"Soldiers are being asked to judge for themselves the possibility of anthrax infection in the Gulf. If the vaccine is safe and the threat real, why pass the buck to our troops to decide? "The government is exhibiting a real lack of leadership at a time when the public expects clarity about the risks, and indeed the necessity, of war."

'No waiver'

Mr Keetch's comments come just days after the government rejected suggestions troops were being asked to sign waivers to say they will not claim compensation if they become ill after having vaccinations. There had been reports that soldiers preparing to go to the Gulf were being asked to sign the waiver when they were given jabs, including the anthrax vaccine. The wife of an RAF solider from Bury St Edmunds, wrote to the Daily Telegraph to say her husband, who is about to leave for the Gulf, had been asked to sign a waiver when he was offered vaccinations. She wrote: "He was told, if he wanted to have these jabs, he had to sign a disclaimer saying that, if he had illness in the future, he couldn't claim compensation."

The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association said earlier in the week that it had been contacted by a female member of 16 Air Assault Brigade who said she had been asked to sign a waiver. It has also expressed concerns over the safety of the vaccine. Shaun Ruisling, chairman of the association, said: "These are great concerns. "It seems to be the case that soldiers are damned if they do have the vaccine and damned if they don't." 'Opposite'

But Mr Moonie told the BBC that soldiers were "categorically not" being asked to sign waivers. "They are not being asked to sign. "When someone refuses a vaccination, not when they take one, a record is kept - signed by the doctor and the person - to say they understand they have been offered the vaccination and they have refused to do it. "So it's the exact opposite of what's being said."

Dr Moonie said the Ministry of Defence had very good public health reasons for wanting its troops to take all the vaccinations on offer, including anthrax. He said they were told they should have the vaccines, but it was still voluntary. He said it was safe and had been given for many years without any cases of serious side effects being noted. However, he admitted that full immunisation took about six months, but there was some immediate protection from the jab. 
 



Listen to this  <http://www.abc.net.au/am/2003/02/13/20030213am05.asx story
[Requires Microsoft Media  <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp
Player]

This is a transcript of AM broadcast at 08:00 AEST on local radio.

Gulf War veterans health study to be released 

AM - Thursday, February  13, 2003 8:14 

LINDA MOTTRAM: The Federal Government is this morning rejecting claims that it's deliberately withholding the first comprehensive study into the health of Australia's veterans from the 1991 Gulf War. The study has taken three years to complete and it is currently, as they say, "at the printers", according to government sources, due for release next week.

Jo Mazzocchi reports.

JO MAZZOCCHI: Public confusion over the anthrax vaccine is fast reaching new levels of anxiety.

This caller to Perth Radio's 6PR identified herself as Delma, the mother of a serving sailor who had refused an anthrax injection on the grounds it may lead to infertility. 

DELMA: She just said she'd refused the anthrax injection.

The only information they sort of gleaned was it can cause infertility, possibly other things, they're not quite sure. So she refused to have it, she's a young girl.

JO MAZZOCCHI: And in Darwin, Leslie Bullard is angry that his son, on board HMAS Darwin, wasn't warned before he left Australia that he'd been vaccinated against anthrax.

He's now emailed his son, advising him not to have any more anthrax injections.

LESLIE BULLARD: I want my son to partake in the operations over there should we need to go to battle, but I don't want him dead before he does go to battle.

JO MAZZOCCHI: It's a public relations nightmare but Australian defence authorities insist there is no cause for concern because the vaccine is both safe and effective.

But families and loved ones of serving defence personnel say that is a claim that should be proved. 
Philip Steele is the chairman of the Gulf War Veterans and Peacekeepers Association.

PHILIP STEELE: Well, they would have love to, or liked to have heard it from the Department of Defence before hearing it in the media.

And they say that one side effect of the injections is possibly that women, and men for that matter, will become sterile, but I don't think there is anything proven and that's what the Government needs to do, come out and
say, here is a study into anthrax, it's safe, that type of thing.

JO MAZZOCCHI: The debate over the anthrax vaccine coincidentally comes at a time when the first ever study into the health problems of Australia's Gulf War veterans has just been completed. The study, commissioned by the Federal Government, has been carried out by Monash University and it shows that Gulf War veterans are at a greater risk of developing psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress, depression and greater substance abuse.

It is believed the report shows there are no findings that Gulf War veterans are at increased risk of any unique disorder, in other words, Gulf War Syndrome. AM also understands the report examined anthrax and other related vaccinations but the findings are inconclusive because a lot of veterans simply couldn't recall what injections they'd received. According to Labor's Federal Member for Cowan in Western Australia, Graham Edwards, himself a Vietnam veteran, the report should be released immediately.

GRAHAM EDWARDS: We know it's gone to the minister and we know that she's sitting on it. It's a disgrace and she should have released it before those troops were deployed. If she's now telling the people of Australia that it's at the printers, then she's now contradicted herself in a serious way.

JO MAZZOCCHI: The Minister, Danna Vale, declined to be interviewed. A spokeswoman from her office told AM the report was always scheduled to be released shortly, but as is usual practice, it must first be examined by an independent scientific advisory committee.

LINDA MOTTRAM: Jo Mazzocchi reporting. 

 





The government's propaganda on Anthrax vaccination would have warmed the cockles of Joseph Goebbels's heart (if he had one, that is). They have played right into the hands of the anti-choice lobby by sneaking Anthrax aboard our ships just before they departed and springing them, unannounced, on unsuspecting service personnel. That there have been objections to this tactic is not surprising. Though the armed services train people to obey orders, they do not teach them to stop thinking and any thinking person who can read and write would be able to access much medical information on the dangers of this vaccine. 

For instance, the following is a partial list of adverse reactions from the package insert of the American Vaccine (being used on Australian Troops), BioThrax. "cellulitis, cysts, pemphigus vulgaris, endocarditis, sepsis, angioedema and other hypersensitivity reactions, asthma, aplastic anemia, neutropenia, idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, lymphoma, leukemia, collagen vascular disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, polyarteritis nodosa, inflammatory arthritis, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, immune deficiency, seizure, mental status changes, psychiatric disorders, tremors, cerebrovascular accident (CVA), facial palsy, hearing and visual disorders, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, syncope, glomerulonephritis, renal failure, spontaneous abortion and liver abscess. Infrequent reports were also received of multisystem disorders defined as chronic symptoms involving at least two of the following three categories: fatigue, mood-cognition, musculoskeletal system.Reports of fatalities included sudden cardiac arrest (2), myocardial infarction with polyarteritis nodosa (1), aplastic anemia (1), suicide (1) and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma (1). Now Mr. Editor, I challenge you - if you were to be offered a vaccine listing these as side effects, would you be the first to roll up your sleeve?
Meryl W Dorey
National President
The Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.
PO Box 177
Bangalow NSW 2479
02 6687 1699 - 0414 872 032
www.avn.org.au

 



This is a transcript of PM broadcast at 1800 AEST on local radio.

Sailors future uncertain after vaccination refusal 

PM - Thursday, February 13, 2003 18:15 

MARK COLVIN: Sailors from Australian vessels deployed to the Gulf have been undergoing what are called 'debriefing sessions' in Western Australia today. They're men and women who refused to accept anthrax vaccinations.

The stepfather of a woman sent back from HMAS Darwin says she's had to deal with being called a coward, and fears an uncertain future in the Navy. The stepfather, himself a former leading seaman, says she refused the vaccination because she was afraid of becoming infertile.

David Weber reports.

DAVID WEBER: Luis Lim was in the Australian Navy for 18-years. He served around the world, and received medals for his role in the East Timor deployment. Mr Lim also received a long-service medal. Mr Lim says his step-daughter's been having a rough time. He says she hasn't refused to serve her country, but she has refused to be a guinea pig.

LUIS LIM: She's had a lot of turmoil in her mind and in her heart. The crew members who remained chastised them, they accused them of being cowards. The senior officers on the ship have told them that they're not welcome on the ship anymore, not even to attend the ship's ball, and some other personnel have said that they should have their medals taken away from them for service that they have already participated in.

DAVID WEBER: Given that attitude, can you understand why they needed to send her back?

LUIS LIM: The Navy seems fairly bureaucratic in this. Half the British Army in the Gulf region have refused the anthrax needles, and logistically speaking, they can't just send everyone home. I can understand the Navy wanting to give their personnel the best health care available, but to say that they're unfit to serve because they might get anthrax, it seems to me that it's strange when they're there to fight. And the main area of concern should be the enemy, not anthrax.

DAVID WEBER: The woman was concerned about possible infertility. Mr Lim says she's now worried she may have jeopardised her career.

LUIS LIM: Along with termination of a career comes the possible loss of a house. She's very worried about that. She doesn't want to step on people's toes; she wants to keep her bridges intact, but at the same time her health is more important, her long-term health is more important than a career.

DAVID WEBER: At this stage, has the Navy given any indication about what they're going to do with her?

LUIS LIM: Unfortunately, they've only used standover tactics, veiled threats of dismissal, veiled threats of being posted to a different state from where she comes from.

DAVID WEBER: It's understood the woman attended a psychological debriefing session at HMAS Stirling near Rockingham today. She was advised [to have] two-weeks leave. 

LUIS LIM: And officially, even though she's refused the injection, it's so she can make up her mind.

DAVID WEBER: About what?

LUIS LIM: Whether to rescind that refusal or to maintain her position.

DAVID WEBER: So she may be allowed to go back to the ship if she decides to have that injection?

LUIS LIM: Well, I think officially, she would be allowed to, but from the opinion of, well... from the activities of the crew and the hierarchy on the ship, she might not actually want to go back to the ship.

DAVID WEBER: A spokesman for the Defence Forces denies any of those who'd refused anthrax vaccinations were even at HMAS Stirling today. But the spokesman says they were expected to take part in debriefing sessions, followed by leave and advice on their next postings. The spokesman says the Navy had a duty of care to bring back those who refused vaccinations. He says no one's being crucified over the issue. 

MARK COLVIN: David Weber. 

Transcripts on this website are created by an independent transcription service. The ABC does not warrant the accuracy of the transcripts. ABC Online users are advised to listen to the audio provided on this page to verify the accuracy of the transcripts.

 




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2690723.stm

Anthrax vaccine risk row

The government has denied troops are being asked to sign waivers to say they will not claim compensation if they become ill after having vaccinations. There had been reports that soldiers preparing to go to the Gulf were being asked to sign the waiver when they were given jabs, including the anthrax vaccine. The wife of an RAF solider from Bury St Edmunds, wrote to the Daily Telegraph to say her husband, who is about to leave for the Gulf, had been asked to sign a waiver when he was offered vaccinations.

She wrote: "He was told, if he wanted to have these jabs, he had to sign a disclaimer saying that, if he had illness in the future, he couldn't claim compensation." She added: "I am disgusted that these men and women are being sent possibly to fight a war that no one wants and, besides worrying about the immediate danger they could be exposed to, have the long-term worry of 'could I get ill from these inoculations and who will protect me if I do."

The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association said earlier in the week that it had been contacted by a female member of 16 Air Assault Brigade who said she had been asked to sign a waiver. It has also expressed concerns over the safety of the vaccine. Shaun Ruisling, chairman of the association, said: "These are great concerns. "It seems to be the case that soldiers are damned if they do have the vaccine and damned if they don't."

But Lewis Moonie, defence minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that soldiers were "categorically not" being asked to sign waivers. "They are not being asked to sign. "When someone refuses a vaccination, not when they take one, a record is kept - signed by the doctor and the person - to say they understand they have been offered the vaccination and they have refused to do it. "So it's the exact opposite of what's being said."

Dr Moonie said the Ministry of Defence had very good public health reasons for wanting its troops to take all the vaccinations on offer, including anthrax. He said they were told they should have the vaccines, but it was still voluntary. He said it was safe and had been given for many years without any cases of serious side effects being noted.

However, he admitted that full immunisation took about six months, but there was some immediate protection from the jab. "If anybody thinks they have been asked to sign any kind of waiver, I would ask them to get in touch with us, and we will put their minds at rest. "We have no intention of asking people to sign waivers. We will not do it. And, as far as I know, we are not doing it at present."
 




Judge dismisses lawsuit, expresses concern

By ROBERT WELLER http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=72861

Associated Press Writer 

DENVER (AP) - U.S. District Court Judge Edward Nottingham dismissed a lawsuit Friday by a female soldier given a less than honorable discharge for refusing to be vaccinated against anthrax, but said he had concerns about the military's program. Lawyers for ex-Pfc. Jemekia Barber argued the military violated her constitutional rights by requiring her to be vaccinated, even though it would have made it dangerous for her to become pregnant for at least 18 months. 

She was a newlywed and anticipated having children. Nottingham said allowing the lawsuit to proceed ''would significantly interfere with the function of the military.'' He added that Barber hasn't exhausted her options in the military's justice system. Nottingham said he was not endorsing the vaccination campaign, however. ''If the court were reviewing the program the court would be very concerned by the questions raised by the plaintiff,'' Nottingham said. ''The military will be held accountable if it is using its own soldiers as guinea pigs.'' 

Nottingham said there was no dispute that the effectiveness of the anthrax vaccination remained unproven as given by the military. He noted that a majority of courts have held that lawsuits can go ahead even though administrative remedies remain, but in this case he was siding with the minority opinion. 

Legal analyst Scott Robinson said, ''There is no definitive Supreme Court ruling on this precise issue. Certainly there are times when a trial judge feels his hands are tied.'' Herbert Fenster, Barber's chief counsel, said the judge had declared there was no proof the vaccine was effective. ''This means the Army violated the law by requiring soldiers to be vaccinated,'' said Fenster. Fenster said the issue is more serious for female soldiers, because the military acknowledges the vaccination could be a health threat during pregnancy. Her constitutional rights were violated because she effectively would have had to abstain from reproductive sex for at least 18 months, said Fenster. 

''That was the main reason I didn't want to have the vaccination. We wanted to have a family,'' said Barber, in a telephone interview. Fenster said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade and other cases that the government may not interfere in the reproductive process. ''Our courts have been relatively diligent in keeping the government out of the bedroom. It would be possible for this to have a chilling effect on a marital relationship,'' said Robinson. 

The Army had suspended the anthrax program except for high risk areas because of a shortage of vaccine. It was subsequently resumed and some supplies made available for use by civilians. Barber, 27, was stationed at Fort Carson, Colo., when she was discharged in 2000. Her husband, Rodney, a private first class, also received a less than honorable discharge.

 



Military proposes serious relaxation of IND regulations 
Tue, 28 Jan 2003 

We are rapidly approaching The Brave New World. FDA bureaucrats are attempting to institutionalize a double standard in human experimentaion by resorting to a strategy of doublespeak. A Department of Defense memo states: "DoD should continue to conduct trials when ethically appropriate and when time and resources permit compliance with the [Federal] Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act." The Nuremberg Code of 1947 applies to ALL human beings--including military personnel. 

The DOD and FDA would establish different standards for some Americans--in this case military personnel who are being singled out for "special treatment" with drugs whose safety no one knows because they have never been tested in clinical trials. 

To accomplish this the FDA is creating a "new category" of drug approval for unlicensed drugs. The category would be reserved for "products unlikely to receive FDA approval under current rules but that have sufficient human safety and animal efficacy experience to permit military "use." The new category would eliminate FDA labeling requirements that alert people about the experimental nature of the product. 

The FDA's cynical rationale defies logic: "the military often fields products that have not been tested in humans "because of the great danger to individuals of conducting human clinical efficacy trials." 

Meryl Nass, MD., board member of The Alliance for Human Research Protection is on the mark when she told BNA: "It is part of an ongoing DOD campaign to free the military from basic human subject protections." 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` 
Bureau of National Affairs Army Researchers' Plan Seeks Exemption From FDA Experimental Product Safety Rules By M. Alexander Otto 

Under a plan proposed by U.S. Army human research regulators, the Department of Defense could ignore key Food and Drug Administration safety standards when administering experimental products to soldiers, according to an October memorandum recently obtained by BNA from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases Office of Human Use and Ethics. Under current FDA rules, experimental drugs and devices can only be used in well-controlled clinical trials that test safety and efficacy. 

That means the principal investigator must supervise the administration of the product and serious side effects must be reported to FDA within seven days, neither of which are practical in combat situations, according to the memorandum, dated Oct. 11, 2002. Investigational products also must carry labels that state "Caution: New Drug-Limited by Federal (or United States) Law to Investigational Use." 

"This label can lead the war fighter to question the safety and/or effectiveness of the product and may threaten operational objectives," according to the memo.  New FDA Category. The plan would exempt the military from the clinical trial requirement. Instead, a joint military and FDA panel would review the safety and efficacy of the agent, determine whether a clinical trial is feasible, identify ethical obligations, and approve the product under a new FDA category: "licensed for contingency." 

The category would be reserved for "products unlikely to receive FDA approval under current rules but that have sufficient human safety and animal efficacy experience to permit military … use." The memo noted, however, that the military often fields products that have not been tested in humans "because of the great danger to individuals of conducting human clinical efficacy trials." "DoD should continue to conduct trials when ethically appropriate 
and when time and resources permit compliance with the [Federal] Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act," the five-page memo stated. 

Some of the content for this position paper was added to the DOD Medical Department legislative agenda, Dr. Arthur O. Anderson told BNA. Anderson is chief of the USARMIID Office of Human Use and Ethics and Department of Clinical Pathology. He co-authored the memo with Chris Beardmore, an administrator in the Office of Human Use and Ethics. 

Advocate Skeptical. The move would resolve ongoing conflict with FDA about the use of experimental products. Following the Gulf War and action in Bosnia, DOD was criticized for failing: to report adverse events, to properly label and track investigational products, and to ask soldiers' permission before administering experimental agents. 

Dr. Meryl Nass, an advocate for soldiers injured by anthrax vaccine,  botulinum toxin, nerve gas antidote, and other experimental products, takes a dim view of the initiative. "It is part of an ongoing DOD campaign to free the military from basic human subject protections," she said. Soldiers are subject to military discipline if they refuse an experimental product. Those injured have no recourse; soldiers cannot sue DOD for injuries received while in the service, Nass noted. 

Copyright 2003, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington, D.C. 

 




Sailors refusing anthrax vaccine picketed by peers


The Australian Navy has been accused of using standover tactics on sailors being sent home after refusing anthrax vaccinations. Luis Lim says his step-daughter is one of the sailors sent home from the Persian Gulf for refusing the injections. Mr Lim says the sailors are being treated terribly. "The crew members who remained chastised them, accused them of being cowards," he said. "The senior officers on the ship have told them that they are not welcome on the ship, not even to attend the ship's vale, and some other personnel have said that they should have their medals taken away from them for servicethat they've already participated in."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-13feb2003-48.htm

 



http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/13/business/13DRUG.html?pagewanted=2&th

New York Will Sue 2 Big Drug Makers on Doctor Discount

By REED ABELSON and JONATHAN D. GLATER

New York plans to sue two major pharmaceutical companies today, accusing them essentially of paying doctors and pharmacists to choose the companies' drugs over competing medicines.The state is joining six other states, including California and Texas, in a  growing legal attack on a longstanding practice that the states say has cost state and federal governments and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.

The lawsuits contend that GlaxoSmithKline and Pharmacia, the two large drug  companies, gave discounts to doctors and pharmacies that bought their drugs. Doctors often buy and dispense injectable drugs like chemotherapy medicines. Pharmacies buy drugs in bulk to fill prescriptions, and sometimes recommend particular drugs to doctors. 

The discounts work this way. The drug companies establish a price for the drug that the government and insurance companies use to determine how much to reimburse the doctors and pharmacies for the drugs they buy. The companies then allow the doctors and pharmacies to buy their drugs at much lower prices  than the ones reported to the government. The doctors and pharmacies then pocket the difference. 

The lawsuits argue that the drug companies, doctors and pharmacists all  profit from this arrangement, at the expense of the taxpayer and the patient, who has a higher co-payment. The lawsuits are expected to be filed this morning in state court in Albany  by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who is holding a news conference to announce New York's action. A third drug maker, Aventis, has been notified that it may also be sued. Some cancer doctors have come under fire from members of Congress and private insurers for profiting from providing chemotherapy drugs to their patients, but the states are now taking direct aim at the overall pricing practices of some of the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies.

Regulators say it is easier to pursue the big drug makers for setting the high prices, known as average wholesale prices, than it is to investigate numerous individual doctors. "What we're trying to do is focus on the entire practice, rather than a particular drug from a particular company," Mr. Spitzer said in an interview on Tuesday. "What underlies this is a larger failure of the marketplace to properly price drugs," he added. As an example of the problem, Mr. Spitzer cited Adriamycin, a chemotherapy drug made by Pharmacia. According to his staff, a doctor may pay as little as $7.40 for 10 milligrams of the drug after the discounts from the drug maker. But Medicare would reimburse the doctor $34.42, based on Pharmacia's average wholesale price, and a Medicare patient in New York would make a co-payment of $8.60. The doctor would pocket $35.62, the difference between the amount paid for the drug and the payments received from the patient and from 
Medicare.

Many of the companies and lawyers who defend pharmaceutical companies argue  that their pricing practices are legal, and say that attorneys general are overreaching in their lawsuits. Any changes to the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement system, they say, should be made by Congress, which has so far chosen not to act. 

"The question from the standpoint of the policy makers is whether this is the kind of promotion that they want to, as a policy matter, stop," said James M. Spears, a lawyer with Ropes & Gray in Washington. "That's a question for Congress to answer." But the state suits pose a worsening problem for pharmaceutical companies as regulators examine health care costs amid a nationwide squeeze on state budgets. Several states, including California, Texas, Minnesota and Nevada,  have filed suits against numerous drug makers in the last three years over their prices, and they say they are prepared to expand their activities as they gather more evidence.

In California, for example, the attorney general expects to file new suits in addition to one filed there last month against Abbott Laboratories and Wyeth. More states are contemplating lawsuits of their own, and state attorneys general have formed a working group to share information and discuss legal strategies. Private lawyers, many of them veterans of the tobacco class-action litigation, have also joined the fray.

Attorneys general are trying to use litigation to force companies to change their practices, not just to win damages, said Jennifer Arlen, a law professor at New York University. "They're filing cases where they know full well that it's not clear that they can win if they go to trial," she said. "But because they're not seeking damages in many of these situations — they're seeking structured settlements —they're often getting a big bang for the buck by filing their case."Although the states are sharing information, they have filed separate lawsuits rather than a single, unified suit, and they are using different laws and pursuing different legal strategies. Several drug companies are battling to have the lawsuits consolidated in federal court in Boston. 
    
While the states are suing on behalf of their individual Medicaid programs, which pay for drugs for the poor, some are also suing on behalf of state residents covered under the federal Medicare program. Medicare does not pay for most drugs, but does cover part of the cost of certain kinds of medicines, like chemotherapy drugs administered in a doctor's office. Patients are responsible for paying 20 percent of the bill."They're harmed much more than the states," said Mike Hatch, the attorney general for Minnesota, which sued Pharmacia last year.Regulators are also concerned that cancer doctors may have a financial incentive to recommend inappropriate or unnecessary chemotherapy because they are able to profit from prescribing particular drugs. While New York is focusing on Pharmacia and GlaxoSmithKline as makers of anti-nausea drugs, the lawsuits include all of the drugs they make. (Aventis also makes anti-nausea drugs.) Medicaid is significantly overpaying for many drugs, Mr. Spitzer said, although it is unclear exactly how large those overpayments may be. "I sense there is waste everywhere," he said.The New York suits charge Pharmacia and GlaxoSmithKline with consumer fraud and making false statements to government health plans when they establish the drug prices, as well as with commercial bribery for trying to wield inappropriate influence on doctors' decisions. The suits take advantage of a New York statute that makes it a crime to try to interfere with the fiduciary relationship between a doctor and a patient. Each drug company benefits if it can enlarge its share of the market by inducing doctors to choose their drugs based on the difference, or spread, between what doctors pay for the drug and the amount they are reimbursed, Mr. Spitzer said. "They gain by marketing the spread." Pharmacia and GlaxoSmithKline both argue that Congress has chosen to allow the current system of setting prices for drugs to continue. Spokesmen for those companies and for Aventis said they had not seen the suit to be filed today and could not comment on it. A spokeswoman for Aventis said yesterday that the company voluntarily stopped reporting an average wholesale price in August 2001, but declined to say how the government now sets reimbursement rates for its drugs."We really have to wait until we see and then review any additional allegations," she said. But Mr. Spitzer defended his decision to pursue the litigation, despite inaction by  Congress and the government programs. "Regulatory lapses elsewhere don't create a justification for the perpetuation of a system that is broken," he said. The escalating price of drugs is motivating many states to try to tackle these practices. In California, prescription costs for the Medi-Cal program, which provides health insurance to low-income residents, doubled from 1997 to 2001, even as the number of patients declined by 15 percent."The public should be incensed that the pharmaceutical giants are fleecing the Medicaid program," said Collin Wong, the director of the state attorney general's bureau of Medi-Cal fraud and elder abuse. The Texas lawsuit, which was one of the first to be filed, has turned up some evidence unfavorable to the pharmaceutical companies, said Jeff Boyd, deputy attorney general for general litigation.Some former drug company employees who were deposed have provided evidence that manufacturers deliberately used the spread between the government's reimbursement and the price paid by doctors to persuade doctors to use their drugs. Mr. Boyd said he thought some drug companies might try to avoid taking cases to a jury."We're hopeful that as some of these dominoes begin to fall, some of these companies will see the writing on the wall andcome forward and start trying to negotiate a resolution," he said.  
    




Gulf War vets walking wounded
Mysterious illness plagues ex-soldiers, adds to current fear

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0310prelude-azsyndrome10.html

Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 10, 2003 12:00 AM

Before she went to the Persian Gulf as an Air Force reservist in Desert Storm, September Amyx feared the worst: death. But after a dozen years of being so sick she felt like she was "walking hip deep in water," Amyx realizes that her fear was misplaced. "I'm living death," said the 46-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills woman, who recently moved to California. A victim of "Gulf War Syndrome," Amyx has spent years trying to pinpoint the source of her never-ending fatigue, anxiety, depression and "fibro fog," a condition, which she says stems from fibromyalgia, that doesn't allow her to think clearly.

Tens of thousands of servicemen and women returned from Desert Storm with various ailments lumped together as "Gulf War Syndrome." The condition has since been renamed "Multisymptom Undiagnosed Illness" and is characterized by fatigue, insomnia, headaches, short-term memory loss, muscle aches, vague skin rashes, weight loss and gastrointestinal problems such as constipation and diarrhea.

The symptoms still plague veterans like Amyx, a reservist who loaded and unloaded equipment in large C-5 cargo planes bound for the Persian Gulf beginning in August 1990. She flew multiple missions to and from the gulf as oil fields burned. Others, like Frank Schmuck, believe they are cured after taking somewhat radical measures. The 36-year-old Tempe man was an Air Force pilot who flew several missions to the gulf beginning in August 1990. By May 1991, Schmuck returned to the states 40 pounds lighter, suffering from insomnia, fatigue and muscle aches that made sitting in a chair excruciating.

"I had no meat on my bones," he said. "I felt like I had brain fog."

After researching his illnesses, a process that "was wearing me out just trying to find a cause," Schmuck believes he was poisoned by a preservative used in the multiple vaccines he was given before serving in the gulf. The preservative, thimerisol, is an ethylmercury-based compound that was used in childhood vaccines until 1999. Vaccine-makers, under pressure from Congress, removed thimerisol from children's vaccines because of its potential risk as a neurotoxin.

But the preservative remains in many adult vaccines, and Schmuck said he believes he received more than the allowable limits by getting several vaccinations at the same time. "I'm the link between Gulf War Syndrome and autism," he said, referring to theories that ethylmercury in childhood vaccinations may be responsible for the growing number of autistic kids. But Dr. Nanette Auriemma, a doctor with the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Centerin Phoenix who has treated more than 200 Gulf War Syndrome patients for more than two years, is doubtful thimerisol is to blame. Of all the studies looking for a cause, not one of them has pointed to thimerisol, she said. Instead, environmental toxins are the likely cause, she added. "The problem is that most of these cases are just vague symptoms," Auriemma said.

Rather than trying to treat the varied symptoms, Auriemma and other doctors refer patients to specialists for individual health problems after adding them to a national registry of veterans with the syndrome. More research is needed, she said, to find a source for the illnesses. "I know that feeling of desperation that they get," Auriemma said of her patients. "It's very frustrating for the patients and the doctors when the tests keep coming back normal." Recently, researchers found a link between Vietnam soldiers exposed to herbicides such as Agent Orange and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Some believe chemical exposure in the gulf may someday be linked to cancer the same way.

Now a commercial pilot, Schmuck said he overcame the syndrome by having several mercury fillings replaced in his teeth and undergoing a controversial process known as chelation to remove heavy metals, namely mercury, from his body. "This mercury had obviously gotten to my brain," he said. "They (doctors) have been trying to say it's all in our heads, and I do believe it's in our heads. I felt like somebody had poisoned me." After regaining weight, strength and energy, Schmuck got his pilot's license reinstated.

But he worries about troops headed to the gulf for a possible war in Iraq." All you can do is ask for thimerisol-free (vaccines) if you're due for multiple vaccines," he said. Other veterans share Schmuck's concerns about another crop of vets returning home ill after the Iraq conflict is over. "What I seem to be hearing from Persian Gulf vets is that they're very concerned for the people going over there now," Auriemma said.

  




Navy investigates ship's commander after sailor's anthrax complaint

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-6mar2003-1.htm

A formal investigation is now underway into allegations a ship's commander threatened a sailor with a discharge after he refused an anthrax vaccination. The sailor was on his way to the Persian Gulf as part of Australia's pre-deploment to the Middle East.

Leading Seaman Lorne Screaton is the second sailor from HMAS Kanimbla to publicly allege he was harrassed by his senior officers after he rejected a vaccination against anthrax. His wife, Janet, says he was threatened with a discharge. "Basically, he would be subject to discharge, 'you were no longer required by the Navy'," she said.

At least a dozen sailors have refused the vaccination but Leading Seaman Screaton is the first to lodge a formal grievance complaint. Rear Admiral Raydon Gates says the allegations are being taken seriously. "We have received as of Friday the 28th of February a formal complaint from Leading Seaman Screaton and that has now started to investigate that complaint because we do take this is a formal complaint," he said. "This is not talk, we have now started the due legal process, this is a very serious matter."

  



Some Anthrax lawsuit info: http://www.sskrplaw.com/vaccine/

ANTHRAX CHRONOLOGY

1500 B.C. God smote the Egyptians with the ten plagues, the fifth of which, dever, gives anthrax to livestock and the sixth, shachean, to humans. 

1600s Black Bane kills 60,000 cattle in Europe, later called anthrax from the Greek for burning coal.

1876 German physician Robert Koch identifies the bacterium bacillus anthracis as the cause of anthrax, the first microorganism linked directly to  a disease.

1881 Louis Pasteur develops first vaccine to immunize livestock from anthrax using weakened bacterium.

1915 Norwegian police thwart first attempt to use anthrax as a weapon when they arrest a German agent carrying two vials of the bacteria intended to infect reindeer carrying supplies to allied forces in Europe.

1937 Japanese immunologist Ishii Shiro conducts experiments with anthrax on Chinese prisoners in Harbin.

1942 England conducts experiments with anthrax at Gruinard Island off the coast of Scotland poisoning the soil.

1943 United States develops anthrax weapons.

1943 President Roosevelt appoints George W. Merck, the president of Merck Sharp and Dome, to lead the secret government program to develop biological weapons at Fort Detrick in Fredrick, Maryland.

1945 Anthrax outbreak kills one million sheep in Iran

1950's George Wright develops original cutaneous anthrax vaccine which is first produced by Merck Sharp & Dohme.

1950s Government erects building 470 at Fort Detrick, an eight story factory for making anthrax.

1960 United States Army begins Operation Whitecoat testing weopanized anthrax and the anthrax vaccine on Seventh Day Adventists.

1960 Dr. Phillip S. Brachman, Dr. Herman Gold, Dr. Stanley Plotkin, Dr. F. Robert Fekevy, Milton Werrin, and Dr. Norman Ingraham conduct efficacy study for cutaneous anthrax vaccine.

1962 In a report titled "Field Evaluation of Human Anthrax Vaccine," Merck  researchers report the vaccine was still highly effective for cutaneous anthrax, though the case study focused only on local and systematic reactions 
and not long term adverse effects.

1969 In a speech at Fort Detrick, Richard Nixon orders the end of the United

States' offensive biological weapons program, stating: "The human race already carries in its hands too many seeds of its own destruction.

1970 U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves anthrax vaccine.

1970 The United States Public Health Service issues the AVA license to the state-owned facility operated by the Michigan Department of Public Health for protection against cutaneous anthrax only.

1970-1990 Only a limited number of individuals receive the AVA as reported by Dr. Kwai Chan's General Accounting Office Report to Congress.

1972 The United States, Soviet Union and more than 100 other nations sign the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention outlawing the development or stockpiling of biological weapons.

1972 Government establishes United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, based at Fort Detrick, to develop and research defenses to biological weapons.

1973 FDA publishes standards for making, using and storing anthrax vaccine at 21 CFR Section 620.20.

1978-80 More than 6,000 are infected and as many as 100 killed by human anthrax epidemic in Zimbabwe.

1979 Approximately 68 people die at a Soviet Union military facility in Sverdlovsk when weaponized aerosolized anthrax is accidentally released.

Mid 1980's After the efficacy of the AVA is demonstrated for cutaneous anthrax, the FDA approves the AVA for two limited markets: 1) individuals who may come in contact with animal products or high-risk persons such as veterinarians and others handling potentially infected animals; and 2) individuals engaged in diagnostic or investigational activities using anthrax.

1982 Soviets build the Scientific Experimental and Production Base in Stepnogorsk to manufacture lethal strain of anthrax.

1985 The Division of Biologic Standards, now the Food and Drug Administration, begins licensing vaccines.

1985 The DoD issues a Request for Proposal soliciting the development of a new anthrax vaccine. The Request for Proposal states that there is no vaccine in current use that would safely and effectively protect military personnel against exposure to anthrax.

1985 The FDA publishes a Proposed Rule for a specific product review of the AVA, stating that the vaccine's "efficacy against inhalation anthrax is not well documented."

1988 Iraq begins its biological weapons program as its war with Iran winds down ultimately producing 1000s of gallons of anthrax.

1989 Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert B. Barker writes in a letter to Senator John Glenn that "current vaccines, particularly the anthrax vaccine do not readily lend themselves to use in mass troop immunizations for a
variety of reasons.a higher than desirable rate of reactogenicity and, in some cases, lack of strong efficacy against infection by the aerosol route of exposure."

1990 On August 2, 1990, Iraq invades Kuwait.

1990 Army doctors Col. Takafuji and Col. Phillip K. Russell describe the AVA as a "limited use vaccine" and an "unlicensed experimental vaccine" in an article "Military Immunizations," in Infectious Disease Clinics of North America.

1990 The State of Michigan changes the name of the original facility to the Michigan Biologic Products Institute ("MBPI") in order to make the move from state owned and operated to private ownership.

1990 Despite the absence of any proof of safety or efficacy of the AVA, about 150,000 U.S. troops and personnel receive at lease one dose of the AVA during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, purportedly for the purpose of protection against inhalation anthrax if it were used as biological weapons by Iraq.

1990 MBPI changes both the fermenters and the filters used in manufacturing the AVA without notifying the FDA causing a hundred fold increase in the protective antigen levels in vaccine lots.

1990-93 Anthrax is released in Tokyo by the terrorist group Aum Shinrikyo.

1991 Despite the absence of any proof of safety or efficacy of the AVA, about 150,000 of 500,000 U.S. troops and personnel receive at lease one dose of the AVA during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, purportedly for the purpose of protection against inhalation anthrax if it were used as biological weapons by Iraq.

1991 On February 28, 1991, Iraq surrenders; as condition of surrender, UNSCOM inspect Iraqi facilities confirming huge stockpile of weaponized anthrax.

1991 MBPI and the U.S. Army enter into an agreement for the manufacture of the AVA.

1991 In preparation for the Gulf War, U.S. troops receive anthrax vaccine; hundreds later complain of a variety of autoimmune problems given the name "Gulf War Syndrome" and believed by many to be adverse reactions from the
vaccine.

1991-2000 Hundreds of Gulf War Veterans complain of a variety of autoimmune problems given the name AGulf War Syndrome@ and believed by many to be adverse reactions to the vaccine.

1991 The U.S. Army, an agency of the DoD, awards MBPI the Commander's Award for Public Service for their supply of the AVA during the Gulf War.

1993 In June 1993, Pentagon creates joint program office for biological defense.

1993 MBPI fails an FDA inspection of its facilities.

1993 The Pentagon's deliberative process of mass vaccination of military personnel with the AVA begins with the development and implementation of DoD's Directive 6205.3, DoD Immunization Program for Biological Warfare
Defense.

1993 Ronda Wilson joins the U.S. Army.

1993 AUM Shinrikyo members fail in their attempt to spray anthrax from aerosol device on roof in downtown Tokyo; 2 years later, they release saran gas in Tokyo subway killing 12.

1994 On November 26, 1994, William Perry Deputy Secretary of Defense signs order committing to program ordering troops to be given AVA. 

1994 Senate report reveals the sale of Anthrax to Irag during its war with Iran with approval by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

1994 Senate Report 103-97 calls the AVA "investigational."

1995 The FDA issues a warning letter to MBPI requiring it to remedy the violations at its facility.

1995 The Department of the Army contracts with the Science Applications International Corporation ("SAIC") to develop a plan to obtain FDA approval for a license amendment for the AVA in order to add inhalation anthrax exposure to the product license and to enable BioPort to list on the product license that the AVA was effective against inhalation anthrax.

1995 The Army Joint Program Office for Biological Defense notes there was insufficient data to demonstrate protection against inhalation anthrax.

1995 Sandra Larson joins the U.S. Army.

1996 The DoD seeks and receives permission from the FDA to begin vaccinations of all military personnel without obtaining a new licensed indication for the AVA.

1996 As part of the Army/SAIC plan, MBPI submits an IND application in order to modify the product's license to add an indication for inhalation anthrax.

1997 MBPI executes another U.S. Army contract in order to maintain the AVA stockpile.

1997 The FDA sends MBPI a Notice of Intention to Revoke because no real changes had been made to the facility.

1997 MBPI fails another FDA inspection.

1997 Secretary of Defense William Cohen announces the Anthrax Vaccination Immunization Program (AVIP) for all U.S. military personnel.

1997 Internal FDA memo describes use of DoD's use of the AVA as experimental requiring informed consent.

1997-2003 All military personnel, including new recruits, begin receiving the six-shot series of the anthrax vaccination in the following inoculation program: 1) Phase 1: Forces assigned now or rotating to high threat areas in Southwest Asia and Korea; 2) Phase 2: Early deploying forces into high threat areas; 3) Phase 3: Remainder of the force and new recruits; and 4) Phase 4: To Continue the Program, annual booster shots.

1998 Anthrax vaccination plan for all military service members is approved by U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen.

1998 The FDA issues a report finding that the manufacturing process for Anthrax was not validated and listed 11 pages of quality control failures for anthrax vaccine production, including reuse of expired vaccine, grossly inadequate testing and use of lots that failed testing.

1998 An FDA Inspection report dated February 28th reports that Lot Number FAVO44, filled on January 7th had an "invalid" potency test on December 8, 1997. Also, Lot No. FAVO31 was partially formulated from sublots contaminated with microorganisms.

1998 Army Secretary Togo West, Jr. takes steps to approve a request to indemnify BioPort against all liability arising from "the unusually hazardous risks associated with potentially severe adverse reactions and the potential lack of efficacy of the AVA." The indemnification concerns, according to Secretary West, were a result of the limited use of the vaccine on too small a scale to permit accurate assessments of types and severities of adverse reactions and, insufficient experience in mass immunization programs to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine.

1998 BioPort jointly purchases the state owned MBPI with former MBPI lab directors for approximately $24 million.

1998 FDA suspends AVA shipments from BioPort because of questions about the facility's quality control.

1998 Sandra Larson leaves for a year tour of duty at Camp Stanley, South Korea. Sandra Larson receives her first of six AVA injections in the 18-month anthrax series on September 16. The Lot Number for this first AVA injection is FAVO17. On September 30, October 13 and April 6, 1999 Sandra Larson receives her next three AVA injections from Lot Number FAVO17.

1998 Ronda Wilson receives her first AVA injection from Lot Number FAVO36.

1999 Ronda Wilson receives her second AVA injection and immediately thereafter she experiences numerous other symptoms including: unrelenting nausea, stomach pain and seizure-like spasms.

1999 After Ronda Wilson receives her third AVA injection with Lot Number 041 she has significant memory loss and her bowel, small intestine, colon and heart are all damaged.

1999 Sandra Larson receives her fifth AVA injection from Lot Number FAVO 44.

1999 Sandra Larson is relieved of her duties in South Korea and her new orders require her to relocate to Fort Rile, Kansas.

1999 BioPort is still unable to ship the AVA and at BioPort's request the DoD restructures BioPort's contract, providing BioPort with $24.1 million dollars in relief, reducing the number of doses demanded to 4.6 million and agreed to raise the price per dose to $10.64.

1999 Dr. Kathryn Zoon writes to Dr. Sue Bailey, Assistant Secretary of Defense Health Affairs, reiterating her position that the AVIP follow the FDA approved schedule.

1999 BioPort's manufacturing plant is found to have about 30 deficiencies in safety, sterility and consistency.

2000 Office of the Inspector General, DoD, issues an audit report D-2000-105, reporting that over $2 million in taxpayer funds advanced to BioPort were not spent on improvements to vaccine production but spent on office remodeling, furniture for the CEO, parking lot re-paving, unwarranted travel expenses, unsubstantiated consulting costs, and an unrelated medical program. Additionally, senior managers planned on rewarding themselves $1.2 million in bonuses and a retired employee is collecting $10,000/month in severance and consulting fees.

2000 The Full Committee on Government Reform adopts the Subcommittee report recommending suspension of the AVIP.

2000 425,976 service members receive 1,620,793 doses of AVA.

2000 The DoD curtails the anthrax program because of vaccine shortages at Bioport forcing some soldiers to actually suspend vaccination mid-process. Still, BioPort is awarded a new contract which provides for $2-$2.5 million per month to cover costs related to getting the company to pass FDA approval of renovated anthrax production facilities.

2000 BioPort voluntarily recalls the AVA because wrong expiration dates were put on the labels; at the same time, BioPort's scientists seek royalties for their part in changing the anthrax vaccination process.

2000 Sandra Larson receives her sixth and final injection of the AVA from Lot Number FAVO 31 on March 12 2000. Sandra Larson's blood capillaries are bursting and she is experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding. On April 8th she is admitted to the hospital and on April 10th Sandra Larson is put into the intensive care unit at Kansas Medical Center and is diagnosed with aplastic anemia, where her bone marrow had stopped producing blood cells.

2000 On May 2nd, Sandra Larson is supposed to be transferred to Ft. Lewis in order to be treated at Madigan Army Medical Center; however the plane that is transferring her has to make an emergency landing at Travis Air Force Base in California.

2000 On June 12th, breathing through a ventilator, Sandra Larson goes into a coma. On June 14th, as result of the inoculation of the AVA, Sandra Larson dies.

2000 Richard Dunn, a BioPort employee required to take the AVA as a condition of his employment, dies from an adverse reaction to the vaccine.

2001 Ronda Wilson is discharged from the U.S. Army.

2001 In the weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, letters containing anthrax spores are mailed to American Media in Miami, NBC, ABC, the New York Times, the New York Post and Governor Pataki's office in New York City, and to Senator Daschle's office in Washington D.C. One man dies after inhaling anthrax at the offices of American Media, three postal workers die in Washington D.C., and more than a dozen others are infected with cutaneous anthrax. Some call for the anthrax vaccine to be available for postal workers and the general public.

  



Serve your Country? by dk 8:30am Wed Nov 13 '02 (Modified on 8:32am Wed Nov
13 '02)    article#1827

http://www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3?article_id=1827

Trust USA Government? Big mistake.
Forced Vaccines Haunt Gulf Vets
02:00 AM Nov. 07, 2002 PT

It was, the doctor at the Long Beach Veteran's Administration Hospital said, an incidental finding. A little gray smudge on the X-ray, a blob next to the pituitary gland. 

Six months later, University of California at Los Angeles surgeons worked six hours to sever a tumor from the brain of a muscular, 25-year-old ex-Special Forces Ranger and Gulf War veteran. The costly surgery was
performed at UCLA, the patient said, because VA doctors denied that the "incidental finding" caused his excruciating, unremitting headaches. In a 1994 report called Human Experimentation and Other Intentional Exposures Conducted by the Department of Defense, the Senate Committee on Veterans'
Affairs seemed to agree.

"The results of our investigation showed a reckless disregard that shocked me," said Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV. "The Pentagon ... threw caution to the winds, ignoring all warnings of potential harm, and gave these (investigational) drugs to hundreds of thousands of soldiers with virtually no warnings and no safeguards.

The report.

Human Experimentation and other Intentional Exposures conducted by the Department of Defense

FOREWORD

During the last few years, the public has become aware of several examples where U.S. Government researchers intentionally exposed Americans to potentially dangerous substances without their knowledge or consent. The , which I have been privileged to chair from 1993-94, has conducted a comprehensive analysis of the extent to which veterans participated in such research while they were serving in the U.S. military. This resulted in two hearings, on May 6, 1994, and August 5, 1994.

This report, written by the majority staff of the Committee, is the result of that comprehensive investigation, and is intended to provide information for future deliberations by the Congress. The findings and conclusions
contained in this report are those of the majority staff and do not necessarily reflect the views of the members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

This report would not have been possible without the dedication and expertise of Dr. Patricia Olson, who, as a Congressional Science Fellow, worked tirelessly on this investigation and report, and the keen intelligence, energy, and commitment of Dr. Diana Zuckerman, who directed this effort.

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, Chairman.

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman
DENNIS DeCONCINI, Arizona FRANK H. MURKOWSKI, Alaska
GEORGE J. MITCHELL, Maine STROM THURMOND, South Carolina
BOB GRAHAM, Florida ALAN K. SIMPSON, Wyoming
DANIEL K AKAKA, Hawaii ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. DASCHLE, South Dakota JAMES M. JEFFORDS, Vermont
BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado
Jim Gottlieb, Chief Counsel / Staff Director
John H. Moseman, Minority Staff Director / Chief Counsel
Diana M. Zuckerman, Professional Staff Member
Patricia Olson, Congressional Science Fellow

I. INTRODUCTION

During the last 5O years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel have been involved in human experimentation and other intentional exposures conducted by the Department of Defense (DOD), often without a servicemember's knowledge or consent. In some cases, soldiers who consented to serve as human subjects found themselves participating in experiments quite different from those described at the time they volunteered. For example, thousands of World War II veterans who originally volunteered to "test summer clothing" in exchange for extra leave time, found themselves in gas chambers testing the effects of mustard gas and lewisite.

1 Additionally, soldiers were sometimes ordered by commanding officers to "volunteer" to participate in research or face dire consequences. For example, several Persian Gulf War veterans interviewed by Committee staff reported that they were ordered to take experimental vaccines during Operation Desert Shield or face prison.
 
2 The goals of many of the military experiments and exposures were very appropriate. For example, some experiments were intended to provide important information about how to protect U.S. troops from nuclear,
biological, and chemical weapons or other dangerous substances during wartime. In the Persian Gulf War, U.S. troops were intentionally exposed to an investigational vaccine that was intended to protect them against biological warfare, and they were given pyridostigmine bromide pills in an experimental protocol intended to protect them against chemical warfare.

However, some of the studies that have been conducted had more questionable motives. For example, the Department of Defense (DOD) conducted numerous "man-break" tests, exposing soldiers to chemical weapons in order to determine the exposure level that would cause a casualty, i.e., "break a man."

3 Similarly, hundreds of soldiers were subjected to hallucinogens in experimental programs conducted by the DOD in participation with, or 
sponsored by, the CIA.

References: 

1 Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite, Pechura, C.M. & Rall, D.P. (Eds.) Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1993, p. 65.

2 In a survey of 150 Persian Gulf War veterans conducted by Committee staff, 15 of 17 military personnel receiving botulinum toxoid in the Gulf War were told they could not refuse the vaccination; 54 of 73 military personnel receiving pyridostigmine were told they could not refuse the drug.

3 Veterans at Risk, op. cit., p. 36.

End of References: 

4,5 These servicemembers often unwittingly participated as human subjects in tests for drugs intended for mind-control or behavior modification, often without their knowledge or consent. Although the ultimate goal of those experiments was to provide information that would help U.S. military and intelligence efforts, most Americans would agree that the use of soldiers as unwitting guinea pigs in experiments that were designed to harm them, at least temporarily, is not ethical.

Whether the goals of these experiments and exposures were worthy or not, these experiences put hundred of thousands of U.S. servicemembers at risk, and may have caused lasting harm to many individuals. Every year, thousands of experiments utilizing human subjects are still being conducted by, or on behalf of the DOD Many of these ongoing experiments have very appropriate goals such as obtaining information for preventing, diagnosing and treating various diseases and disabilities acquired during military service Although military personnel are the logical choice as human subjects for such research, it is questionable whether the military hierarchy allows for individuals in subordinate positions of power to refuse to participate in military experiments. It is also questionable whether those who participated as human subjects in military research were given adequate information to fully understand the potential benefits and risks of the experiments. Moreover, the evidence suggests that they have not been adequately monitored for adverse health effects after the experimental protocols end.

Veterans who become ill or disabled due to military service are eligible to receive priority access to medical care at VA medical facilities and to receive monthly compensation checks. In order to qualify, they must demonstrate that their illness or disability was associated with their military service. Veterans who did not know that they were exposed to dangerous substances while they were in the military, therefore, would not apply for or receive the medical care or compensation that they are entitled to. Moreover, even if they know about the exposure, it would be difficult or impossible to prove if the military has not kept adequate records. It is therefore crucial that the VA learn as much as possible about the potential exposures, and that the DOD assume responsibility for providing such information to veterans and to the VA.

References: 

4 Testimony of Deanne Siemer, general counsel, Department of Defense, hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, Committee on Human Resources, U.S. Senate, "Human Drug Testing by the CIA, 1977," September 20-21, 1977, pp. 157-168.

5 Testimony of Sidney Gottlieb, M.D., former CIA agent, hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, Committee on Human Resources, U.S. Senate, "Human Drug Testing by the CIA. 1977," September 20-21, 1977, pp. 169-217.

End of References: 
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II. BACKGROUND

A. CODES, DECLARATIONS, AND LAWS GOVERNING HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION

The Nuremberg Code is a 10-point declaration governing human experimentation, developed by the Allies after World War II in response to inhumane experiments conducted by Nazi scientists and physicians. The Code states that voluntary and informed consent is absolutely essential from all human subjects who participate in research, whether during war or peace. The Code states: The person involved should have the legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject, there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be expected; and the effects upon his health and person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiments.

6 There is no provision in the Nuremberg Code that allows a country to waive informed consent for military personnel or veterans who serve as human subjects in experiments during wartime or in experiments that are conducted because of threat of war. However, the DOD has recently argued that wartime experimental requirements differ from peacetime requirements for informed consent. According to the Pentagon, "In all peacetime applications, we believe strongly in informed consent and its ethical foundations.....But military combat is different."

7 The DOD argued that informed consent should be waived for investigational drugs that could possibly save a soldier's life, avoid endangerment of the other personnel in his unit, and accomplish the combat mission.

More than a decade after the development of the Nuremberg Code, the World Medical Association prepared recommendations as a guide to doctors using human subjects in biomedical research. As a result, in 1964 the Eighteenth World Medical Assembly met in Helsinki, Finland, and adopted recommendations to be used as an ethical code by all medical doctors conducting biomedical research with human subjects. This code, referred to as the Declaration of Helsinki, was revised in 1975, 1983, and 1989.. 
References: 

6 The Nuremberg Code, from Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1948.

7 55 Federal Register 52,814-52,817 (December 21, 1990), "Informed Consent for Human Drugs and Biologics: Determinations that Informed Consent is Not Feasible."

End of References: 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

8 It differs from the Nuremberg Code in certain important respects. The Declaration of Helsinki distinguishes between clinical (therapeutic) and nonclinical (nontherapeutic) biomedical research, and addresses "proxy consent" for human subjects who are legally incompetent, such as children or adults with severe physical or mental disabilities

9 Proxy consent for legally competent military personnel who participate in military research is not considered appropriate under the Nuremberg Code or the Declaration of Helsinki.

On June 18, 1991, the Federal Government announced that 16 U.S. governmental agencies would abide by a set of regulations, referred to as the "Common Rule," designed to protect human subjects who participate in federally
funded research.

10 The provisions of the "Common Rule," first promulgated for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in 1974, described how federally funded research involving human subjects shall be conducted. However, local Institutional Review Boards (IRB's) may revise or exclude some or all consent elements if the research exposes subjects to no more than "minimal risk," meaning "that the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests."

11 IRB's vary greatly in their interpretation of the risks of daily life.

There are three provisions governing research funded by DHHS that are intended to protect vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and  fetuses, prisoners, and children.12 There are no special Federal regulations to protect military personnel when they participate as human subjects in federally funded research, despite logical questions about whether military personnel can truly "volunteer" in response to a request from a superior officer.

Current law prevents the Department of Defense from using Federal funds for research involving the use of human experimental subjects unless the subject gives informed consent in advance. This law applies regardless of whether the research is intended to benefit the subject. 
References: 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Declaration of Helsinki, in European and Nordic Regulations and Guidelines for Good Clinical practice, Pharmaco Dynamics Research, Inc., July 1990. The Declaration of Helsinki was amended at the Twenty-Ninth World Medical
Assembly held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1975, the Thirty-Fifth World Medical Assembly held in Venice Italy in 1983, and the Forty-First World Medical Assembly held in Hong Kong in 1989.

9 Declaration of Helsinki, World Medical Association, in Biomedical Ethics, Third Edition Mappes T.A. & Zembaty, J.S., McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991, pp. 211-213.

10 56 Federal Register 28,002-28,032 (June 18, 1991), "Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects."

11 "Research Involving Human Subjects," statement of Robyn Y. Nishimi, Ph.D., Office of Technology Assessment, hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy, Committee on Science Space and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, "Human Radiation, Experimentation, and Gene Therapy,"  February 10, 1994.

12 45 CFR 46 (Public Welfare), subparts B,C, and D, revised October 1, 1991.

13 10 U.S.C. (Armed Forces) and 32 U.S.C. 980 (National Guard) put limits on the use of humans as experimental subjects.

B. MUSTARD GAS AND LEWISITE

13 According to a report published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) last year, approximately 60,000 military personnel Were used as human subjects in the 194O's to test two chemical agents, mustard gas and lewisite. Most of these subjects were not informed of the nature of the experiments and never received medical followup after their participation in the research.

14 Additionally, some of these human subjects were threatened with imprisonment at Fort Leavenworth if they discussed these experiments with anyone, including their wives, parents, and family doctors.

15 For decades, the Pentagon denied that the research had taken place, resulting in decades of suffering for many veterans who became ill after the secret testing. According to the 1993 IOM report, such denial by the DOD continues: "This committee discovered that an atmosphere of secrecy still exists to some extent regarding the WWII testing programs. Although many documents pertaining to the WWII testing programs were declassified shortly after the war ended, others were not."

16 Based on findings from the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently published a final rule to compensate veterans for disabilities or deaths resulting from the long- term effects of inservice exposure to mustard gas and other agents which blister the skin (these are called vesicants).

17 The final rule expands coverage to veterans exposed to mustard gas under battlefield conditions in World War I (WWI), those present at the German air raid on the harbor of Bari, Italy (WWII), and those engaged in manufacturing and handling vesicant agents during their military service. Thus, for the first time, VA will compensate certain veterans for illnesses which may have been caused by their exposure to vesicants over a century ago.

C. SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS

Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as Operation Whitecoat, were carried out at Fort Detrick, MD, in the 1950's. The human subjects originally consisted of volunteer enlisted men. However, after the enlisted men staged a sitdown strike to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests, Seventh-Day Adventists who were conscientious objectors were recruited for the studies.

18 Because these individuals did not believe in engaging in actual combat, they instead volunteered to be human subjects in military research projects that tested various infectious agents. At least 2,200 military personnel who
were Seventh-Day Adventists volunteered for biological testing during the 1950's through the 1970's.

References: 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 Veterans at Risk, op. cit., pp. 3-4, 6-8, 50-52, 224-226.
15 Ibid., p. 65.
16 Ibid., p. 7.

17 Federal Register 41,497-42,500 (August 18, 1994), "Claims Based on Chronic Effects of Exposure to Vesicant Agents."

18 Gene Wars, Military Control Over the New Genetic Technologies, Piller,  C. & Yamamoto, K.R., Beech Tree Books, William Morrow, New York, 1988, pp 44-45, 53.

End of References: 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

19 Unlike most of the studies discussed in this report Operation Whitecoat was truly voluntary. Leaders of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church described these human subjects as "conscientious participants," rather than
"conscientious objectors," because they were willing to risk their lives by participating in research rather than by fighting a war.

D. DUGWAY PROVING GROUND

20,21 Dugway Proving Ground is a military testing facility located approximately 80 miles From Salt Lake City. For several decades Dugway has been the site of testing for various chemical and biological agents. From 1951 through 1969, hundreds perhaps thousands of open-air tests using bacteria and viruses that cause disease in human, animals, and plants were conducted at Dugway.

22 For example, antigens produced by animals that had come in contact with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE), a disease usually found in horses, were later found in animals around Dugway. Prior to the identification of these substances in the Dugway vicinity, VEE had only been identified in the rat population in Florida. Such a finding suggested that VEE had been used in the open-air tests at Dugway or within laboratories, and transferred to the nearby animal population.

23 In 1968, approximately 6,400 sheep died following the intentional release of a deadly nerve gas from a plane. According to a veterinarian who evaluated the sick and dying sheep, there was little doubt that the sheep
had been poisoned with nerve gas.

24 The sheep and other animals in the area had depressed cholinesterase levels suggesting organophosphate nerve poisoning. Initially, the Department of Defense denied any responsibility for the accident, stating that the sheep died from organophosphate pesticides sprayed on a nearby alfalfa field. However, the nerve agent - was identified when the poisoned sheep were autopsied, which made it clear that the deaths were not caused by pesticides.

25 Eventually, the Department of Defense reimbursed the ranchers for their animals.

References: 

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.
21 At least one Seventh-Day Adventist Church has held reunions of those human subjects who participated in Operation Whitecoat. (Phone interview by Committee staff with Dr. Frank Damazo, Frederick, MD, March 21, 1994.)

22 Hearing before the Subcommittee on Conservation and Natural Resources, Committee on Government Operations, U.S. House of Representatives, "Environmental Dangers of Open-Air Testing of Lethal Chemicals," May 20-21,
1969.

23 bid., pp. 6-7.

24 Testimony of Dr. D.A. Osguthorpe, veterinarian and consultant to Utah State Department of Agriculture, hearing before the Subcommittee on Conservation and Natural Resources, Committee on Government Operations, U.S.
House of Representatives, "Environmental Dangers of Open-Air Testing of Lethal Chemicals," May 20-21, 1969, pp 63-66.

25 Ibid., pp. 64-65.

It is unknown how many people in the surrounding vicinity were also exposed to potentially harmful agents used in open-air tests at Dugway. In 1969, concerns were expressed at a congressional hearing about the possible public
health implications of the VEE virus tested at Dugway.

26 Due to previous problems with dangerous organisms and chemicals, Dugway has developed an active program of "simulant" testing. According to the Department of Defense, simulants are harmless organisms or chemicals which
do not cause disease. However, during 45 years of open-air testing, the Army has stopped using a variety simulants when they realized they were not as safe as previously believed.

E. RADIATION EXPOSURE

Atomic Veterans

27 From 1945 to 1962, the United States conducted numerous nuclear detonation tests: Crossroads (Bikini, Sandstone, Greenhouse, and Ivy (Eniwetok Atoll); Castle (Bikini Atoll); Pacific Ocean 400 miles southwest
of San Diego; Redwing and Hardtack I (Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls); Argus (South Atlantic); and Dominic (Christmas Island, Johnston Island, 400 miles west of San Diego).

28 The main goal was to determine damage caused by the bombs; however, as a result, thousands of military personnel and civilians were exposed to radioactive fallout. Similar tests were conducted within the continental United States, including sites in New Mexico and Nevada.

29 Veterans who participated in activities that directly exposed them to radioactive fallout are referred to as "atomic veterans."

Data obtained on some military personnel who were exposed to radioactive fallout were collected after these men were unintentionally exposed. However, some atomic veterans believe they were used as guinea pigs to determine the effects of radiation from various distances, including those at ground zero, on human subjects. Their suspicions are supported by a 1951 document from the Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare,Research and Development Board, Department of Defense, which identified general criteria for bomb test-related "experiments" and identified

29 "specific problems" as "legitimate basis for biomedical participation."

References:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

26 Testimony of Hon. Richard D. McCarthy, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York, hearing before the Subcommittee on Conservation and Natural Resources, Committee on Government Operations, U.S. House of
Representatives, "Environmental Dangers of Open-Air Testing of Lethal Chemicals," May 20-21, 1969, pp 6-7.

27 Cole, L.A., "Risk and biological defense program," Physicians for Social Responsibility Quarterly, Vol 2, No. 1, March 1992, pp. 40-50.

28 Compilation of Local Fallout Data From Test Detonations 1945-1962,extracted From DASA 1251, Vol I-Oceanic U.S. Tests, Contract No. DNA 001-79-C-0081, May 1, 1979, sponsored by the Defense Nuclear Agency.

29 Ibid.

30 Secret document, Department of Defense, Research and Development Board,Committee on Medical Sciences, Joint Panel on the Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare, 8th Meeting, Washington, DC, February 24, 1951.

End of 
References:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

30 The National Research Council's Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) have prepared a series of reports to advise the U.S. Government on the health consequences of radiation exposure.

31 The first of these reports was not published until the late 1980's, decades after military personnel were first exposed to ionizing radiation.For the last 13 years, the VA has provided free medical care to atomic veterans who have disorders they believe to be caused by ionizing radiation, even if there is no conclusive evidence of the cause.

32 In addition, the VA provides monthly compensation to veterans who were exposed to ionizing radiation during military service, who have illnesses that are believed to be associated with their exposure. The lists of compensable diseases have been revised as more research information has become available. For example, on October 11, 1994, the VA announced that tumors of the brain and central nervous system would be considered for disability compensation for veterans exposed to ionizing radiation.

Radiation Releases at U.S. Nuclear Sites

33 In addition to detonation testing, radioactive releases were also intentionally conducted at U.S. nuclear sites in the years following World War II. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), at least l2 planned radioactive releases occurred at three U.S. nuclear sites during 1948-1952. These tests were conducted at Oak Ridge, TN; Dugway, UT; and Los Alamos, NM.

34 Additionally, a planned release occurred at Hanford, WA, in December 1949, which has been referred to as the Green Run test. It is not known how many civilians and military personnel were exposed to fallout from these
tests.

Other Exposures to Ionizing Radiation

In January 1994, the Clinton administration established a Human Radiation Interagency Working Group to coordinate a Government- wide effort to uncover the nature and extent of any Government- sponsored experiments on individuals involving intentional exposure to ionizing radiation. The working group represents the Administration's response to Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary's promise to comb Government files for information on hundreds of experiments conducted on people in the 1940's and 1950's.

To assist in identifying those people who may have been harmed by secret experiments utilizing ionizing radiation, the Clinton administration solicited complaints from possible victims by installing several telephone hotlines. As of September 1994, 86 percent of the 21,996 callers to the radiation hotline were veterans who believed they had participated in various radiation "experiments

References: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

31 "Health Effects of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation," BEIR V, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1990.

32 Letter from Hon. Jesse Brown, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, Chair, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, May 31, 1994.

33 News release, Office of Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, October 11, 1994.

34 Nuclear Health and Safety, Examples of Post World War II Radiation Releases at U.S. Nuclear Sites," U.S. General Accounting Office, November 1993, GAO/RCED-94- 51FS.

End of references: 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

35 A VA advisory committee has concluded that activities other than atomic weapons tests and occupation force activities resulted in the exposure of veterans to ionizing radiation during their military service prior to 1970.

36 The committee concluded that the records for many individuals who were exposed to such activities are inadequate or inaccessible. Additionally, the committee concluded that information pertinent to military exposures is not always adequate to evaluate the health risks.

F. HALLUCINOGENS

Working with the CIA, the Department of Defense gave hallucinogenic drugs to thousands of "volunteer" soldiers in the 1950's and 1960's. In addition to LSD, the Army also tested quinuclidinyl benzilate, a hallucinogen code-named BZ.

37 Many of these tests were conducted under the so-called MKULTRA program, established to counter perceived Soviet and Chinese advances in brainwashing techniques. Between 1950 and 1964, the program consisted of 149 projects involving drug testing and other studies on unwitting human subjects.

38 One test subject was Lloyd B. Gamble, who enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1950. In 1957, he volunteered for a special program to test new military protective clothing. He was offered various incentives to participate in the
program, including a liberal leave policy, family visitations, and superior living and recreational facilities. However, the greatest incentive to Mr. Gamble was the official recognition he would receive as a career-oriented noncommissioned officer, through letters of commendation and certification of participation in the program. During the 3 weeks of testing new clothing, he was given two or three water-size glasses of a liquid containing LSD to drink. Thereafter, Mr. Gamble developed erratic behavior and even attempted suicide. He did not learn that he had received LSD as a human subject until 18 years later, as a result of congressional hearings in 1975.

39 Even then, the Department of the Army initially denied that he had participated in the experiments, although an official DOD publicity photograph showed him as one of the valiant servicemen volunteering for "a program that was in the highest national security interest."

References: 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

35 Information from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, received at the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, September 21, 1994; in Committee files.

36 Letter from Hon. Jesse Brown, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, Chair, U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, May 26, 1994.

37 Gene Wars, op. cit., pp 50-51.

38 Statement of David Gries, Director, Center for the Study of Human Intelligence, CIA, hearing before the Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental Relations, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of
Representatives, "Government - Sponsored Tests on Humans and Possible Compensation for People Harmed in the Tests," February 2, 1994.

39 Summary of testimony, Lloyd B. Gamble, LSD test subject, hearing before the Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental Relations, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, "Government-Sponsored Tests on Humans and Possible Compensation for People Harmed in the Tests," February 2, 1994.

End of References: 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

40 According to Sidney Gottlieb, a medical doctor and former CIA agent,MKULTRA was established to investigate whether and how an individual's behavior could be modified by covert means.

41 According to Dr. Gottlieb, the CIA believed that both the Soviet Union and Communist China might be using techniques of altering human behavior which were not understood by the United States. Dr. Gottlieb testified that "it was felt to be mandatory and of the utmost urgency for our intelligence organization to establish what was possible in this field on a high priority basis." Although many human subjects were not informed or protected, Dr.Gottlieb defended those actions by stating, "...harsh as it may seem in retrospect, it was felt that in an issue where national survival might be concerned, such a procedure and such a risk was a reasonable one to take.

G. INVESTIGATIONAL DRUGS USED IN THE PERSIAN GULF WAR

42 Under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act, all vaccines and medical products must be proven safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to be sold and distributed in the United States. This law also applies to medical products used by the Department of Defense, even if given to U.S. troops who are stationed in other countries.

FDA also regulates medical products that are proven safe and effective for some uses or with specific doses, but not for other uses or other doses. If the product is only sold at certain doses and not others, its use at the non-approved dose would be considered investigational. If the product is legally available for sale at the same dosage, physicians can legally prescribe it; however, manufacturers can not advertise it for that purpose. Such "off label" use is also considered investigational. So, for example, a drug may be proven safe and effective to treat one kind of cancer, but be considered investigational to treat a different disease.

Under current law, an unapproved vaccine or investigational use of a drug could only be administered by the DOD under an Investigational New Drug (IND) procedure 43 Under an IND, any individual who is given the investigational product must give informed consent, i.e., must be told of the potential risks and benefits of the product, orally and in writing, and choose freely whether or not to participate. In addition, the IND requires that the medical product be distributed under carefully controlled conditions where safety and effectiveness can be evaluated.

References: 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

40 Ibid.

41 Testimony of Sidney Gottlieb, M.D., former CIA agent, before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, Committee on Human Resources, U.S. Senate, "Human Drug Testing by the CIA, 1977," September 20-21, 1977, p. 169. Actual wording is "convert means," which we took to mean "covert means."

42 Ibid., pp. 169-217.

43 Federal Register 52,814-52,817 (December 21, 1990).

End of References: 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the Department of Defense began preparations for Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990, officials were extremely concerned that Iraq would use chemical and biological weapons against the United States. Despite years of study and billions of dollars, the DOD lacked drugs and vaccines that were proven safe and effective to safeguard against anticipated chemical nerve agents and biological toxins. Therefore, DOD officials wanted to use a medication (pyridostigmine bromide) and vaccine (botulinum toxoid) that they believed might protect against chemical nerve agents and botulism. Because the safety and effectiveness of pyridostigmine bromide and botulinum toxoid had not been proven for their intended use, these products were considered investigational drugs.

PYRIDOSTIGMINE BROMIDE is a chemical which enhances the effectiveness of twodrugs, atropine and 2-PAM, which are proven effective for the treatment of nerve agent poisoning.

44 Pyridostigmine is also a nerve agent itself. Nerve agents exert their biological effects by binding to, and inhibiting, the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) which normally shuts off the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine (ACh). When levels of ACh increase, nerve impulses and organ activity increase. When nerve and organ stimulation are excessive, death can result.

There are two major categories of nerve agents, carbamates and organophosphate (OP) compounds.

45 German scientists developed many of the OP compounds for warfare agents and pesticides in the 1930's and 1940's. Examples of warfare agents include tabun, sarin, soman, and VX. Many organophosphates permanently inhibit AChE. This permanent effect, which can only be reversed when new enzymes are synthesized, makes OP warfare agents extremely lethal.

Pyridostigmine bromide is a carbamate, rather than an OP compound.

46 Although it is a nerve agent, pyridostigmine has a reversible effect which can protect the AChE form permanently binding to OP compounds. When appropriate doses are selected pyridostigmine theoretically should not cause nerve agent poisoning and should help protect against some lethal chemical warfare.

Efficacy. Pyridostigmine only works when taken in combination with other drugs and only if taken before exposure to nerve gas. 

47 Two antidotes to nerve agents, atropine and pyridine-2-aldoxime methochloride (2-PAM), are reportedly enhanced if pyridostigmine has already been given. Atropine and 2-PAM were included in the nerve agent antidote kits (Mark I) which were issued to U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf.

In research studies, animals given pyridostigmine, atropine, and 2-PAM were more likely to survive exposure to one chemical nerve agent, soman, than those given only atropine and 2-PAM. However pyridostigmine is unable to enter and protect the brain, so that animals exposed to soman can still suffer convulsions despite the pyridostigmine pretreatment. 48 To protect against brain damage from ongoing seizure activity, valium may also be required following exposure to a warfare nerve agent. Similarly, pyridostigmine may offer little protection against the damage caused by nerve agents in the spinal cord

references: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

44 Sidell, F.R., "Clinical Considerations in Nerve Agent Intoxication," Chemical Warfare Agents, Somani, S.M. (Ed.), Academic Press, Inc., 1992, pp. 155-194.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid.

End of 
references:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

49 Safety. Pyridostigmine bromide is approved by the FDA for treating myasthenia gravis, a neurological disease characterized by extreme weakness. This disease occurs when individuals develop antibodies that prevent ACh from causing muscle impulses at the  neuromuscular junction. Therefore, treatment with relative high doses of pyridostigmine increases ACh to levels that are able to overcome the "block" created by the antibodies. An analogy might be that of a fishing pond. The two ways to increase the number of fish caught are to increase the number of fishing poles or to increase the number of fish in the pond.

FDA and DOD officials claimed they were confident of the safety of pyridostigmine as an antidote enhancer for chemical warfare protection because it would be used at a much lower dose 50 in combat than normally used for treating patients with myasthenia gravis. However, normal patients and those with myasthenia gravis may not respond similarly to the same dose of pyridostigmine bromide. Whereas the dosage of pyridostigmine bromide for patients with myasthenia gravis may reach 120 mg every three hours,

51 the dose for U.S. troops was only 30 mg every 8 hours. A good analogy is the use of insulin for diabetes mellitus; very high doses of insulin are sometimes necessary to treat diabetics, but similar doses could be fatal for non-diabetic individuals. Some scientists also question whether pyridostigmine is completely safe even for treating patients with myasthenia gravis. The proportion of patients with myasthenia gravis that recover after surgical treatment (thymectomy) has decreased since pyridostigmine therapy was introduced several decades ago.

52 Experts speculate that whereas the problems caused by myasthenia gravis can be corrected by surgery, pyridostigmine may cause immune damage to the neuromuscular junction that cannot be corrected by surgery. Since the symptoms of pyridostigmine damage would be similar to the symptoms of myasthenia gravis, any damage from the pyridostigmine would be extremely difficult if not impossible to diagnose. In addition to its use for myasthenia gravis, pyridostigmine bromide has been approved by FDA for use with surgical patients; it is administered after surgery to reverse the effect of anesthesia, which are neuromuscular blocking agents. The dose is relatively small (l5 mg) and not repeated. This treatment does not provide relevant information about the safety of repeated use of pyridostigmine by healthy individuals, since the dosage is small and the patients have received neuromuscular blocking agents.

References: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

49 Das Gupta, S., Bass, K-N., Warnick, J.E. "Interaction of reversible and irreversible cholinesterase inhibitors on the monosynaptic reflex in neonatal rats," Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Vol. 99, 1989, pp. 28-36.

50 55 Federal Register 52,814-52,817 (December 21, 1990).

51 Drachman, D.B. "Medical Progress, review article: Myasthenia gravis," New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 330, No. 25, June 23, 1994, pp. 1797-1810.

52 Scadding, G.K., Havard, C.W.H., Lange, M.J., & Domb, I. "The long term experience of thymectomy for myasthenia gravis," Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, Vol. 48, 1985, pp. 401-406.

End of References: 
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The bromide that is included in pyridostigmine bromide pills is known to sometimes cause problems referred to as "bromide intoxication" when used for the treatment of myasthenia gravis.

53 Bromide intoxication may cause confusion, irritability, tremor, memory loss, psychotic behavior, ataxia, stupor, and coma. Some patients with bromide intoxication have a skin disorder of the face and hands resembling acne. A 60 mg tablet of the commercially available pyridostigmine bromide contains l8.4 mg bromide (30.6 percent).

54,55 FDA has not approved pyridostigmine bromide for repeated use in healthy individuals as an antidote enhancer or for any other reason. Since it would be unethical to expose individuals to potentially lethal chemical weapons in order to evaluate the efficacy of pyridostigmine, this use has only been studied on animals. The product is therefore an investigational drug when used as an antidote enhancer for treating nerve gas poisoning.

BOTULINUM TOXOID is an unapproved vaccine that is used to protect laboratory workers and others who are likely to be exposed to botulism. Botulism is caused by at least one of seven neurotoxins produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum. When home-canning of food was common, food poisoning was the most common cause of botulism in the United States; the bacteria in the food produces a toxin which is eaten. Today, the most common form of botulism occurs infants, since the bacteria that produces the toxin can thrive in a baby's intestinal tract.

A botulism vaccine that is intended to protect against five of seven neurotoxins (called A,B,C,D,E) is produced by the Michigan Department of Health. This is called pentavalent toxoid. This vaccine is not a licensed product and must be distributed as an Investigational New Drug (IND). Efficacy. Desert Shield began on August 8, 1990. Since the air war did not begin until January 16, 1991, and the ground war took place from February 24-27, 1991, the Pentagon had several months to review the possible use of investigational drugs and vaccines.

In December 1990, the FDA advised the Department of Defense that it would be unable to test the botulism vaccine for efficacy, presumably because of limited time before the onset of the war. The FDA agreed to test the vaccine for safety, but these tests were not completed until late January 1991. At a meeting of the Informed Consent Waiver Review Group (ICWRG) on December 31, 1990, a representative of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research discussed the vaccine, explaining that the existing supply was nearly 20 years old and consisted of three lots, stored under continuous refrigeration

References: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

53 Wacks, I., Oster, J.R., Perez, G.O., & Kett, D.H. "Spurious
hyperchloremia and hyperbicarbonatemia in a patient receiving pyridostigmine bromide therapy for myasthenia gravis," American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Vol. XVI, No. 1, July 1990, pp. 76-79.

54 Ibid.

55 Mestinon is the brand name for one form of pyridostigmine bromide available in the United State

End of 
References:----------------------------------------------------------------------------

56 Given the age of these vaccines, they were concerns about their safety.

The recommended schedule for immunization with the pentavalent vaccine includes a series of three initial injections at 0, 2 and 12 weeks, followed by a booster 12 months after the first injection According to the Centers for Disease Control's Center for Infectious Diseases, subjects given the vaccine did not have detectable antitoxin titers after the first two shots in the initial series, which means that they were unlikely to be protected at week 2.

57 If for any reason only two immunizations can be given, at least 4 to 8 weeks should elapse between injections if most individuals are to be protected against the disease. 58 Safety. The Michigan Department of Health reported that 4.2 percent of patients reported a sore arm or other local reactions to the initial series of three shots, an 12.1 percent had local reactions to the booster shots.

59 Almost 3 percent had systemic reactions such as general malaise, after either the initial three shots or the booster shots. Because of the relatively large percentage of adverse reactions new lots of the vaccine were manufactured in 1971. However there is no evidence that the newer lots produced fewer adverse reactions than the older lots.

In her review of the DOD's application for use of botulinum toxoid in the Persian Gulf, an FDA reviewer pointed out that in 1973 the Centers for Disease Control had considered terminating the distribution of the vaccine because of the relatively large number of individuals who had negative reactions to it.

60 The FDA reviewer also pointed out that "there are no efficacy data in humans" and that the dose for humans was an estimate based on results from guinea pigs. In addition, potency testing had suggested that the vaccine would not be effective against two of the Persian Gulf War. According to the Michigan Department of Health, the effects of the botulism vaccine on pregnant women had not been studied prior to its use in the Persian Gulf
War.

ANTHRAX VACCINE is an FDA-approved vaccine that is considered safe and effective for individuals whose skin may come in contact with animal products such as hides, hair, or bones likely to contain the anthrax infection. It is also recommended for veterinarians and others who are likely to touch infected animals.

References: 

56 Minutes of meeting of the Informed Consent Waiver Review Group (ICWRG),
Food and Drug Administration, December 31, 1990.

57 Ellis, R.J. Immunobiologic agents and drugs available from the Centers for Disease Control: Descriptions, recommendations, adverse reactions, and serologic response. Third Edition. Centers for Disease Control, Public
Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA, March 1982.

58 Middlebrook, J.L. "Contributions of the U.S. Army to Botulinum Toxin Research," Botulinum and Tetanus Neurotoxins, Das Gupta, B.R., (Ed.), Plenum Press, New York, 1993, pp. 515-519.

59 Informational material for the use of pentavalent (ABCDE) botulinum toxoid aluminum phosphate adsorbed, Protocol #392, Centers for Disease Control, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, May 1992.

60 Review by Ann Sutton to the IND record, November 14, 1990; in Committee files.

End of references: 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-

61 However, the vaccine's effectiveness against inhaled anthrax is unknown. Unfortunately, when anthrax is used as a biological weapon, it is likely to be aerosolized and thus inhaled. Therefore, the efficacy of the vaccine against biological warfare is unknown. It appears that there is only one relevant animal study which showed that anthrax vaccine apparently provided additional protection against relapse in monkeys exposed to inhalation anthrax and treated with antibiotics.

62 Although the results of this study suggest the vaccine might protect against anthrax that has been sprayed, it is not sufficient to prove that anthrax vaccine is safe and effective as used in the Persian Gulf. The vaccine should therefore be considered investigational when used as a protection against biological warfare.

The anthrax vaccine is given as three injections 2 weeks apart, followed by three additional injections given 6, 12, and 18 months after the initial injection. If immunity is to be maintained, subsequent booster injections of anthrax vaccine are recommended at 1-year intervals.

63 According to the Interagency Task Force on Persian Gulf War Illnesses, one dose provides some immunity in 85 percent of those individuals vaccinated.

64 According to the Michigan Department of Public Health which manufactures anthrax vaccine, it is not known whether anthrax vaccine is safe for pregnant women or their offspring.

References: 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
61 Informational material for the use of anthrax vaccine adsorbed, Michigan Department of Public Health, U.S. License No. 99, 1978.

62 Friedlander, A.M., Welkos, S.L., Pitt, M.L.M., et al. "Postexposure prophylaxis against experimental inhalation anthrax," Journal of Infectious Diseases, Vol. 167, 1993, pp. 1239-1242.

63 Anthrax vaccine adsorbed, package insert, Michigan Department of Public Health, Lansing, MI, 1978.

64 Summary of the issues impacting upon the health of Persian Gulf War veterans," Version 1.1, March 3, 1994.

  



Ready to deploy, reservist dies 

April 11, 2003 

BY ANA MENDIETA STAFF REPORTER 

A young soldier from the south suburbs died of a mysterious illness before she could fulfill her dream of serving her country on the front lines. Rachael A. Lacy, a 22-year-old Army reservist from Lynwood, became ill more than a month ago after receiving several mandatory vaccinations--among them anthrax and smallpox--before her deployment to the Middle East. She died April 4. "Rachael left home a healthy young woman, and she became sick shortly after she received her inoculations,'' said her father, Moses Lacy, who buried his daughter Wednesday in Lynwood. 

An Army spokeswoman at Fort McCoy, Wis., where Lacy was based, said there was no indication any of the vaccinations Lacy received were involved in her death. "But until the autopsy is done it's really hard to say," spokeswoman Linda Fournier said. She said it would be a month before all autopsy results were received. 

Lacy's father said she developed what doctors first thought was a cold or a minor reaction to inoculations about five weeks ago. Her condition worsened, she did not respond to treatment for pneumonia and doctors looked further, even calling a specialist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. 

"They were just guessing; they had no idea,'' Moses Lacy said. 

He said when his daughter could not breathe unaided and had an extremely high fever, weakness, headaches and nausea, she was taken from the military hospital to hospitals in nearby Sparta and LaCrosse, Wis., then flown by helicopter April 2 to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. 

Rachael Lacy died there two days later. Her father said he was then told she might have suffered from the immune disorder lupus, and her condition could have been caused by the smallpox vaccination. 

Rachael Lacy joined the Army Reserves in 1998 after graduating from Thornton High School in Lansing. She was studying to become a nurse at South Suburban College in South Holland and hoped to receive a master's degree as well. A straight-A student, she had received state scholarships. She was with the 452nd combat hospital support unit based in Fort McCoy. 

She was a "fanatic" when it came to her health and she exercised regularly, her father said. "All she kept telling me is, 'I want to get better because I want to go with my unit.' I would like the 452nd unit to know that although my daughter did not die in the battlefield in Asia, she gave her life for her country that she loved, nonetheless," Moses Lacy said. "They are soon to be deployed, and she will be with them in spirit." 

Contributing: Brenda Warner Rotzoll 

  



GULF WAR JABS 'LIES' BY HOON 

Apr 27 2003
Exclusive by Mike Hamilton

A SOLDIER called up for battle in Iraq has fallen ill with suspected Gulf War Syndrome after receiving five jabs in one day. he injections given to Tony Barker, 45, contradict Government pledges that troops would not be given the multiple vaccinations, blamed for making thousands of Gulf War 1 veterans sick. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told MPs in January: "A key lesson learned about inoculations is that it is not sensible to inflict on our forces a large 
number simultaneously."

But last night Gulf War Syndrome expert Professor Malcolm Hooper said: "Geoff Hoon is not telling the truth. This shows that the Government has clearly breached its own guidelines." Tony was given five vaccinations - hepatitis, typhoid, polio, diptheria and yellow fever - on February 17, days after he was called up.

JABS: Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon 

The father-of-one received an Anthrax 1 jab less than a week later. Although he told medics he suffered from high blood pressure, he was passed fit for service. HGV driver Tony was based at Camp Eagle in northern Kuwait where he was given nerve agent pre-treatment and anti-malarial pills. He also had a second anthrax jab on March 13.

The Royal Logistics Corps driver fell ill and collapsed after his blood pressure soared. He was ordered to stop taking anti-malarial tablets, and jetted home. Since returning his condition has deteriorated, and the Territorial Army Lance Corporal is set to be discharged. The news comes just two weeks after the Sunday Mirror revealed reservist sapper Stephen Cartwright was thought to be suffering from Gulf War Syndrome.
  




FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticleMore2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID
=471589&Page=1&ReturnUrl=NewsFrontMore.aspx

THE YORKSHIRE TODAY
Further wave of Gulf War illness feared

THOUSANDS of soldiers will fall sick in a wave of illness destined to eclipse that which followed the first Gulf War, according to veterans already glimpsing the first fresh cases of a controversial syndrome. A soldier from Morley, near Leeds, has already fallen ill with suspected Gulf War Syndrome after receiving five vaccination jabs in one day. The national Gulf Veterans and Families Association, based in Hull, has been fighting since the last conflict for recognition of Gulf War Syndrome – an illness it says has ruined the lives of hundreds of soldiers. And members warn that the effects of the most recent conflict will be worse than before.

The warnings came as Lance Corporal Tony Barker, 45, spoke of how a mystery illness has left him unable to work and suffering from exhaustion and trembling hands since he returned from the Gulf. The Territorial Army veteran was given five vaccinations for hepatitis, typhoid, polio, diptheria and yellow fever on February 17. The father-of-one received an anthrax jab days later. Although suffering from high blood pressure he was passed fit for service. The HGV driver was based at Camp Eagle in northern Kuwait where he was given nerve agent treatment and anti-malarial pills. He also had a second anthrax jab.

The driver from the Royal Logistics Corps fell ill shortly afterwards as his blood pressure soared. He was ordered to stop taking his anti-malarial drugs and flown home. His condition has deteriorated and he is set to be discharged. He is unable to return to work. He told the Yorkshire Post: "I'm from the old school and if somebody further up the chain of command reckons you should do something, you do it. We were given the option of not having the jabs but I thought the top brass wouldn't give us it if it was dangerous.

"When I thought of Gulf War Syndrome until then I thought it was all about trauma and things like that. The chemical side of it never occurred to me. "I had my jabs and pills but then I got a chronic upset stomach. I reported to the medics, they took my blood pressure and I was on a plane home. "When I got back I found I was exhausted and my hands were twitching. I put it down to a change in sleeping pattern but five weeks later I'm still the same. I'm starting to worry. I can't work as an HGV driver if I'm exhausted. I've never felt like this before and I just keep thinking of all those chemicals that were pumped through me. They're the same as the lads from the first conflict got and look how they've suffered."

The vaccinations were in stark contrast to a Government pledge that troops would not be given the multiple vaccinations blamed for making veterans sick after the first conflict. Former Army paramedic Shaun Rusling leads the Veterans' Association. He said that according to medical protocol three doses should be given at three-week intervals, followed by a fourth at six months to offer sufficient protection. He said: "We haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg yet. These lads have been pumped full of the same chemicals that made us ill. Then you've got the trauma of what they've seen over there to go on top... "We're already getting calls on our helpline from wives of soldiers concerned that their husbands are acting strange since they returned." The MoD has said the anthrax jab had been given to many hundreds of troops over the years and there was no clinical evidence to suggest any had suffered a long-term ill-effect.
dave.mark@ypn.co.uk

FROM THE UNITED STATES

27 April 2003

Fort Drum soldier will be tried for refusing vaccine
The Associated Press

(April 28, 2003) — FORT DRUM — A 26-year-old Army reservist at Fort Drum faces a court-martial for her refusal to receive an anthrax vaccine. Pvt. Kamila Iwanowska said she resisted receiving the shots on religious and medical grounds. Military prosecutors will try her for refusing to obey a lawful order. The trial was to begin today, but was delayed for one to two weeks. The Army said Iwanowska, of New York City, refused an anthrax shot at Fort Drum after reporting for pre-deployment processing with her unit in January. Iwanowska said she considers the shot medically dangerous to children she might have in the future, saying the long-term effects are unknown. She also said she could not take the vaccine because of the Roman Catholic religion she practices and the respect it accords unborn infants.

The Pentagon insists the vaccination is safe, with severe adverse reactions developing in about one in 100,000 vaccinations. Iwanowska was demoted from the rank of specialist, said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a Fort Drum spokesman. Meanwhile, Pvt. Rhonda Hazley served a 14-day jail sentence and lost her specialist’s rank following a court-martial last month. Hazley, of East Dublin, Ga., said she refused the shot because she feared it could harm her breast-feeding infant. In February, two Marines at Camp Pendleton in California refused the anthrax vaccine. Both were deployed to the Middle East and have courts-martial pending upon their return.

Two Air Force officers sued the Bush administration and the Pentagon last year, challenging the mandatory anthrax vaccines for the nation’s 2.4 million service members.

  




Young Soldier Dies Weeks After Receiving Mandatory Vaccinations

A 22-year-old soldier died of a mysterious illness after receiving several mandatory vaccinations, including anthrax and smallpox. According to the girl’s father, doctors thought she had a cold or a minor reaction to inoculations, but then her condition worsened and she didn’t respond to treatment for pneumonia. 

Two days before her death, she could not breathe unaided and had an extremely high fever, weakness, headaches and nausea.Although an Army spokesperson said there was no indication that vaccines were involved in the girl’s death, her father was told that she might have had the immune disorder lupus, which could have been caused by the smallpox vaccination. The true cause of death will not be known until an autopsy is performed.


Chicago Sun Times April 11, 2003
 




Soldier hails Gulf case win
 BBC News
 5 May 2003

 A former soldier says a tribunal's ruling on the connection between  injections and Gulf War Syndrome is "a great step forward" for  campaigners.  A war pensions appeal tribunal ruled Alex Izett's brittle bone disease  could be linked to a cocktail of injections he had before the Gulf War.  Mr Izett - who served with the Royal Engineers - was never actually  sent to the conflict but developed unexpected illness in the same  way as many veterans.  The Ministry of Defence has said it will not challenge the finding  made by the tribunal in December, but it does not agree with the  verdict.  Army veterans have described the ruling as the first official  recognition of Gulf War Syndrome.

 They have taken my dignity, my livelihood but  they are not going to take my life as well  - Alex Izett   It has taken until now to get the paperwork confirming the findings  from the War Pensions Agency.  The tribunal found that "the appellant was vaccinated with a  concoction of drugs prior to planned deployment in the Gulf War.  "The concoction of drugs caused osteoporosis."  Mr Izett's condition left him unable to work and very depressed.  "I suffered the exact same symptoms as people who actually served in  the Gulf who also had the same inoculations," he told the BBC.  "My bones started to deteriorate, I lost muscles, I had stomach  problems, I had psychiatric problems. I am really depressed and I have  also had two suicide attempts." 

 'Official backing'

 Mr Izett, 33, who is from Glasgow but who now lives in Bersenbruck in  Germany, said he was then diagnosed with osteoporosis.  "I cannot lift more than 20lbs. I can't pick my children up," he said.  "I cannot work - I am unemployed."   No reputable medical authority whatsoever accepts  the existence of a syndrome called Gulf War Syndrome  - Louis Moonie, defence minister  Mr Izett said the tribunal's finding was "a great step forward" for  other veterans.  He said the MoD was being pushed into a corner and was starting to make mistakes.  "I'm glad we can use these mistakes which they are making to prove  they are wrong and prove they damaged our health which they should  pay fully-paid pensions for," he said.  "I hope this judgment will have a knock-on effect and that the MoD  will now finally tell the truth.  "I just hope that this opens the floodgates for more cases to come  forward."  Campaigners have seen his case as the vital link that proves there is  a problem specifically with the injections, something long disputed by the government.

 'No evidence'

 Gulf War veterans believe the tribunal's decision constitutes official  backing for their position.  Unlike an ongoing earlier case, the government has decided not to  challenge the verdict.  The MoD said it still disagreed with the verdict but could not find  any grounds to contest it.  Defence minister Dr Lewis Moonie said he did not accept that the  injections caused the illnesses.

 "There is no medical evidence to support that whatsoever," he told BBC  Radio 4's Today programme.  "The tribunal ruling accepted that we could not prove that the ill  health was not due to the concoctions.  "If you are going to create a syndrome it has to be one that the  medical profession accepts because they are the ones responsible for  doing so.  "No reputable medical authority whatsoever accepts the existence of a  syndrome called Gulf War Syndrome."

 Research

 Gulf War Syndrome is associated with a vast array of symptoms  including fatigue, nausea, fever and depression.
 It has been attributed to injections, depleted uranium ammunition, or  even Iraqi chemical weapons, although many believe the nebulous  condition could be psychosomatic.  The MoD has acknowledged the existence of the concept of "symptoms  and signs of ill-defined conditions" (SSIDC).  But veterans feel there has never been a proper investigation into the  issue.

 Dr Moonie said some additional experiments were taking place at Porton  Down research centre to look at long term effects but there was still  no evidence of "systematic harm" as a result of injections.  Liberal Democrat MP Paul Tyler, a member of the Royal British Legion  Gulf War Group, said he would be demanding a statement from the MoD this
week.  "I will be asking the secretary of state to cut the legal waffle and  recognise that our troops, who put their lives on the line, deserve  better," he said in a statement.  "Full recognition of the link between the injections and their  illnesses, and then appropriate compensation, is the least they should expect."


 (c) BBC MMIII
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3000739.stm

 




FROM THE UNITED STATES

27 April 2003

Fort Drum soldier will be tried for refusing vaccine

The Associated Press

(April 28, 2003) — FORT DRUM — A 26-year-old Army reservist at Fort Drum faces a court-martial for her refusal to receive an anthrax vaccine. Pvt. Kamila Iwanowska said she resisted receiving the shots on religious and medical grounds. Military prosecutors will try her for refusing to obey a lawful order. The trial was to begin today, but was delayed for one to two weeks.

The Army said Iwanowska, of New York City, refused an anthrax shot at Fort Drum after reporting for pre-deployment processing with her unit in January. Iwanowska said she considers the shot medically dangerous to children she might have in the future, saying the long-term effects are unknown. She also said she could not take the vaccine because of the Roman Catholic religion she practices and the respect it accords unborn infants.

The Pentagon insists the vaccination is safe, with severe adverse reactions developing in about one in 100,000 vaccinations. Iwanowska was demoted from the rank of specialist, said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a Fort Drum spokesman. Meanwhile, Pvt. Rhonda Hazley served a 14-day jail sentence and lost her specialist’s rank following a court-martial last month. Hazley, of East Dublin, Ga., said she refused the shot because she feared it could harm her breast-feeding infant. In February, two Marines at Camp Pendleton in California refused the anthrax vaccine. Both were deployed to the Middle East and have courts-martial pending upon their return.

Two Air Force officers sued the Bush administration and the Pentagon last year, challenging the mandatory anthrax vaccines for the nation’s 2.4 million service members.

 



http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/5000823?source=Evening%20Standard

'War vaccines poisoned us' 

By Rebecca Mowling, Evening Standard 
27 May 2003 

Four British soldiers who received jabs for the Iraq conflict are to sue the Ministry of Defence claiming they are suffering from a new form of Gulf War Syndrome. The revelation comes as a veterans' support group predicted today that thousands of UK servicemen will come forward with mystery illnesses linked to "vaccine overload". 

Tony Flint of the National Gulf Veterans and Families' Association,confirmed he now anticipates a fresh wave of health cases. "We are expecting at least 6,000 new cases as a result of the Iraq conflict - about 30 percent of the 22,000 troops who had the anthrax vaccination." The first four soldiers from the latest conflict who are set to sue - two reservists and two regulars - are blaming depression, breathing problems and eczema on injections they were given before being sent to the Middle East. 

Professor Malcolm Hooper, chief scientific adviser to the veterans' association, said the MoD did not seem to have learned from "the mistakes of the 1991 conflict" in relation to multiple vaccinations. "These guys are clearly suffering from vaccine overload," he said. The key concern centres on soldiers given anthrax vaccines on top of other more routine inoculations. Professor Hooper added: "The problem was one which was there in 1991. Our studies have shown that these people have excessive symptoms - three to four-fold compared with people who have not been vaccinated in the same way.

Concern about the long-term side-effects led to almost half the 45,000 British servicemen and women in the recent conf lict refusing vaccinations against anthrax, fearing that they might be afflicted by the syndrome. However, all four men are understood to have been given the anthrax vaccination and had multiple jabs in one day before falling ill. Royal Engineers reservist Stephen Cartwright was taken to hospital with a fever and blistered skin after being given a number of jabs, including the controversial anthrax vaccine. The 24-yearold spent four days in hospital and was so ill he did not make it to the Gulf. 

The second reservist, Tony Barker, 45, was given five vaccinations -hepatitis, typhoid, polio, diphtheria and yellow fever on 17 February, days after he was called up. The father-of-one received an anthrax jab less than a week later. The Royal Logistics Corps driver fell ill in Kuwait after being given nerve agent pre-treatment and anti-malarial pills. He also had a second anthrax jab on 13 March. 

Lawyer Mark McGhee, who is acting for the four men, said: "The symptoms that these four individuals are experiencing are identical to those of the individuals I represent in relation to the first Gulf war." The High Court is due to rule within weeks on whether Gulf War Syndrome can be recognised in law. But the MoD has also accepted that some troops returning from the latest conflict may suffer long-term health problems as a result of the war and has begun a screening programme. 

 



http://home.abc28.com/Global/story.asp?S=1296706

Judge denies dismissal motions in anthrax vaccine case
Wednesday, May28, 2003, 2:58 AM

Fort Drum, New York-AP -- A military judge has upheld the legality of the military's anthrax vaccination program.

The judge refused to dismiss the charge against an Army reservist facing a court martial for refusing the vaccine. Attorneys for Private Kamila Iwanowska argue the vaccine has never been properly licensed by the government -- and is being used by the military even though it isn't intended to treat inhalation infections. They also contend she has already been punished by her company commander.

Iwanowska says she considers the anthrax shot medically dangerous to children she might have in the future. She also cited religious reasons for refusing it. The Pentagon says the vaccination is safe.If found guilty of disobeying an order, Iwanowska could face a maximum of 12 months in jail and a bad conduct discharge.
 



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anthrax29may29,1,292297
2.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dnation a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Soldier Is Discharged in Vaccine Refusal
From Associated Press

May 29, 2003

FT. DRUM, N.Y. — A military panel found an Army reservist guilty of disobeying an order for refusing to take the anthrax vaccine and tossed her out of the Army on Wednesday. The panel of eight officers — only two of whom said during questioning that they have taken the six-shot regimen — took 40 minutes to return a guilty verdict against Pvt. Kamila Iwanowska and two hours to determine her penalty: a bad conduct discharge.

Iwanowska, 26, admitted in a court "stipulation of fact" that she refused to follow the verbal and written orders of her commanding officers. Army prosecutor Capt. Leslie Rowley said the statement was all the proof the panel needed.  Iwanowska told her superiors she considered the shot medically dangerous to children she might have in the future, saying the vaccine's long-term effects are unknown. As a Roman Catholic, she also cited religious reasons.

Since the vaccinations were made mandatory for U.S. military personnel in 1998, hundreds of service members have been disciplined or discharged for refusing to take the shot. At least 37 have been court-martialed. The Pentagon says the vaccination is safe, with severe adverse reactions occurring in about one in 100,000 vaccinations. Iwanowska said she was relieved to avoid a possible one-year jail term but may still appeal to upgrade her discharge.

"I certainly expected some jail time," she said.

Prosecutor Maj. David Tobin had asked the panel to give Iwanowska six months in jail, but said after sentencing that he was satisfied with the decision, which now goes to Ft. Drum commander Maj. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck for approval. "I still believe the Army is a good place and I don't regret joining," Iwanowska said after the verdict. "I don't regret what I did; I just wish it had turned out differently."

 



http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/05/05/gulf.syndrome/index.html

Gulf War Syndrome case: Jabs link

LONDON, England --A British soldier has won a landmark judgment against the government linking injections with his so-called Gulf War Syndrome.

A War Pensions Appeal Tribunal said that a "concoction of drugs" given to Alex Izett before the first Gulf War in 1991 was responsible for his osteoporosis, or brittle bone condition. Izett, a former Lance Corporal with the Royal Engineers, was injected with the same drugs as those soldiers who went to the war zone, despite not being sent himself. He has suffered from similar symptoms to hundreds soldiers including fatigue, digestive and psychological problems, depression, wasting muscles, and nausea.

Izett said the illnesses and 10 year legal fight had taken his "dignity and livelihood." He now hoped the judgment would act as a "watershed" in having the condition officially recognized. "I hope this judgment will have a knock-on effect and that the MoD (Ministry of Defence) will now finally tell the truth," he said. "I'm not only pleased for myself, I'm delighted for the Gulf War veterans community as a whole... I just hope that this opens the floodgates for more cases to come forward."

The tribunal gave its verdict last December, but its publication was delayed until after the latest war in Iraq. "The concoction of drugs caused osteoporosis," Reuters quoted the ruling as saying. The British government, which has consistently denied that medical proof exists for Gulf Veterans Syndrome, said it disagreed with the verdict but would not contest it. Defence Minister Lewis Moonie said Monday: "There is no evidence whatsover of any systematic harm."

But he added there was no legal basis on which the ministry could appeal the tribunal's judgment.

"The tribunal is not competent to make that kind of decision," he told the BBC.  "The tribunal's purpose is to determine whether a war pension should be awarded or not, and it is awarded on the basis of whether we can show beyond all reasonable doubt that a condition was not due to a person's service.

"The reason they found was that we were unable to show that the injections did not cause this problem." He said further experiments were taking place to show the reason for the illnesses. It has been blamed on a series of factors including stress, smoke from oil-burning wells, and depleted uranium. Veterans' groups have welcomed the verdict, saying claims should be made for vaccination damage. Charles Plumridge, senior coordinator for the UK National Gulf War Veterans Association, said: "We are now calling on the (ministry) to officially confirm that we are ill because of the inoculation we were given."

Campaigners say that it is the first official confirmation of the existence of the syndrome, which veterans blame for a range of ailments including

<The article just ends 
 



http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/page.cfm?objectid=13044404&method=full&si
teid=106694&headline=THE%20SUICIDE%20SQUADDIES

THE SUICIDE SQUADDIES 
Jun 8 2003

By Mike Hamilton

TWO young soldiers have killed themselves after falling ill with suspected Gulf War Syndrome following the latest conflict in Iraq. Both men committed suicide after showing recognised symptoms of the illness - blamed on controversial jabs our troops were given before the war. One - Royal Engineer Eddie Hosdell, 21 - leapt to his death from the Humber Bridge in Hull and a 26-year-old soldier hanged himself at a base in Germany.

The German-based soldier was given five jabs in one day - in direct contradiction of Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon's pre-war pledge that troops would not have multiple vaccinations at the same time. The suicides are the first linked to Gulf War Syndrome after the latest conflict. Campaigners say almost 200 soldiers who saw service in the 1991 Gulf War have killed themselves after developing the illness, which has always been officially denied by the Government.

Charlie Plumridge, spokesman for the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association (NGVFA), said: "It's a shocking and sad state of affairs that these young soldiers are taking their own lives. For 12 years we have been warning the MOD that this sort of thing has happened and would continue to happen. "Tragically these two deaths show we were right. This could only be the tip of the iceberg.

"I call upon the Government to do more to look after brave young men and women who have been willing to lay down their lives for this country." Both soldiers are believed to have been given multiple vaccinations before war broke out to protect them from chemical or biological attack. The Sunday Mirror has seen medical records showing the 26-year-old soldier - not named at the request of his family - received five inoculations, including the controversial anthrax jab, on the same day. Experts attribute the illness to the cocktail of jabs and tablets given to troops, and the use of depleted uranium in allied weapons. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told MPs in January: "A key lesson learned about inoculations is that it is not sensible to inflict on our forces a large number simultaneously."

Eddie, whose funeral took place in Hull this week, returned from the war at the end of April with 39 Engineer Regiment, based at Waterbeach Barracks in Cambridgeshire. Within days he started to behave erratically. The soldier, never in trouble before, was arrested by police on suspicion of firing a ball-bearing out of a car window near his home in Hornsea, North Humberside. He was released on bail and sent text messages to friends saying he was going to take his own life.

His body was found on the Humber river on May 18.

Last night Eddie's parents, Jacqueline and Tuke, were too upset to comment. An inquest in to Eddie's death was opened and adjourned on May 23, with the full hearing in six months. The parents of the soldier found dead in Germany have also demanded a full inquest. The member of the Queen's Royal Hussars hanged himself at his Army base in Sennelager, Germany, days after falling ill. He had been unfit to travel, with a rash, sleeping problems and mood swings. This week his parents, from the Birmingham area, contacted the NGVFA's helpline.

An Army source said: "He was planning to get married so his suicide is especially tragic." Gulf War Syndrome expert Professor Malcolm Hooper, a member of the MOD's independent Vaccine Panel, said: "The soldiers are hung out to dry, where instead they should be offered help when they come back from a horrific war distressed and unwell." An MOD spokesman said yesterday: "We recognise people are ill but we do not recognise a single syndrome.

"We will not comment on individual cases."

THE NGVFA 24-hour helpline number is 01482 833812

 





http://dynamic.washtimes.com/print_story.cfm?StoryID=20030520-102253-6646r

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
Mandatory anthrax vaccine for troops challenged in court
By Patrick Badgley
Published May 21, 2003

Attorneys for six military officers and Defense Department personnel argued in a U.S. District Court yesterday that the Department of Defense must stop inoculating soldiers as a remedy for inhalation anthrax because the vaccine is in "investigational" stages and is being used without approval. Appearing before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in John Doe, et. al. v. Rumsfeld, et. al., plaintiffs were seeking a preliminary injunction that would prevent the government from vaccinating military personnel unless the recipients heard an explanation of potential side-effects and gave consent, or the president issued a waiver. They said that under a federal statute such regulations are necessary for drugs under investigation. 

"In some cases, they're not even told it's going to be an anthrax vaccination," said John Michels Jr., the plaintiffs' attorney. Mr. Michels brought up the case of a woman who said she told the person administering the shot that she was pregnant and was fearful of the effects of the vaccination, yet was told that didn't exempt her. When soldiers who reject the shot are court-martialed and punished, that is "irreparable damage," one requirement needed for a judge to issue an injunction, the defense has said. But attorneys for the defendants - the Defense Department, and the Food and Drug Administration - said the treatment has been accepted for years for all forms of anthrax, including the inhalation variety. Although plaintiffs' attorneys maintained that it is still to be determined whether the vaccine is an acceptable treatment for inhalation anthrax, the defense attorneyssaid it is settled.

"There are risks with all vaccines, your honor," said Ronald Wiltsie, a Department of Justice trial lawyer, who is representing the defendants. "The risks here are no greater than a tetanus shot or MMR," measles, mumps and rubella shots. Mr. Wiltsie also disputed the plaintiffs' claim of irreparable damage, saying punishing personnel by court-martialing them does not warrant such a description. 

In the first day of oral arguments, yesterday, the lawyer also detailed a different and more informative process that soldiers go through if they are reluctant to receive the vaccination. He said they are informed about the type of inoculation they will receive and are counseled by a medical professional if they refuse. They are then give an order, and if they still refuse, are subject to discipline. The plaintiffs "seek to undermine a key component of military readiness and defense against battlefield use of biological weapons," attorneys for the defense wrote in a brief to the court. The Pentagon has said the anthrax vaccine is safe but acknowledged that severe harmful reactions develop in about one in 100,000 vaccinations. When inhaled, dry anthrax spores can be deadly to humans. At least 600,000 employees in the Defense Department have received the vaccination, and officials say they plan to immunize each of the 2.4 million members of the military.

Also at issue is whether the case, which involves military parties, belonged in a federal court instead of a military one. Defense attorneys denied that the federal court should be the decision-maker in the case. "This goes to the core of the military's ability to structure its forces and control them," Mr. Wiltsie said. But Mr. Michels said military courts have a pattern of following rules set by the heads of the armed forces branches. "I don't believe there is a military judge anywhere ... that would step up and say, 'I'm going to stand against the secretary of defense, the secretary of the Air Force," he said.

There have been several cases of U.S. soldiers refusing to take the anthrax vaccine, whether for religious reasons or for fear of breast-feeding infants or the long-term effects it could have on children they might bear. Two Air Force officers filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon in 2002, challenging the mandatory anthrax vaccines for soldiers. One complainant received 60 days of base restriction and was fined $21,000 for refusing the anthrax vaccine, and the other was forced to end his 14-year military career.
 



Questions Mount Over Anthax Shots
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2003

Kamila Iwanowska is the latest soldier to get kicked out of the U.S. military for refusing the anthrax vaccine, CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. "It's not about defiance and it's not about being a bad soldier, because it's not," says Iwanowska, a former Army reservist, who received a bad conduct discharge. She says it's about her belief that the anthrax vaccine could be dangerous. Since it became mandatory five years ago, hundreds of troops have been disciplined or booted out for rejecting it, and dozens of others have been court-martialed. 

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have refused to take the vaccine," said Jason Nietupski, a former U.S. Army captain who got seriously ill after his shot in 2000. "I developed blood clots in my legs," Nietupski says. "They found pulmonary nodules in my lungs."But even when the Army finally documented that the vaccine was to blame, Nietupski says no one reported his case to the FDA, which tracks adverse events. 

"There's a lot of people like me out there because doctors in the military are fearful of reporting adverse events to the Food and Drug Administration because of potentially being reprimanded for doing so," he says. In fact, a General Accounting Office investigation last fall found that the rate of side effects from anthrax vaccine was hundreds, sometimes thousands of times higher than what the military claimed. The Defense Department says it now encourages more accurate reporting of adverse events. But the latest numbers the military provided CBS News still fall short: 

Among 600,000 people who got anthrax shots in the past year, possible side effects are reported by the military in only a fraction of one percent: .142 percent or 852 reports per 600,000 people. The GAO investigation released last fall found a much higher rate in a survey of vaccines: 85 percent, with side effects ranging from lumps and rashes to hospitalizations. 

Dr. Bill Winkenwerder, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, oversees military vaccines and says he urges all problems to be reported. He says it's "just not true" that the military hasn't provided the whole story as to how many people are getting sick from anthrax vaccines.  "We've been very forthcoming," Winkenwerder says. "There'd be no reason to be anything else other than that. Our personnel are our most important assets." 

Jason Nieptuski just wonders how many others might end up like him. "I took the vaccine because I was patriotic, because I love my country and because I wanted to serve in the military. Even though the Army ruled that the medical complications were from anthrax vaccine, I can no longer serve because of the blood clots," Nieptuski says. 

Late last year, government investigators advised the Defense Department to actively track each soldier who gets the anthrax vaccine to get a truer picture of the harm it may do, but the military rejected that advice. Now, some troops find themselves more worried about the shots than the biological threat they're supposed to ward off. 

© MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 



http://www.jdnews.com/Details.cfm?StoryID=14010

Article ran : 07/09/2003
Marine booted for refusing vaccine 
By ERIC STEINKOPFF 
Jacksonville (NC, USA) Daily News 

DAILY NEWS STAFF A Marine Desert Storm veteran who refused on religious grounds to receive an anthrax vaccination in December was dismissed from the Corps on Tuesday and ordered to serve seven months in prison. 

During a general court-martial at New River Air Station, CH-46 Sea Knight pilot 1st Lt. Erick Enz pleaded guilty to disobeying the order of a senior commissioned officer. 

Enz, a father of five and described by his superiors as a "natural leader," faced a maximum punishment of five years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and dismissal from service. Although military judge Lt. Col. Martin Sitler sentenced him to seven months confinement, Enz could serve as little as 30 days in the brig based on a pretrial agreement. Enz, a member of New River's Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 162, Marine Aircraft Group 29, originally pleaded not guilty during a June arraignment and asked for a court-martial with a jury of at least five members. 

Enz reversed that decision Tuesday and chose to plead guilty. Reported adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccine have been the subject of debate since the vaccine's widespread use during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early 1990s. The matter came to the forefront again this year when thousands of troops were ordered to be vaccinated prior to the war with Iraq. A devout Christian and Bible study group leader, Enz did not feel right about the vaccination, witnesses testified Tuesday. He sought guidance in prayer that led him to seek more information about the vaccine and ultimately refuse the shot, fellow Marines, friends and relatives said during testimony. 

In an earlier defense motion pertaining to the case, Military Judge Col. Steven Day ruled that Enz's objection on religious grounds could not be admitted into court as lawful evidence on his behalf. Department of Defense officials contend that the vaccination is safe, as do military doctors at Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital. But a September 2002 U.S. General Accounting Office report to Congress says that the rate of severity of adverse reactions to the vaccine are considerably greater than advertised. In a random survey of 1,253 guard and reserve pilots and aircrew, the GAO found 84 percent suffered minor reactions and at least 24 percent major multiple "systemic" reactions, the latter more than 100 times higher than the estimate by the manufacturer. 

Retired Army Ranger Sgt. 1st Class Steve Robinson, who runs the National Gulf War Resource Center, a nonprofit veterans' advocacy organization, was a member of the Veterans' Administration Research Advisory Committee that studied problems related to the vaccination. "We continue to kick people out of the military and give them jail sentences for not taking a vaccine that science still hasn't proven," Robinson said. "You only have to read a little bit about the vaccine and you will question whether it is safe." 

A Desert Storm veteran, Enz, whose age was not immediately available, was described by superiors and his peers as a natural leader before and after refusing the vaccination. Nearly every witness for the defense and for the prosecution said that he was well liked, respected and even admired among those in his unit. He was on a fast track to promotion, trained ahead of many of his peers, and the papers that would move him from a reserve commission to augment him as a regular officer in the Marine Corps remained unsigned at his unit administrative office. "The people who refuse this are not the dummies or the troublemakers," said former Air Force F-16 pilot retired Lt. Col. John Richardson of Raleigh, a critic of the vaccine. "I get two to three unsolicited calls or e-mails a week - sometimes as many as five a day - from kids who are sick. Someone has to stand up and do the right thing." 

For more information on Gulf War Illness visit www.ngwrc.org and for more information on reactions from the anthrax vaccination visit www.anthraxvaccine.org. 

Contact Eric Steinkopff at esteinkopff@jdnews.com or at 353-1171, Ext. 236. 

 



AF officer repeatedly refuses anthrax shot, but does not get day in court 

By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, August 2, 2003
Scott Schonauer / S&S 
Lt. Col. Jay Lacklen shows the knots on his fingers. He suspects that the anthrax shots he has taken have caused the deformity.

NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain — Even with his 33-year military career on the line, Lt. Col. Jay Lacklen wants the Air Force to court-martial him. By refusing to take another anthrax shot earlier this year, he thought he would get his wish. Facing a military judge, Lacklen said, would allow him to argue that the Pentagon’s controversial vaccine contains a harmful booster called squalene, which he claims is causing a string of mysterious maladies in his squadron.

But instead of ordering him to court, his commander sent him on assignment to southern Spain. While junior officers and enlisted service members are getting thrown in jail for not taking the shot, Lacklen said his Dover, Del.-based squadron sent him on meaningless temporary duty to Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base. He believes the Air Force will not punish him because commanders are afraid they will lose in the courtroom. “They’re scared,” said Lacklen, a reservist since 1981, “because I have the science” to win in court. But in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes on Friday, Lacklen said his commander had given him until Friday to take the shot.

Large caches of biological and chemical weapons have yet to be found in Iraq and none was unleashed against U.S.-led troops during the war, but the military is continuing its goal to inoculate all of its 1.4 million servicemembers. The Pentagon insists the vaccine is safe. Right now, service members take a series of six shots over the course of 18 months, along with an annual booster shot. Almost half of the active-duty force has received the entire series of shots, but some have refused and paid dearly. Since the military resumed inoculating servicemembers earlier this year, several have been booted out of the service or sent to jail.

In June, Navy aircraft mechanic Troy Goodwin, based at Lemoore, Calif., told the Los Angeles Times that he was sent to the brig after rejecting the shot. In May, Army Reserve Pvt. Kamila Iwanowsk, 26, a petroleum specialist from Fort Drum, N.Y., refused the shot and received a bad-conduct discharge. She didn’t want to take it because, she said in a court-martial, it might harm any children she may bear. On July 8, the military dismissed a Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based Marine helicopter pilot and sent him to jail for 25 days for not taking it. Lt. Erick Enz refused the vaccine on religious grounds.

More than 400 military personnel have been disciplined since the shot was made mandatory in 1998, according to the Pentagon. But Lacklen said he has avoided prosecution because his unit, the 326th Airlift Squadron, does not want the bad publicity.  On April 15, Lacklen refused in writing to take the shot. But instead of ordering him to take the vaccine, Lacklen said his commander, Lt. Col. Edward Poling, two days later grounded him and sent him to Spain. When he returned, he was immediately sent to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois to work as a scheduler.

Lacklen, a Vietnam War veteran with more than 12,000 flight hours, said he was not needed in Spain or Illinois and suggests he was sent on temporary duty to “avoid the situation.” After Lacklen refused his shot, a more junior officer, Capt. Paul Staquet, also refused in writing, using the same wording Lacklen had used, but signed his own name to it. When he gave the letter to the squadron, he said he was threatened with a court-martial and a discharge. The thought of possibly getting kicked out of the military with a bad-conduct discharge was enough to cause Staquet to reluctantly take the shots.

“Nobody wants to walk around with a conviction on your record,” said Staquet, who has not suffered any side effects from the shots, but supports Lacklen. In a complaint filed with the Defense Department’s inspector general on June 5, Lacklen accused his commander of a double standard. Poling did not return phone and e-mail messages seeking an explanation or comment for this story, but Col. Bruce Davis, 512th Airlift Wing commander, said, “I’m sure you know that, as a commander, I can’t comment on any incident that may end up in a courts-martial.”

“All military members should expect equal protection, and equal sanction, from the military legal system,” Lacklen wrote in the complaint. “This is not the case in this instance.” This is not the first time Dover has been embroiled in controversy over the vaccine. In 1999, dozens of C-5 pilots from the base reported side effects after taking the shot. One senior officer resigned and 40 percent of the pilots in the Reserve wing left rather than take a shot. 

Concerns by the pilots prompted Col. Felix M. Grieder, commander of the 436th Airlift Wing at Dover, to suspend the inoculation program, making it the first base to do so. Since the base resumed the shots earlier this year, military personnel are reporting similar health problems they fear are caused by the shots. Some of the aviators agreed to talk to Stars and Stripes on the condition their name is not used. They said they fear that if they talk, the Air Force will punish them for speaking out about the vaccine. One pilot reported migraine headaches to the point of vomiting, temporary blindness and an itching rash that won’t go away. Others have reported severe joint pain. One aviator in his 30s had arthritis so bad he had to take a prescription pain reliever. 

Crewmembers have also had problems. A loadmaster reported having blackouts and chronic dizzy spells. Another person suffered from vertigo. One of the pilots said he isn’t sure if the vaccine caused his rash and other health problems but military doctors have done little to find out the cause. He said even if a military doctor thought there might be a link between the vaccine and the ailment, they would not admit it out of fear of retribution. “We have seen with our own eyes those who are sick and watched them not get any help,” he said. “It’s shameful.”Another pilot had a bad reaction with the first shot, but was told to continue taking the rest of the shots. “It does concern me,” the pilot said. “I don’t want to take another shot until they can prove this is just coincidental.”

Lacklen has also had strange health problems after the first couple of shots. He has complained of joint pain and his fingers have developed odd-looking knots. He doesn’t blame the vaccine for the health problems but alleges that a substance called squalene is the culprit. Squalene is manufactured in the liver of humans and some animals. It is a building block to make hormones and other substances in our body. It is also found in some foods.
In vaccines, it is used as a booster to work faster and longer. However, it was not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration to be used in the anthrax vaccine. When Tulane University in 1999 found the presence of the additive in 1991 Persian Gulf War veterans, squalene’s safety became a hot topic. Some servicemembers speculated then that the anthrax vaccine might contain squalene as a booster and that is the reason for the side effects.

For years, the Pentagon denied there was any squalene in the shots. Then, the FDA tested all 50 lot numbers of the current vaccine in 1999 and found squalene traces in five of them. Dover Air Force Base received all five of these lot numbers. The Pentagon says the amount of squalene found is so minute that it is “likely the result of squalene in the oil of a fingerprint not cleaned from the lab glassware.” The Defense Department has an entire page of questions and answers about squalene on its anthrax Web site, www.anthrax.osd.mil, disputing the significance of squalene in the shot. Lacklen and some of the pilots at Dover are not buying the explanation. They want the Defense Department to hire an independent lab to test vaccine lots for squalene.

While the Pentagon asserts that the adjuvant in the anthrax vaccine is aluminum hydroxide, Lacklen and the sick pilots said the reason they are skeptical is because other bases, which may not have gotten the same squalene lot Dover received, had not had similar health problems. Those who talked to Stars and Stripes said they are willing to resume the shots as long as they know for sure the lots don’t contain any trace of squalene. “It’s not the vaccine, it’s what they added to it,” Lacklen said. Not all of the pilots agree with Lacklen. One pilot said that there are those in the squadron who think Lacklen is way off base. They did not receive any side effects from the shots.

But other pilots who talked to Stripes consider Lacklen, who is married and has four daughters, almost a hero for risking his career and speaking out. Lacklen said the Air Force should do more to find out why some members of the wing are experiencing so many health problems and whether the vaccine is the reason. “If we had wrecked an airplane, they would have had a team of people come down and figure out what went wrong,” Lacklen said. “A lot of people have gotten sick, but nobody has come.”



The following letter was sent on her behalf:

Letter send to: afzs-pao@drum.army.mil; pao@drum.army.mil; AFZS-gch@drum.army.mil
Subject: Spec. Rhonda Hazley
To whom it may concern:
I am writing to express my outrage at the fact that Specialist Rhonda Hazley is being court-martialed because of her refusal to take the Anthrax Vaccine.

Her reasons for refusal include:

1. Religious objections

2. She is currently breastfeeding her baby.

As a veteran I experienced issues with all the vaccines I was administered during my eight years of service.  As a result I am in a pre-cancerous state (I've got 10 years or less before the big "C" sets in).  I was fortunate not to receive the Anthrax vaccine which would have worsened my condition.  I wish I could stop there.  As a result of breastfeeding two boys, I have passed on many toxic byproducts from these vaccines to both sons.  I have test results from lab and hair samples to prove it.  My oldest son suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder, Leaky gut Syndrome, Chronic ear infections, and a host of other issues.  All linked to what my doctor described as "Vaccinosis" on both of our parts (the baby and mine).  I was informed by my doctor that the mercury preservative Thermerisol found in many vaccines is found in high concentrations within breast milk.  I was in fact poisoning my children without knowing it.  This is just one of the many harmful substances that can be passed on from mother to child.

Specialist Hazley should be granted an honorable discharge based on the facts that:

- Religious exemptions are granted in all 50 states.  No particular affiliation with any religious organization is required.

- The anthrax had known adverse reactions known to occur in adults.  There is no known testing for safety when administering to children.  The mother can pass on the vaccine and its toxic byproducts through breast milk.

- Current Anthrax threats can be addressed through the use of antibiotics.  No vaccine (with hazardous components) necessary.

- In October 2001, the United States General Accounting Office ("GAO")

reported that the anthrax vaccine's manufacturing process had been changed without the FDA being notified. The GAO declared the AVA experimental and stated that little was known about the long-term side effects on health. The report also revealed adverse reaction rates as high as 80%.

- According to the General Accounting Office ("GAO"), there have been no

completed studies of the long-term side effects of AVA using active surveillance and the rate of acute adverse reactions to the AVA has ranged from 30-70 percent.  The DoD has admitted that 5-35 percent of vaccines report muscle aches, joint aches, headaches, rash, chills, fever, nausea, loss of appetite, malaise, or related symptoms shortly after vaccination.

- In the April 18, 2002 edition of Mealey's Emerging Drugs and Devices,

Drs. David and Mark Geier, M.D., Ph.D. published an article that concluded there was a statistically significant relationship between joint-related and gastrointestinal adverse reactions following anthrax vaccination. A significant relationship existed between anthrax vaccination and arthralgia, arthritis, arthrosis, joint disease, myelitis, vasculitis, Guillain-Barre' syndrome, myalgia, flu syndrome, diarrhea, liver function test abnormalities, gastrointestinal disease,

weight loss and nausea adverse reactions.

- Bioport has been for being out of compliance with good manufacturing practices. During the manufacturing process of the AVA, Bioport mishandled and contaminated the AVA, and lots of the AVA were left out in the open for more than 24 hours.

-In January 2002, BioPort released a new product insert for the AVA that

cites numerous systemic reactions and diseases associated with the AVA and much higher reactions rates, along with a strengthened pregnancy warning. At no time did the Bioport provide the DOD or the plaintiffs any warnings regarding the potential risks of the vaccine. - A pending Navy study on the AVA indicates that there is a higher rate of birth defects in women vaccinated in the first trimester of pregnancy.

- According to the Defense Medical Surveillance System Database, as noted

in the Institute of Medicine's March 2002 report on AVA, fatigue and sleep disturbances have been associated with the AVA along with Crohn's disease and other unspecified gastrointestinal disorders. Also, there is a higher incidence of multiple sclerosis and asthma.

All this information and more can be found in Current Pending Anthrax Litigation & other sites to include:

http://www.sskrplaw.com/vaccine/anthraxcomplaint.pdf

ANTHRAX VACCINE: GAO's Survey of Guard and Reserve Pilots and Aircrew

http://www.sskrplaw.com/vaccine/anthraxvaccine.pdf

GAO Report - ANTHRAX VACCINE: Changes to the Manufacturing Process

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02181t.pdf

http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/

Survey Results of the 9th Airlift Squadron

http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/report.PDF

The anthrax vaccine is experimental and should not be forced on service members.  Special exceptions and precautions should be given to pregnant mothers and those who are breastfeeding.

I can be reached for the purpose of assisting in this case at:
Tanya Wood
CMR 423 Box 295
APO AE 09107
011 49 7157 532449
tawood@gapac.com
tanya_wood00@hotmail.com

 



Article ran : 07/09/2003
Marine booted for refusing vaccine 
By ERIC STEINKOPFF 
Jacksonville (NC, USA) Daily News 

DAILY NEWS STAFF A Marine Desert Storm veteran who refused on religious grounds to receive an anthrax vaccination in December was dismissed from the Corps on Tuesday and ordered to serve seven months in prison. During a general court-martial at New River Air Station, CH-46 Sea Knight pilot 1st Lt. Erick Enz pleaded guilty to disobeying the order of a senior commissioned officer. 

Enz, a father of five and described by his superiors as a "natural leader," faced a maximum punishment of five years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and dismissal from service. Although military judge Lt. Col. Martin Sitler sentenced him to seven months confinement, Enz could serve as little as 30 days in the brig based on a pretrial agreement. Enz, a member of New River's Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 162, Marine Aircraft Group 29, originally pleaded not guilty during a June arraignment and asked for a court-martial with a jury of at least five members. 

Enz reversed that decision Tuesday and chose to plead guilty. Reported adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccine have been the subject of debate since the vaccine's widespread use during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early 1990s. The matter came to the forefront again this year when thousands of troops were ordered to be vaccinated prior to the war with Iraq. A devout Christian and Bible study group leader, Enz did not feel right about the vaccination, witnesses testified Tuesday. He sought guidance in prayer that led him to seek more information about the vaccine and ultimately refuse the shot, fellow Marines, friends and relatives said during testimony. 

In an earlier defense motion pertaining to the case, Military Judge Col. Steven Day ruled that Enz's objection on religious grounds could not be admitted into court as lawful evidence on his behalf. Department of Defense officials contend that the vaccination is safe, as do military doctors at Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital. But a September 2002 U.S. General Accounting Office report to Congress says that the rate of severity of adverse reactions to the vaccine are considerably greater than advertised. In a random survey of 1,253 guard and reserve pilots and aircrew, the GAO found 84 percent suffered minor reactions and at least 24 percent major multiple "systemic" reactions, the latter more than 100 times higher than the estimate by the manufacturer. 

Retired Army Ranger Sgt. 1st Class Steve Robinson, who runs the National Gulf War Resource Center, a nonprofit veterans' advocacy organization, was a member of the Veterans' Administration Research Advisory Committee that studied problems related to the vaccination. "We continue to kick people out of the military and give them jail sentences for not taking a vaccine that science still hasn't proven," Robinson said. "You only have to read a little bit about the vaccine and you will question whether it is safe." 

A Desert Storm veteran, Enz, whose age was not immediately available, was described by superiors and his peers as a natural leader before and after refusing the vaccination. Nearly every witness for the defense and for the prosecution said that he was well liked, respected and even admired among those in his unit. He was on a fast track to promotion, trained ahead of many of his peers, and the papers that would move him from a reserve commission to augment him as a regular officer in the Marine Corps remained unsigned at his unit administrative office. 

"The people who refuse this are not the dummies or the troublemakers," said former Air Force F-16 pilot retired Lt. Col. John Richardson of Raleigh, a critic of the vaccine. "I get two to three unsolicited calls or e-mails a week - sometimes as many as five a day - from kids who are sick. Someone has to stand up and do the right thing." For more information on Gulf War Illness visit www.ngwrc.org and for more information on reactions from the anthrax vaccination visit www.anthraxvaccine.org. 

Contact Eric Steinkopff at esteinkopff@jdnews.com or at 353-1171, Ext. 236. 

 



http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030807-043512-3755r.htm

Father of dead soldier claims Army coverup
By Mark Benjamin
Investigations Editor

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The father of a soldier who died of pneumonia this spring said Thursday the Army has excluded her death from its investigation of deadly pneumonia because it wants to cover up vaccine side effects. "The government is covering this up and it is a dog-gone shame," said Moses Lacy, whose daughter, Army Spc. Rachael Lacy, died April 4 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after getting pneumonia.

Lacy said his daughter "was a healthy young woman" but got ill within days of getting anthrax and smallpox vaccinations on March 2 in preparation for deployment to the Persian Gulf. She was too ill to ever be deployed. The Army said 100 soldiers have gotten pneumonia in Iraq and southwestern Asia, two of those have died and another 13 have had to be put on respirators.  "The common denominator is smallpox and anthrax vaccinations," Moses Lacy said in a telephone interview from his home in Lynwood, Ill. "These young people have given their lives to the military and they are getting a raw deal. The Department of Defense is closing their eyes."

The Army did not mention vaccines on Tuesday when it held a press conference on the pneumonia investigation. Officials said the pneumonia does not appear to be contagious, and are close to ruling out biological or chemical warfare, SARS and Legionnaire's disease. Col. Robert DeFraites of the Army Surgeon General's office said at the press conference that the Pentagon launched the investigation because of the severity of the pneumonia. "Are we seeing more cases in general than we might expect? Despite the harsh environment, the answer is no ... But again, we are still concerned about these severe ones."

DeFraites told UPI on Wednesday that the Pentagon would look into whether vaccines, among other factors, might have triggered the pneumonia cases. "Among all of the possible causes or contributing factors, we are looking at the immunizations that the soldiers received as well," DeFraites said. "It is premature to say that there is any relationship at all."

The Army said it is excluding Lacy's death from its investigation because Lacy never made it to Iraq or southwestern Asia where it says the cases are clustered. "She was never deployed to Iraq," Army Surgeon General spokeswoman Virginia Stephanakis told UPI Thursday. She said the military is participating in an investigation of Lacy's death separate from the pneumonia investigation. "It is a whole different issue."

Moses Lacy disagreed.

"She should be on that list (of deaths to investigate) because my daughter's first symptoms were pneumonia," Lacy said. "It happened immediately" after the vaccines, Moses said. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. If I were a medical official it would be the first thing I would look into." Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, told UPI, "We should include in this study any illnesses or deaths that appear to be pneumonia-related that occurred in theater or out of theater."

Dr. Eric Pfeifer, the Minnesota coroner who performed Lacy's autopsy, told the Army Times that the smallpox and anthrax vaccines "may have" contributed to Lacy's death. "It's just very suspicious in my mind...that she's healthy, gets the vaccinations and then dies a couple weeks later." He listed "post-vaccine" problems on the death certificate.

Other members of the armed forces not in the Pentagon investigation say the anthrax vaccine has made them very sick with pneumonia-like symptoms. Michael Girard, a Senior Airman at Patrick Air Force Base in Cocoa Beach, Fla., got his second anthrax shot on March 4. He developed flu-like symptoms - runny nose and a "heavy chest" - starting March 6 and by March 12 developed a rash on his left arm where he had gotten the shot.

"Then basically it started attacking my body, section by section," Girard said. He said he has since suffered bouts of vomiting up blood, pain in his feet that made them turn blue, chest pain, constipation, pain in his legs, headaches, stomach aches and extremely high blood pressure. In one weekend he went to the emergency room four times. He says he suffers from insomnia and fatigue.

At one point, he developed a horrible cough. "They did do a chest X-ray because they thought it might be pneumonia. A nurse told me that it was, but a doctor came in and said that it was not." Girard said Air Force doctors first suspected the anthrax vaccine caused his problems, but since have backed away from that diagnosis. "Everything that has been associated with this ever since I got sick has been like a coverup," Girard said. He said he "was perfectly 100 percent healthy" before getting the vaccine. "I was in the gym for an hour to two hours per day. I was running. I was energetic."

He said he was not scheduled to deploy anywhere.

In its pneumonia investigation, the Army is looking into the July 12 death of Army Spc. Joshua M. Neusche, 20, of Montreal, Mo. The Pentagon has described his death as "other causes." The Army is also looking at the June 17 death of Army Sgt. Michael L. Tosto, 24, of Apex, N.C. His death is listed as "illness."

Stephanakis said she was unfamiliar with the June 26 death in Kuwait of another soldier, Army Spc. Cory A. Hubbell, 20, of Urbana, Ill. His death is listed by the Pentagon under "breathing difficulties." Hubbell's mother, Connie Bickers, of Urbana, Ill., told the Champaign News-Gazette that the Army had not told her how her apparently healthy son died. "I wish I had answers, but I don't know if I'm ever going to get them," Bickers told the
paper.

On Thursday, the Pentagon announced the death of Sgt. David L. Loyd, 44, of Jackson, Tenn. The announcement said Lloyd died on Aug. 5 when he "was on a mission when he experienced severe chest pains. The soldier was sent to the Kuwait hospital where he was pronounced dead."

A co-author of a government-sponsored study of possible side effects from the anthrax vaccine told UPI that the Army should look at whether that vaccine is behind the cluster of pneumonia cases. That study last year found the vaccine was the "possible or probable" cause of pneumonia in two soldiers.

"As physicians, I would think they would be looking at all possible causes. I would think vaccines would be part of that," said Dr. John L. Sever of George Washington University Medical School, who was one of six authors of the study. Last year's anthrax vaccine study, printed in the May 2002 issue of Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, found that the vaccine was the "possible or probable" cause of pneumonia among two soldiers, according to Sever. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services convened the group, called the Anthrax Vaccine Expert Committee, which studied 602 reports of possible reactions to the vaccine among nearly 400,000 troops who received it, Sever said.

In addition to identifying pneumonia and flu-like symptoms among troops who received the vaccine, the group also looked at four other cases of potentially serious reactions, including severe back pain and two soldiers who had sudden difficulty breathing in a possible allergic reaction to the vaccine. Sever described the two cases of pneumonia as "wheezing and difficulty breathing going into a pneumonia-like picture."

To conduct the study, the Anthrax Vaccine Expert Committee examined reports from the U.S. military to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they are anecdotal reports and do not necessarily show a cause-and-effect relationship. Moses Lacy said he believes the real story is about vaccine side effects. "Unless somebody breaks this story wide open, we are going to have a lot more deaths. I am afraid we are going to lose a lot because of this
vaccine."
 



http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/221/nation/Discharge_sought_for_soldier_re
fusing_vaccineP.shtml

FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- An Army panel recommended yesterday a general discharge for a soldier who was court-martialed for refusing to take the anthrax vaccine while breast-feeding her baby. The three-member Army Administrative Separation Board at Fort Drum reached its decision regarding Private Rhonda Hazley's fate after considering testimony and written evidence during a seven-hour hearing.

Hazley, a unit postal clerk, was convicted at a summary court-martial in March of disobeying orders. She served 14 days in jail and was demoted three grades in rank to private. Hazley, a 36-year-old single mother of four from East Dublin, Ga., refused the shot because she was breast-feeding and was concerned about the health
risks to the child. 

 



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-anthrax21jul21,1,256383.story

July 21, 2003   

CALIFORNIA
No Vaccine, No Glory, Navy Says
A sailor's decision to refuse the anthrax inoculation leads to a demotion and 
a 60-day sentence.
  
Los Angeles Times 
      
By Mark Arax, Times Staff Writer

LEMOORE, Calif. — His ship came home six weeks ago from the Persian Gulf, but Troy Goodwin could only watch as 200 of his fellow sailors were given a hero's welcome at this naval air base in the heart of California cotton country. He had waited eight months to see his family, but no sooner had he landed than he was carted off to a cinder-block barracks that serves as a brig. For the next 40 days, the airplane mechanic with the once-spotless record served his sentence, filling sandbags and pulling weeds under the 105-degree sun.

He hadn't abused drugs or stolen property or gone AWOL. Instead, the Navy was punishing him for refusing to submit to an anthrax vaccination that he believed could damage his health and prevent him and his wife from conceiving a healthy baby. 

Last week, the 32-year-old Goodwin completed his time, took off the blue badge of shame that had been affixed to his uniform, and returned to his family and squadron a different soldier. After six years of proud service, he had been demoted and his pay had been docked. He now finds himself nagged by a thought that would have seemed 
inconceivable just a year ago: Maybe he made a mistake in believing that the military could be a career. 

"The whole experience has left me feeling very degraded," Goodwin said. "I guess you could say I was a model soldier. Everything the military asked me to do, I did. But I wasn't going to subject my body to a vaccine that's not proven to work and could have serious side effects. "Yes, I took an oath to obey orders, but I don't feel this order was a lawful one," he said. "I didn't sign up to blindly trust the military with my  health."

His superiors say Goodwin gave them little choice but to punish him.

"As far as the Navy is concerned, this is a pretty simple, straightforward matter," said Dennis McGrath, public affairs officer at the Lemoore base. "If you're going into a combat zone where anthrax may be used, you need to take the appropriate inoculations to preserve not only your health but the health of your fellow soldiers.
"He disobeyed a lawful order, but because he's a good worker, they decided not to court-martial him," McGrath said. "Under the circumstances, he got the least amount of punishment a sailor could get."

Nearly 1 million military personnel have received the anthrax vaccine since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, including more than 300,000 during the last year, according to military figures. Despite questions about the vaccine's efficacy and possible health risks ranging from sterility to cardiac arrest to immune disorders, fewer than 600 soldiers have refused it. Depending on their prior records, they have been court-martialed or given a nonjudicial punishment similar to Goodwin's.

Critics say the Pentagon has exploited America's fear of terrorists and the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to push a vaccine that has sickened hundreds of soldiers and led to a handful of deaths. Citing health risks, one lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington seeks to force the government to acknowledge  the vaccine's experimental status.

"The military well knows how many deaths and illnesses this experimental vaccine has caused, and yet they continue to insist otherwise," said John Richardson, a former F-16 pilot and policy analyst for the Joint Chiefs of Staff who stands at the forefront of the opposition. "They can't find weapons of mass destruction, and yet they are throwing people in jail who refuse to take a vaccine that they claim protects against weapons of mass destruction," he said.

The Pentagon says critics overlook the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine.
"The idea that we're pushing something dangerous and experimental onto our soldiers is nonsense, absolute nonsense," said James Turner, a Pentagon spokesman. "The FDA has certified the safety and efficacy of this vaccine. There have been no deaths, and the side effects are not unlike other similar vaccines." But the FDA-approved product literature acknowledges the deaths of five military personnel who became sick after taking the vaccine. And in a memo in 1998, the secretary of the Army conceded that the vaccine was "unusually hazardous."

Only three months ago, Rachael Lacy, a 22-year-old Army reservist at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin, died of an infection after receiving inoculations against anthrax and smallpox. Before refusing the shots in December, Goodwin said, he spent six months studying the vaccine's pros and cons. He and his wife, Andrea, who had two 
children from a previous marriage, decided to have a baby. Among the vaccine's long  list of possible adverse effects are birth defects.

"No one can say for sure whether this vaccine even protects against anthrax," said Goodwin, a native of Alabama whose FA-18 Hornet squadron had been assigned to the aircraft carrier Constellation. "But what they do know is that it can make some people very sick. I felt like it was senseless, especially since we were going to try to have a baby." If Goodwin began to waver under pressure from the ship's command, his wife held firm back home.

"At one point, it became a battle of wills between me and them, for my husband's conscience," she said. "They made his life miserable and treated him like a common criminal." Goodwin wrote a letter to his superiors explaining his reasons for refusing the vaccine. He stressed that his stance wasn't a ploy to avoid serving in the  war; he believed in his heart that the vaccine's health risks outweighed its benefits.

The Navy began meting out its punishment almost immediately. In February,  Goodwin was denied liberty during a port call. He was no longer allowed to work on the Hornets' mechanical systems, a job that had earned him commendations. He was relegated to sanding and painting the frames. Instead of counting those actions as part of Goodwin's 60-day sentence, the Navy waited until May to start the clock on his official punishment. The delay meant that Goodwin wouldn't be allowed to return to his family when he arrived home June 2.

The Constellation docked in San Diego, and the squadron was flown back to Lemoore. As soon as the transport plane pulled into the hangar that day, a senior chief petty officer met Goodwin. His wife had barely given him a hug and a kiss when he was led away to serve his time. The brig, an open-roomed barracks with side-by-side bunks, was only a 10-minute walk from their house on the base, but it might as well have been a thousand miles. 

Goodwin shared quarters with 15 other sailors who had earned the Navy's wrath for violations that had nothing to do with vaccines. It was like boot camp all over again. His cigarettes were counted — no more  than five a day. And he couldn't touch or talk to his wife at church. Family visits were restricted to two hours each evening. His days were filled with menial labor. He couldn't go anywhere without the blue badge hanging from his left pocket. 

"You feel branded," he said. "I felt like all the hard work I had done for my squadron was for nothing. They had completely turned their back on me." The Navy demoted him one rank and cut his paycheck in half for two months. Andrea struggled at home to make ends meet. She thought it was beneath her husband and the other men to spend their mornings pulling weeds in the blistering heat. She marched right up to his superior officer and told him just how she felt. The next day, the weed detail ended. 

"When this whole thing started, my husband wasn't jumping up and trying to start a mutiny or anything," she said. "It was just a personal decision, and they could have let it ride. But no. They decided to make an example out of him." Last week, much to her surprise, Troy was let go two days early and walked through the front door with a big smile on his face. Five days back and he's still trying to find his home legs. He now wonders about signing up for a new tour of duty when this one ends in April 2005. "They got me working below my skill level, doing things I did two or three years ago," he said. "Unless something changes, I'm going to think long and hard about reenlisting." 
 



Air Force Times Aug 18,2003 pg 5
Airman Dies Weeks After Return to US

An airman who returned home after serving five months in the Middle East died of a RUPTURED SPLEEN, the Air Force said Aug5 Airman 1st class Justin Brummett ,21, of Newport,Ky died Aug 1 at his home at 
Minot Air Force Base,ND An autopsy by the ND medical examiner's office found a Ruptured spleen was 
the immediate cause of death, Minot base officials said. Lt Karin Wright, a Minot base spokeswoman, said the medical examiner's office is waiting for more tests to determine what caused Brummett's spleen to 
rupture. Brummett, a fuel's apprentice with the 5th Logistics Readiness Squadran , had  been stationed at Minot since he returned to the US in May. His father, David Brummett, told the Cincinnati EnQuirer on Aug 2 his son 
died of a viral infection.  He said his son had been ill for a couple of weeks and said others in his unit also were sick. 

 



http://www.news-leader.com/_archive/0716-Mysteryill-108625.html

Mystery illness kills Missouri soldier 

July 16, 2003 

Mystery illness kills Missouri soldier Josh Neusche died Saturday; his family waits for answers. 

By Eric Eckert
News-Leader Staff 

Jacob Neusche 

Montreal, Mo. -- Seventeen-year-old Jacob Neusche spent Tuesday morning packing up his big brother's belongings -- books, a high school letterman's jacket and a Class A uniform. "That's what Josh will be buried in," the teenager said, referring to the uniform. Missouri National Guard Spc. Josh Neusche, 20, died Saturday at the Homburg Hospital in Germany from a mysterious illness. A member of the 203rd Engineer Battalion, he is the only Missouri National Guardsman on the Department of Defense's casualty list. Family and friends are awaiting the soldier's body, scheduled to arrive Thursday in the United States. 

They are also waiting for autopsy results, and his parents, Mark and Cindy Neusche, are calling for an investigation. "He's always been healthy," Mark Neusche said. "Hell, he's a cross-country runner. There's no reason for a boy of his health to deteriorate so quickly." Cindy Neusche said her son collapsed July 2 while in Baghdad and was transported to Germany. Doctors there told the family they believed Josh suffered from 
pneumonia due to fluid that had collected on his lungs. But then his liver, kidneys and muscles started to break down, his mother said. "They were doing some things there, trying to get his kidneys flushed out,"  she said through tears. "They told us his potassium levels came up so far and he needed to go on dialysis." 

The Neusches traveled to Germany Friday to be with their son. When they arrived, they found him in a drug-induced coma. The grief-stricken couple weren't  able to talk with their boy, but they believe he knew they were there. "In our hearts, we felt he heard us," said Cindy Neusche. "You could tell by the machines he was on. His heart rate got faster when we talked to him." Josh Neusche died the next day.  Doctors and family members are still befuddled by the strange illness. There's got to be an explanation, Mark Neusche said. He prays the
hospital's autopsy will reveal the cause.  "I know the doctor over in Germany said he got into some type of toxin," Mark Neusche said. "Several soldiers were in similar conditions while we were  there."  So far there has been no hint of an official inquiry. "That's not under investigation," said U.S. Army Spokesman, Lt. Col. Jeff  Keane, from Virginia. 

"To my knowledge, we've not been asked to do that (investigate)," added Whitney Frost, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton. Meanwhile, friends and family have been reminiscing about their loved one.   I lost the person I looked up to the most," Jacob Neusche said of his brother. "I guess now the role I'll have to step into is caring for my mother and  dad. My brother always did that."  Friends remembered how Josh loved to play his trombone, his reign as Camdenton High School's 2002 prom king and his penchant for mathematics. 

"He was a tutor for little kids," said friend Danny Pacholski. "The guy was a genius at math. ... It's really heartbreaking that this happened. We were always supposed to grow up with each other." Josh's high school sweetheart, Krissy Lewis, said he lived his 20 years to the fullest. The couple broke up after high school, but stayed close friends. "He was the most outgoing person I'd ever met," Lewis said, adding that friends have been consoling each other since they learned of the death. "One moment, I'm OK and then it hits me that I've lost the first love of my life." Josh joined the National Guard in high school. When he was activated in March, the young man was enrolled at Southwest Missouri State University as a freshman.  He was taking general-education courses and had been dating fellow student Layne Clark for eight months. Clark, 19, said she and Josh talked many times about getting married. 

"We met at college through a friend of ours," Clark said Tuesday. "We loved to go dancing. We saw a lot of movies and we enjoyed just being together  --doing nothing." Clark said the young soldier believed in his mission. 
"He was so proud to serve his country. He thought this was the right thing to do and he wanted to do it. He was the most courageous man I'd ever known." On Sunday -- the day after learning of Josh's death  Clark received a 
two-page letter from her boyfriend; it was postmarked June 30. "He just told me that everything was going all right and he'd be home soon." 
 



FROM THE LA TIMES
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-le-lentz25.2jul25,1,3847
320.story
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Military Response to Vaccination Refusal

July 25, 2003

Re "No Vaccine, No Glory, Navy Says," July 21: As a practicing physician for 43 years, I find the action of the Navy on Troy Goodwin reprehensible and ludicrous. Forcing a seaman to take a vaccine that is known to be
potentially dangerous and life-threatening is unconscionable. A recent death from the vaccination should be enough evidence to at least give the serviceman an option as to whether he takes it or not. To demote him, cut
his pay and then put him in jail is ridiculous. What are our military priorities coming to?

Leon M. Trunk MD

Los Angeles

 



UPI.com
August 21, 2003

Widow Fears Pentagon 'Lying' On Pneumonia

By Mark Benjamin, United Press International

WASHINGTON -- Joining a growing chorus of families, the widow of a soldier in Iraq who died of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness said Thursday she fears the military may be lying about her husband's death. She said she worries that he may have died from the anthrax vaccine shots the Army gave him. "More and more I think it was the shots," said Stephanie Tosto, whose husband, Army Sgt. Michael L. Tosto, died June 17. Tosto said the military has given her little information about her husband's death. "I think they [the Army] might be lying about this stuff," Tosto, 22, said in a telephone interview from Baumholder, Germany. "I really feel like it. Nobody can tell me anything. If it is the shots, then of course they are lying." "We just want to know what happened and we have a right to know. But the Army is acting like they are trying to hide something, and that just makes it harder."

Michael Tosto, 24, died at Camp Wolf in Kuwait after falling ill in Iraq three days earlier. The military listed his death as "a non- combat related cause." Stephanie Tosto said the Army has told her that her husband had a pneumonia-like illness, but little more. "They have told me that he had fluid in his lungs and it got into his
tissue and I believe fluid around his heart," Tosto said.

Last week, the families of two soldiers who died after a pneumonia- like illness, Army Spc. Zeferino E. Colunga and Army Spc. Joshua M. Neusche, wrote Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seeking an independent investigation into their deaths. "We as a family are concerned that we are not being told the truth," say the similar Aug. 12 letters to Rumsfeld, facilitated by the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans' advocacy group.

The Pentagon is investigating more than 100 cases of mysterious pneumonia among troops in Iraq and in Southwest Asia. Eighteen soldiers have required respirators, according to the Pentagon. At least two have died, Tosto and Neusche. The Army has said Colunga's death is not related to the cluster of pneumonia-like illnesses.

The week before, the father of a fourth soldier, Army Spc. Rachael Lacy, told United Press International that the military was "covering up" Lacy's April 4 death from vaccines. The civilian coroner who performed her autopsy and a doctor who treated her have both said the smallpox or anthrax vaccines she received March 2 might have caused her death, which followed a pneumonia-like illness. "The common denominator [in the pneumonia-like illnesses] is smallpox and anthrax vaccinations," said Moses Lacy. "The government is covering this up and it is a dog-gone shame." The Army has not classified Lacy's death as possibly related to vaccines.

In a fifth case, a staffer for Rep. Chris Shays said the Connecticut Republican is closely following the Pentagon investigation -- and the possibility that vaccines might play a role -- after the death of Army Staff Sergeant Richard S. Eaton Jr., 37, of Guilford, Conn., on August 12. Eaton's death was characterized by the Pentagon as a
pulmonary embolism while sleeping. Shays has led hearings on the Pentagon's anthrax vaccination program.

Pentagon health officials did not return a phone call Thursday seeking comment. The head of the Pentagon's vaccine program told UPI this week that vaccine side effects are an unlikely cause for the sicknesses and deaths.
"In 200 years of vaccinations, no vaccine has ever been shown to cause pneumonia and there are multiple reasons to believe that the vaccines have no role," said Col. John D. Grabenstein, deputy director for clinical operations at the Military Vaccine Agency.

Stephanie Tosto said another soldier on guard duty with Michael in Iraq on June 14 said he at first seemed fine, but over a period of hours he turned white, his lips went blue, he began vomiting and then vomiting blood. She said Tosto's medical records show him at a medical aid station June 15th complaining of "tightness in the chest."

On June 16 she had a telephone conversation with a doctor treating her husband who said Michael had bad pneumonia and trouble breathing. "The doctor sounded very concerned because he was having such trouble breathing," Tosto said. She had a brief telephone conversation with her husband June 16. "He said, 'Hey baby, I'm sick. I have pneumonia.' He told me that he loved me. He sounded very weak and tired."

"The next day, Wednesday, they came to the house and said he died from complications from pneumonia," Tosto said. "When my husband died, the casualty officer asked me, 'Is it possible that Michael had heart problems?' Michael did not have heart problems. One other time they asked me if he had asthma. He was never sick."

Stephanie Tosto said that her husband's medical records show him receiving the first three of six scheduled anthrax shots before leaving Germany, the last on Feb. 26. She says another soldier from Tosto's 1st Armored Division said soldiers in the division did receive an anthrax shot in Iraq. Tosto arrived there on the first or second day in May. Stephanie Tosto said the last pages of her husband's medical record showed redness and swelling in the arms but that the military would not allow her to see her husband's body until after an autopsy was performed in Germany. He was then in a dress uniform with white gloves.

She says Michael Tosto got a smallpox shot back in March. "He had to go back for the follow-up and he said he was feeling lousy" after getting that vaccine. Stephanie Tosto said she struggles with explaining Michael Tosto's death to her 21-month-old son. "He keeps pointing at his daddy's picture and saying, 'Daddy.' All I can tell him is 'Daddy went bye-bye.' So now he points at his picture and says, 'Daddy bye-bye.' I don't know what to tell him because I don't know. I wonder if I will ever know." The Pentagon says the anthrax vaccine is safe.

In an August 2002 case study of a 39-year old "previously healthy man on active duty" in the Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Journal CHEST, three military doctors described the case of a 39-year-old who was diagnosed with pneumonia that "may be due to the anthrax vaccine." And a review by a government advisory committee in 2002 found one case of pneumonia "considered probably related to [anthrax] vaccination."
 



Read this article and watch for the highlighted words....

washingtonpost.com

Number of Wounded in Action on Rise 
Iraq Toll Reflects Medical Advances, Resistance Troops Face 

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 2, 2003; Page A01 

. Since the war began, more than 6,000 service members have been flown back to the United States. The number includes the 1,124 wounded in action, 301 who received non-hostile injuries in vehicle accidents and other mishaps, and thousands who became physically or mentally ill.  

(Thousands mentally and physically ill? Vaccine induced?)



Vaccine-Related Illnesses are Becoming an Epidemic among US Troops in Iraq
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030915-014545-8114r

"Mysterious pneumonia-like illnesses and breathing problems appear to be striking U.S. troops in greater numbers than the military has identified in n investigation -- including more deaths, according to soldiers and their families," says a new Moonie UPI report. "They suffered a pneumonia-like illness after being given vaccines, particularly the anthrax shot. One Air Force staff sergeant who was deployed to Turkey for Operation Iraqi Freedom told UPI he was hospitalized in Incerlik in March with a pneumonia-like illness, 10 days after his fourth anthrax shot. He got his next anthrax shot in August, and 10 days later was hospitalized in California with what he said was the same pneumonia-like illness." Yet the Pentagon continues to SWEAR the shots have NOTHING to do with the illness. 
 



Military Vaccine Woes Mount
HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 10, 2003


Dennis Drew was prepared to fight the enemy in Iraq, but never got the chance. After his military vaccinations, his immune system completely unraveled. "Severe pneumonia and myocarditis, I think almost killed me," said Drew, a U.S. Army chemical weapons specialist. Now living in constant pain, daily life is almost unbearable. His illnesses are nearly identical to those suffered by Rachel Lacy before she died last spring. The coroner said her military shots were likely to blame. 

It's estimated thousands of soldiers claim serious illnesses from military vaccines. But to them, the most maddening thing is they don't exist -- at least in the eyes of top military brass -- who insist there is, quote, "no evidence, none whatsoever" that inoculations cause any long-term problems, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. 

That includes blood clots. 

The military denied any possible link to vaccines when NBC War Correspondent David Bloom died at age 39 of an apparent blood clot after his military shots. Yet a CBS News investigation has uncovered more than a dozen cases of the vaccines being linked to blood clot problems. It's suspected in Drew's illness, confirmed by the military's own records in former Army Captain Jason Nietupski who developed blood clots in his legs, and documented in former navy nurse Julia Dyckman. Dyckman's immune system fell apart after her shots for the first Gulf War. Now she has debilitating problems from brain lesions to dissolving neck bones. "It's harder to live with these illnesses than if I was shot in combat," said the retired U.S. Navy captain. 

She watched the latest deployment with a mix of interest and dread. "I was worried. And I also had another reason to be worried because I also have three sons in the military right now," she said. Sons who may be ordered to get the shots themselves -- those who refuse are court-martialed or kicked out of the service. Their lives forever changed, the victims old and new desperately want to find out why the vaccines are making some soldiers so sick, but say they can't fight the enemy if the Pentagon denies the enemy exists. 

©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.



BL Fisher Note:

And the nightmare caused by military doctors sticking their collective heads in the sand continues to destroy the young lives of those who only wanted to serve their country...

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030915-014545-8114r

By Mark Benjamin
UPI Investigations Editor
Published 9/16/2003 2:45 PM

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Mysterious pneumonia-like illnesses and breathing problems appear to be striking U.S. troops in greater numbers than the military has identified in an investigation -- including more deaths,
according to soldiers and their families. Some of the soldiers were deployed to Iraq and died but are not part of the Pentagon's investigation. Others who got ill told United Press International they suffered a pneumonia-like illness after being given vaccines, particularly the anthrax shot.

The Pentagon said it is committed to the health of military personnel and that some dead or ill soldiers do not meet criteria for the investigation. Pentagon health officials said a statistical analysis essentially has ruled out vaccines and that the role of smoking has emerged as a leading factor instead. One Air Force staff sergeant who was deployed to Turkey for Operation Iraqi Freedom told UPI he was hospitalized in Incerlik in March with a pneumonia-like illness, 10 days after his fourth anthrax shot. He got his next anthrax shot in August, and 10 days later was hospitalized in California with what he said was the same pneumonia-like illness.

"They said I had considerable inflammation of the lungs," said Staff Sgt. Neal B. Erickson Sr., 43, in a telephone interview from Moffett Field south of San Francisco. "I had severe chest pains, dizziness and shortness of breath." He said he does not smoke and that doctors thought he had blood clots or a heart attack. Tests for viruses or bacteria "came back clean," Erickson said. "They basically labeled it as a type of pneumonia."

He said the military is not recognizing that the shots made him sick and that he is afraid of getting the next anthrax shot, scheduled in five months. "I'm real touchy here. Come a few more months, I'm in line to get another.
It's not like we have a choice in the matter." Military personnel are required to take the shots and can be court-martialed if they refuse. Erickson said there are at least four similar cases in his squadron, including one hospitalization.

The Pentagon is investigating what it says is a mysterious pneumonia cluster that has sickened around 100 soldiers deployed across Southwest Asia. "I'll bet I'm not in (the Pentagon's) numbers," Erickson said. Pentagon health officials repeatedly have emphasized that the number of sick soldiers in their investigation show there is no "epidemic" among U.S. troops. They are concentrating on 19 service members who have gotten so sick they needed ventilators to breathe; two of those died.

"We do not have an epidemic," Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder Jr. told reporters last week. "The rates of pneumonia among personnel deployed to Southwest Asia in the past six months are consistent with what we would have expected, and we have data that strongly supports that."

The Pentagon has identified two deaths in its investigation: the July 12 death of Army Spc. Joshua M. Neusche, 20; and the June 17 death of Army Sgt. Michael L. Tosto, 24. Neusche's family wrote Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last month seeking an independent investigation of his death. Tosto's wife, Stephanie, told UPI last month she was frustrated at the lack of information on her husband's death, but said she thinks vaccines played a role.

At least two more soldiers deployed to Iraq died with fluid in their lungs, according to their families; one of those was found dead in his cot. The Pentagon has not released any information on two more soldiers found dead in Iraq under similar circumstances. In a fifth case, a 20-year-old died after what the Pentagon said were "breathing difficulties" and his mother has said she wants more information.

At least two more soldiers died after experiencing chest pain, including the Aug. 27 death of 43-year-old Lt. Col Anthony L. Sherman, who competed in triathlons and marathons. "The only thing they had to tell me was severe
myocardial infarction," said his wife, Lisa Ann, from Pottstown, Pa. "In my heart of hearts, I believe there was more to it than just a heart attack. He was in too good of shape."

All of those deaths appear on the Pentagon list of non-combat related fatalities but were not included in the pneumonia investigation. The Pentagon said that in its investigation, it has focused on a specific group of ill soldiers. "Other cases are medically reviewed separately because it would be scientifically inappropriate to combine the reviews," Pentagon medical officials told UPI in a written statement.

The investigation is focused on serious cases of illness that occurred between March 1 and Aug. 31 among military personnel who were deployed and who report to the United States Central Command, which includes the Horn of Africa, South and Central Asia and the Northern Red Sea regions, as well as the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq. Pentagon investigators are focusing on soldiers who developed pneumonia in both lungs and were placed on ventilators to breathe. Some civilian doctors said those parameters are too narrow and ignore cases
that could help identify the cause.

"I think the military is making a scientific mistake by restricting the region from which they are collecting these cases," said Dr. Meryl Nass, a doctor who treats soldiers who say they were harmed by vaccines. "There is no scientific reason to limit the geographical envelope from which cases are identified," Nass said. "You want to capture as many cases as possible to investigate, in order to get a broad outline of all the features of the disease."

Pentagon officials said their statistical analysis shows that vaccinated military personnel are no more likely to develop pneumonia than unvaccinated soldiers. Nor are they more likely to develop it soon after getting 
vaccinated. "We knew beforehand that the rate of pneumonia in anthrax-vaccinated people and in anthrax-unvaccinated people were essentially the same, so our starting point was that this was unlikely," Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director of the Military Vaccine Office, told reporters. Pentagon health officials said 10 of the 19 cases they are studying had eosinophilia, or the presence of a large number of a specific kind of white blood cell that can indicate an allergic response. Doctors have been unable to detect any virus or bacteria that might have caused the illness in those cases.

A reaction to a drug might cause eosinophilia, according to the Centers for Disease Control doctor assisting the military in the investigation, Dr. Steve Ostroff. "Obviously, one can have an allergy to a particular type of medication ... and that is certainly a line of investigation we can't entirely exclude," Ostroff told reporters. "There doesn't seem to be any particular type of unifying treatment that was given to these individuals."

A civilian doctor questioned that logic.

"They keep saying there is no common exposure, but every one of those soldiers got vaccinated," said Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, an infectious diseases doctor at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis. "That is one definite
common exposure that should not be dismissed out of hand." "Statistics by themselves only give you part of the story," said Sartin, a former Air Force doctor. "They are getting a bird's eye view of the forest but they are not getting down and looking at the trees."

This spring, Sartin treated Army Spc. Rachel Lacy of Lynwood, Ill., who died April 4 after a pneumonia-like illness. He and a coroner linked that soldier's death to either the anthrax or smallpox vaccines she had received
March 2, before falling ill. Lacy's June 3 death certificate lists vaccines as a possible cause for her lung damage, heart inflammation "with eosinophils," and "lupus-like autoimmune disease."

The military, which did not treat her or perform the autopsy, said her death was likely not due to vaccines.
A number of soldiers who were not deployed said the anthrax vaccine made them sick. Army Pvt. Dennis W. Drew, 27, got his first anthrax shot April 24 at Fort Hood, Texas, in preparation for going to Iraq. He started feeling ill April 27. "I started getting a real sharp pain in my chest. I had a hard time breathing and every time I moved, my chest hurt." Drew said. "I checked into a hospital and I found out I had pneumonia in my left lung and myocarditis, a swelling of the heart. Basically, my health has been going down hill ever since."

Drew says he quit smoking four years ago and was in good shape. In addition to his pneumonia, he said he has since suffered from severe headaches, loss of peripheral vision and constant colds. "It is like my immune system does not work anymore," he said. "When I first got to Fort Hood, the doctor there thought the myocarditis might have been caused by the vaccine." Drew wrote to Congress about his belief that the vaccine has ruined his life
with his wife and two small children. "I would invite anyone who doesn't believe in the adverse reaction of the
anthrax vaccine to come spend a day in my home to see first hand what my family and I go through," Drew wrote to House National Security Subcommittee Chairman Chris Shays, R-Conn., on Aug. 31. "We are just victims of wanting to serve our country."

Drew said he knows of three other similar cases at Fort Hood. Among deaths of soldiers with pneumonia-like symptoms and breathing problems who served in operation Iraqi Freedom, and are not included in the Pentagon
investigation:

-- Army Spc. Zeferino E. Colunga, 20, of Bellville, Texas. Colunga died on Aug. 6 after being evacuated from Iraq to Germany. Colunga's family wrote Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last month seeking an independent
analysis of his death from "this 'so-called' mystery illness." The family said Colunga "died at a hospital in Germany after a battle with pneumonia and a subsequent diagnosis of acute leukemia. We deserve to know why a healthy young man who was supposedly screened and determined fit for deployment would suddenly die," the letter says. The military specifically ruled out Colunga's death as part of the pneumonia cluster.

-- Army Spc. Cory A. Hubbell, 20, of Urbana, Ill. Hubbel died June 26 from what has been reported as "breathing difficulties," and listed by the Pentagon as a "non-combat related cause." He died after being hospitalized at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Hubbel's mother, Connie Bickers, told the Champaign News-Gazette that the Army is not giving her many answers on the death.

-- Army Spc. Levi B. Kinchen, 21, of Tickfaw, La. Tickfaw died Aug. 9 in Baghdad. A fellow soldier tried to wake him and noticed he was not breathing, according to the Pentagon. He was assigned to 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Polk, La.

-- Army Staff Sergeant Richard S. Eaton Jr., 37, of Guilford, Conn. Eaton was found dead on the morning of Aug. 12. The military has told the family that Eaton died of pulmonary edema, or fluid in his lungs, that might have been heat-related. Eaton's father Richard told UPI he has no reason to doubt the Army's explanation, but he said he has not received a final report on his son.

-- Army Pvt. Matthew D. Bush, 20, of East Alton, Ill. Bush died Aug. 8 in Camp Caldwell, Iraq. A fellow soldier tried to wake him and noticed he was not breathing, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon officials have indicated
that his death might have been heat-related.

-- Army Staff Sgt. David L. Loyd, 44, of Jackson, Tenn. Loyd died Aug. 5 in a Kuwaiti hospital after he experienced severe chest pains while on a mission. He was assigned to the 1175th Transportation Company, Army National
Guard, Brownsville, Tenn.

-- Lt. Col. Anthony L. Sherman, 43, of Pottstown, Pa. Sherman died on Aug. 27 in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. The Pentagon said Sherman died "as a result of non-combat related injury (medical)." His wife, Lisa Ann, said the Army told her Sherman died of "a severe myocardial infarction." She said she was suspicious because he was a marathon runner. Sherman was assigned to the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade, U.S. Army Reserves, based in Philadelphia, Pa.

-- Army Spc. William A. Jeffries, 39, of Evansville, Ind. Jeffries died March 31 at a hospital in Spain after becoming sick in Kuwait. A military official reportedly told Jeffries' family that he suffered a blood clot in
his lung and acute pancreatitis.

 



Hard Homecoming for U.S. Troops

BL Fisher Note:

Deja vu. Gulf War syndrome all over again. But the military doctors do not want to admit that the cocktail of vaccinations the once healthy and now sick young soldiers received could have anything to do with their health
deterioration. Until genetic differences are identified and respected, until the one-size-fits-all approach to vaccination and the premise that some are expendable in order to implement policy is replaced with a more humane acknowledgement of biodiversity, lives will continue to be ruined.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/display/inn_reports/special098.txt
THE SUN CHRONICLE, MA

Hard homecoming
By RICK FOSTER / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

When Sgt. Cherie Davis was serving with the Army Reserve 399th Combat Support Hospital in Kosovo, one of her proudest moments was meeting President and Mrs. George W. Bush. `` It was exciting to be able to meet them,'' said the former South Attleboro resident, who still has a picture of herself with the first lady. On a July 2001 visit to Camp Bondsteel, where Davis' unit was based, the president spoke to the troops and expressed gratitude for their work. 

`` Especially here, seeing you in a foreign land, brings home the true meaning of the sacrifices you make for our freedom,'' Bush said. At the time, Davis had no idea just how large a sacrifice she was making. An illness she contracted while serving overseas would seriously threaten her health. Worse, Davis says, Army red tape and delays kept her from receiving adequate medical treatment and service pay for months. The 30-year-old Army reservist began to feel seriously ill after arriving in Kosovo and continues to suffer from chronic fatigue, fainting spells and other symptoms.

Long after she returned from the war zone, she is still unable to resume her career as a mental health care worker. Collapsed twice Lightheadedness and exhaustion stemming from what was then an undiagnosed illness caused Davis to collapse twice while in Kosovo, at one point resulting in her being evacuated to the Army's Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.

But Davis had to wait a year and a half before receiving compensation from the military, and still has not gotten all the pay she says is owed her for the time she was incapacitated. She only recently earned official disability status from the federal government. At a time when the United States is growing more dependent on its reserve forces for critical defense missions, Davis' treatment raises questions about the military's support for its citizen soldiers. `` Essentially, we patted her on the head and kicked her in the ass,'' said  an Army Reserve official who spoke on condition of anonymity. `` We screw up a lot of times.'' 

The official also said reservists and National Guard personnel often appear to be treated with less priority than their regular Army counterparts. Such attitudes are not unknown within the military bureaucracy says John
Goheen, communications director for the National Guard Association of the United States.

`` Unfortunately there are folks both in uniform and civilians attached to the military who consider people in the Guard and Reserve second-class citizens,'' said Goheen. `` That's troubling at a time when we're at the height of the largest mobilization of Guard personnel since the Korean War.'' Regional Army Reserve officials declined to comment officially on the local soldier's case, although her unit recently recommended that her Army pay be brought up to date.

Davis, who married a fellow serviceman in May, was diagnosed by Veterans Administration doctors as suffering from neurocardiogenic syncope -- fainting spells caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure -- and chronic fatigue syndrome as well as depression. She continues to suffer from crippling fatigue, sore throats, muscle pain and headaches. Davis thinks the symptoms could be related to a battery of Army vaccinations she received just before and during the Kosovo assignment. Last year, a VA doctor pronounced Davis unable to perform either a military  or civilian job because of her illness. In May Davis, who plans to open a consulting business at home, was classified by the government as 80 percent disabled. In the meantime, Davis said, she's seen only modest improvement in her condition.

`` I'm better than I was,'' she said. `` I have good days and bad days.'' Davis joined the National Guard in 1990 out of high school and spent nine years in the service as an administrative specialist and chaplain's assistant. Six months after she retired from the Guard, she learned through friends that the 399th needed a chaplain's assistant and agreed to join the Army Reserve. The Bridgewater State College graduate entered the 399th just in time, it turned out, to be sent to Kosovo as part of the Clinton Administration's peacekeeping effort in that war-torn country. In the fall of 2000, she received a series of hurry-up immunizations and medical clearances in order to prepare for the mission. After arriving in Kosovo, however, Davis began feeling ill.

`` While in Kosovo, I began working with the sick locals and soldiers as part of my duties,'' she said. `` I began to feel real exhausted, weak, light-headed at times and basically not feeling quite right.'' Davis received medical attention and was given light duty, but the symptoms did not improve. Finally, at the end of April 2001, she lost consciousness while at Camp Bondsteel. Davis again received treatment, and this time was ordered back to the States for tests at Walter Reed Medical Center. After two weeks, the local soldier was granted permission to return to her outfit in Kosovo. Not all of Davis' superiors took her symptoms seriously, however. According to Sherri MacGlaughlin of Brockton, a former Army Reserve nurse and Davis' roommate in Kosovo, one officer let it be known that he thought Davis' illness was `` all in her head.''

MacGlaughlin said she disagreed, and observed that Davis, who collapsed without warning at a military chow hall in Kosovo, seemed to become more and more exhausted. `` She had to take a nap every day after a while,'' MacGlaughlin said. After her treatment at Walter Reed, Davis returned to Kosovo, where she continued to feel ill and passed out a second time. But since her unit was about to return to the United States, she was kept in Kosovo until September. 

After she came home, Davis informed Army officials of her chronic medical problems during `` out-processing'' at Fort Benning, Ga., and requested that she be sent back to Walter Reed. Army officials, however, offered her the
option of reporting to the Providence Veterans Administration Hospital instead. But Davis, who had been released from active duty upon her return to the United States, said she did not improve, and again sought an appointment at Walter Reed. Meanwhile, officials at the Providence VA hospital informed her that there was a problem. Since her condition began while she was serving in Kosovo, she was told, the Army should have kept her on active duty rather than release her. In order to fix this, she'd have to obtain a document from the Army called a
`` line of duty'' giving a detailed record of her service and her illness. But since Davis' treatment was ongoing and doctors could not provide an `` end date,'' officials at the Army Reserve's 94th Regional Support Command --
parent unit of the 399th -- told her they could not process her line of duty.

`` It was like a Catch-22,'' Davis said. `` In order to get benefits, I had to have a line of duty. But I couldn't get a line of duty because of some technicality.'' In addition, records indicate the 94th did not respond immediately to respond to official requests from Army command at Ft. Drum, N.Y., for critical paperwork on Davis' case, including an appointment order for an officer to verify Davis' records. While Davis says her struggle with the Army over paperwork had two major effects: The delay kept her from returning to Walter Reed for further treatment. It also held up the restoration of her Army active duty pay, which ended after she returned from Kosovo. Still sick, Davis was forced to exhaust most of her savings for daily expenses and to pay for appointments with civilian doctors.

Eventually, Davis took her story to the office of U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, who initiated a congressional inquiry on her behalf. McGovern's office contacted Army Reserve officials, but found the 94th ``terribly unresponsive,'' according to a memo from staffer Matthew Pacheco. Pacheco eventually brought the matter to the attention of the Army Liaison Office on Capitol Hill as well as Lt. Col. Mary Sherman, an Army troubleshooter in the Pentagon. According to copies of e-mails provided to The Sun Chronicle, Sherman in effect told the 94th to get going. A line of duty was not needed for Davis to return to Walter Reed, she wrote, because the hospital had already given notice that the soldier needed to be seen again when she returned to the States. `` This should have happened over a year ago,'' Sherman wrote in a tersely-worded e-mail to the 94th last January. Following Sherman's intervention, Davis was finally sent back to Walter Reed and also was granted back pay covering the first six months she was incapacitated. 

Sherman, when contacted by a Sun Chronicle reporter, referred all comment to the Army public affairs department. During her week-long stay at Walter Reed, Davis underwent a number of tests. She continues to take several medications, but has been told she can only be treated -- not cured. She says she does not blame the Army for her condition, and is proud of having been a soldier and to have served in the Kosovo action. `` It was a good mission,'' she said. `` I think we helped people there.'' She's also grateful to members of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post and city Veterans Agent Thomas Tullie, who she said helped with her case. Davis still does not know what caused her illness, although a large number of soldiers who served either in the 1991 Gulf War or Kosovo have reported mysterious ailments. 

Clinical investigations have centered on possible exposure to depleted uranium from munitions and military vaccinations given to troops to protect them against disease. So far, however, neither military nor civilian doctors have been able to produce a smoking gun linking the soldiers' symptoms to overseas service. The former Attleboro sergeant received some satisfaction two months ago when she received her disability classification -- enough to earn her a monthly stipend. And recently, the 94th Reserve Support Command sent a recommendation to the Pentagon seeking to have Davis' military pay extended through Sept. 30, according to Eric Hurwitz, the unit's public affairs spokesman. Last May, Davis was married to Sgt. First Class John Keeter, whom she met while serving in Kosovo. The couple currently lives in Maryland, where Keeter is serving as an instructor at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. He is due to retire later this year. Davis, although still disabled, technically remains a member of the 94th. Because of her illness, however, it's doubtful she'll ever perform another drill. The former Attleboro sergeant says she bears no grudges toward the Army, but hopes her story will focus attention on problems within the system. `` I'd like to prevent this from happening to any other soldier,'' she said.

RICK FOSTER can be reached at 508-236-0372 or via e-mail at
rfoster@thesunchronicle.com.
 



© 2003 News World Communications Inc. 
Since Persian Gulf War II began about 6,000 soldiers have been shipped home for recovery. Of these, 1,200 were wounded in combat. Many of the others consider themselves part of an army of "walking dead" – troops who appear to be so physically and mentally exhausted that the military has no recourse but to discharge them. Why they are ill has become a matter of intense debate inside the Pentagon. Some claim a series of anthrax and smallpox vaccinations made them so gravely ill that they have trouble breathing or sleeping and have experienced a loss of memory. Others have been diagnosed with lupus and heart problems. 

At least six died shortly after rolling up their sleeves to receive the anthrax and smallpox shots. But the Pentagon dismissed related claims with such regularity and intimidation that many GIs tell Insight they no longer report the illness. They are told to "suck it up" and move on. "Don't blame the vaccinations" has been a Pentagon mantra since it began inoculating nearly half a million troops almost two years ago and pumping millions of dollars into BioPort Corp., the Lansing, Mich.-based sole supplier of the anthrax vaccine. 

But an alarming outbreak of more than 100 suspected pneumonia cases among Gulf War II veterans serving in Iraq and southwestern Asia has drawn the ire of Congress. Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., held eight congressional hearings on the safety of the vaccination while chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, and issued a seething report that found serious safety and regulatory problems with the vaccine. Now Shays is asking again, "Could these vaccinations be hurting our troops?" 

The Pentagon reluctantly admitted that two Army soldiers – Spc. Joshua M. Neusche, 20, of Montreal, Mo., and Sgt. Michael L. Tosto, 24, of Apex, N.C. - died from complications arising from pneumonia on July 12 and June 17, respectively. The Army is investigating their deaths. Between 1998 and 2001, the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine reported 17 soldiers died from complications of pneumonia. The Pentagon has confirmed that this year at least 17 others have been placed on respirators but insists the vaccinations have nothing to do with the deaths or illness. 

The two pneumonia-related deaths reported recently apparently are an understatement. Family members of Army Spc. Zeferino E. Culunga, 20, of Bellville, Texas, and Staff Sgt. Richard S. Eaton, 37, of Guilford, Conn., claim their sons died in August after being diagnosed with pneumonia. A third death involved Spc. Rachael Lacy of Lynwood, Ill. According to her autopsy, "smallpox and anthrax vaccinations" contributed to her death on April 4 after she first had been diagnosed with pneumonia. 

When the victims' families reached out to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he ordered a team of military investigators to Germany and Iraq to review the recent pneumonia cases. "We as a family are concerned that we are not being told the truth," wrote the family of Spc. Neusche in an Aug. 12 letter to Rumsfeld. Like the other families, they asked to see medical records in an effort to get a second opinion on the cause of death. Culunga died of acute leukemia. Lacy was never deployed, so she is not considered part of the cluster of pneumonia cases. 

"It is our right to receive truthful, honest and unfiltered answers just as the military required truth, honesty and commitment from our son," says the Neusche-family letter to Rumsfeld. But the Army is not investigating the deaths of Culunga or Lacy, and is awaiting autopsy results for Eaton. Besides those who died from pneumonia-like complications, families of six others claim the vaccinations contributed to their sons' deaths – including two who committed suicide because, say the complaints, the vaccinations made them so seriously ill that it destroyed their will to live. 

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged the nature of these deaths, the Pentagon has not because military doctors have refused to confirm that the vaccines contributed to the deaths of any of these victims. Despite mounting criticism, the Pentagon repeatedly claimed the pneumonia cases had nothing to do with the anthrax or smallpox vaccinations. "In 200 years of vaccination, no vaccine has ever been shown to cause pneumonia, and there are multiple reasons to believe that the vaccines have no role," Col. John D. Grabenstein, deputy director for clinical operations at the Military Vaccine Agency, told United Press International. 

Could Grabenstein be wrong? During congressional hearings on the vaccination program in 1999, Pentagon officials acknowledged there had been three reports of serious illness coincidentally associated with the vaccination involving hypersensitivity pneumonia. A study last year in Pharmacoepidemiolgy and Drug Safety said the vaccine was the cause of pneumonia in two soldiers. But Grabenstein dismisses such evidence. In fact, in his recent study of vaccination patients published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, he insists there have been no deaths related to the smallpox shot. He ignores the Lacy case because she was never deployed overseas. 

"Totally bogus," says Meryl Nass, a civilian doctor who has treated soldiers who became ill after receiving the vaccinations. "I e-mailed JAMA a copy of the death certificate for Lacy. I asked him why he didn't report it. He said, 'We don't accept diagnoses from outside the military.' The Mayo Clinic [in Rochester, Minn.] did the autopsy. They don't believe the Mayo Clinic!" In fact, Lacy's death is not even listed in the military's Noteworthy Adverse Events report – an omission that critics suggest smells of cover-up. "My concern regarding the Lacy case is that it was parsed to death in an effort to keep it out of the official reports," says Jeffrey Sartin, a former U.S. Air Force doctor who now works in the Infectious Disease Department at the Gunderson Clinic in La Crosse, Wis. "If it could not be proven with 100 percent certainty that vaccines caused her illness, it was not going to be reported as such." 

While Sartin says it should have been reported, Nass wonders if Grabenstein may have a serious conflict of interest that has prevented him from reporting such incidents. She notes Grabenstein sits on a number of pharmaceutical boards and is well known for advocating legislation that would allow pharmacists to administer vaccinations. Some civilian doctors charge that the Pentagon mislabeled these cases in an effort to avoid making adverse-reaction reports that the military keeps to monitor vaccination programs. 

Indeed, Lacy may not be the only death overlooked. The death of NBC correspondent David Bloom, who died of a blood clot after receiving vaccination shots, as well as the death of a 55-year-old Missouri National Guardsman who had a heart attack under similar circumstances, also were disregarded. "I am not sure they had pneumonia," Nass says. "They are trying to obscure it. They have something else in the lungs and they're not telling us what it is. The Pentagon knows something, but they are not sharing it. And if it isn't pneumonia, what is it?" 

What is known is that about one-half of these military patients with pneumonia also had elevated eosinophils in their blood. Eosinophils are responsible for allergic reactions and also help defend against parasites, says Sartin, who worked with a team of doctors that treated Lacy. "Elevated eosinophils were seen in the blood count of Rachael Lacy before she died, and both her autopsy and the heart biopsy of a servicemember who had myopericarditis showed eosinophilic infiltration of heart tissue," reports Sartin. "This suggests to me the possibility of an immune-mediated reaction to something such as a vaccine." 

Another possibility, he says, could be Churg-Strauss syndrome, an autoimmune disease in which "you get asthma, pulmonary infiltrates [in other words, the chest X-ray can look like pneumonia] and eosinophilia." Sartin reports this can lead to vasculitis, which is what killed Bioport employee Richard Dunn. A coroner claimed the anthrax vaccine contributed to Dunn's death. "If we could get the test results on these patients, and in particular the autopsy results on Neusche and Tosto, we might be able to draw some conclusions about what caused their illnesses and whether it was vaccine-related," he believes. 

Pointing to the sharing of information on the SARS outbreak and how that helped civilian doctors diagnose and treat the disease, Sartin argues that the same could be done with data about the sick soldiers. However, for now, the military would rather keep those records under wraps, which puzzles Sartin. "All of us close to the [Lacy] case, including her family members, wonder why a perfectly healthy young woman, in the top 10 percent of her PT [physical-training] testing, would get sick right after her vaccinations without any other explanation and the authorities would not consider that the vaccine probably, or at least possibly, caused her illness and death." 
 



http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20031001-9999_1mi1anthrax.html

Marine discharged over vaccine 
     
Rancho Peñasquitos man refused anthrax inoculation 

By Jeanette Steele 
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 

October 1, 2003 

Lance Cpl. Kevin Lotz yesterday became the first Southern California Marine to be discharged for refusing the anthrax vaccination since the Marine Corps resumed widespread mandatory shots last fall.  Another Marine, a Camp Pendleton mortarman, faces trial in coming months if his case goes forward as expected. Lotz, 21, a machine gunner from Rancho Peñasquitos who is stationed at the Twenty nine Palms Marine base, will serve 14 days in a military jail and received a bad-conduct discharge – one step less severe than a dishonorable discharge. 

He pleaded guilty yesterday to disobeying a lawful order in return for a guarantee of less than 60 days in jail. His sentence was shortened by the 42 days of barracks restriction he had already served.  After the sentencing, the 2000 graduate of Mt. Carmel High School said he still thinks the military's vaccination stance is wrong. He  refused inoculation because research convinced him it wasn't safe. "I think we need to bring this issue out in the open. It's still happening and there's no sign of it letting up," Lotz said in a telephone interview from his lawyer's office. 

"People shouldn't be punished for this if they are sincerely worried. It should be voluntary." The other serviceman, Pfc. Darren Fisher, 20, of San Marcos, also declined the shot when the Marine Corps was gearing up for the Iraq 
war last fall. He has not been charged because officials were awaiting his unit's recent return from Iraq, his family said. A lawyer with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which encompasses 45,000 Marines in Southern California, has said no one else has refused to date. 

It's been a winding journey to the courtroom for Lotz, who initially declined the vaccination in December. In January, the Marines sent Lotz to Kuwait with the rest of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, despite his refusal. In February, the Corps reversed course and flew him home to await punishment.  His mother, Kathleen Lotz of Arcata, called yesterday's sentence too harsh for the crime. The discharge leaves a black mark on her son's record, she said. "I just don't know why they want to ruin somebody's life – I understand punishment, yes, he refused an order," Kathleen Lotz said. "It wasn't that he wasn't willing to go to Iraq; all he wanted was to not take that shot." 

A Marine spokesman said the Corps is following direction from the Pentagon, which has said the vaccine is safe. "This is consistent with Department of Defense policy on this kind of refusal," said Capt. Robert Crum of the Twentynine Palms base. "Fortunately, these cases are relatively rare." The Marine Corps doesn't collect data on how many people it has charged with refusing the vaccination, said Capt. Nat Fahy, a Corps spokesman at the Pentagon. But at least one other Marine faced a military court this year. 

First Lt. Erick Enz, a North Carolina-based helicopter pilot, refused on religious grounds. Pleading guilty in July, he was dismissed from the service and ordered to serve a maximum seven-month sentence. The Air Force and Navy have issued administrative punishments but have not dismissed any refusers this year, though the Air Force court- martialed three people in 2000 and 2001, representatives said. An Army spokesman said his service doesn't track anthrax cases, but at least two female soldiers at Fort Drum, N.Y., have been court-martialed this year for refusing. The vaccine, meant to safeguard troops from the biological toxin used as a weapon, was given to 150,000 servicemen in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In 1997, the Pentagon announced plans to inoculate the entire military. That program faltered when the nation's sole manufacturer, Michigan-based BioPort Corp., lost federal approvals. 

Then, in June 2002, the Pentagon resumed mandatory vaccinations for troops deploying to high-threat areas such as the Middle East. The vaccinations have been controversial, and some service members have complained of falling sick after receiving them. A 2000 General Accounting Office report said it was the leading cause cited by 
pilots and aircrew members for leaving Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units.  Activists question why the military still insists on anthrax vaccinations though the toxin hasn't materialized as a threat. "People are getting ready to be deployed to Iraq, and they are being asked to take a vaccine to protect them against a potential biological weapon that currently soldiers can't find," said Steve Robinson, director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. Pentagonspokesman James Turner said vaccinations continue and are not unduly dangerous." More than 30 years of experience tells us that the anthrax vaccine is as safe as other vaccines," Turner said. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeanette Steele: (619) 718-5182; jen.steele@uniontrib.com   
 



http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3261107,00.html

This is a great indication of the misplaced priorities of the US military. The threat from bullets and shrapnel is real, and yet the troops are not adequately protected. Yet, the military is still court-martialing soldiers for refusing a vaccine against an anthrax  "threat" that does not exist....and which has only been targeted at American civilians -- who are not vaccinated because HHS won't allow BioPort to sell the vaccine to civilians.
 



http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/opinion/

TELL THE TRUTH ON GULF WAR SYNDROME

Sunday Mirror
Editorial
Oct 12, 2003

THE arrogance of the Ministry of Defence is breathtaking. For years the armchair generals have been denying the existence of Gulf War Syndrome. Now, in an astonishing admission, the MoD has owned up that no proper 
records were ever kept on the vaccinations given to the 60,000 soldiers in the first Gulf War In the 12 years since then, 5,000 Servicemen and women have fallen ill with symptoms of the mysterious illness. At least 600 have died.
In spite of clear links to the jabs, given for protection from chemical  attack, the MoD has callously brushed aside demands to accept responsibility. As we reveal today, the bureaucrats could not even be bothered to maintain files that could help the victims prove their case, one way or the other. The scandalous neglect of our troops is typical of the MoD. Defence Minister Lord Bach has also revealed that Department of Health safety guidelines on anthrax injections were blatantly ignored. Anthrax injections should be administered as a single jab. Instead they were given to troops in a cocktail of up to 28 other drugs. The effects of this dangerous mix were never medically tested. Now we know why. With no proper records, there was no point. The MoD just didn't give a damn.
Now it must lead to a full public inquiry, with independent scientific evidence, into Gulf War Syndrome.
And for fair compensation for the victims who have been cruelly treated. 




Washington Post
November 19, 2003 
Pg. 19

U.S. Soldier's Death Is Tied To Vaccines

By David Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer

A 22-year-old female soldier who died last spring after getting multiple vaccines. 





ANTHRAX VACCINE
  Member of Ohio Guard fighting inoculation
  Tuesday, November 25, 2003
  Sherri  Williams
  THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
  
  
  Kurt Hickman is the first Ohio National Guardsman to refuse to be  vaccinated against anthrax. He could be jailed.   Kurt Hickman is willing to go around the world to fight for his country, but the Granville man's immediate battle is with his superiors in the Ohio National Guard because he refuses to be vaccinated against anthrax.   Hickman, an Ohio University junior majoring in journalism, thinks the  vaccine might make him ill. But he has been told he could be sent to jail unless he receives it, his father, Bill Hickman, said.
  
  "He is an only child. We really don't want him to be exposed to something like this when it has been exposed that a death can come from it," the 65-year-old Hickman, an Army veteran, said on behalf of his son and his wife, Diane.  Kurt Hickman said from his parents' home last night that his attorney had advised him not to comment.   He is the first Ohio guards- man to refuse the vaccine, said James Sims, deputy director of public affairs for the Ohio National Guard.   "He has made a choice to disobey a lawful order. Soldiers don't get to choose what orders they want to follow or the ones they don't," Sims said. "His failure to obey a lawful order is a serious offense. It will 
  be treated as such."
  
  A 2002 survey by Congress' General Accounting Office found that 85 percent of Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard troops vaccinated against anthrax between 1998 and 2000 suffered adverse effects, ranging  from headaches and muscle aches to dizziness and difficulty breathing.  Last week, the Department of Defense announced that the anthrax vaccine may have caused the death of Rachel Lacy, an Army Reserve specialist in   Wisconsin who died April 4 after having five of the six shots in the series. Lawmakers are concerned about the mandatory anthrax vaccination. Citing health hazards, Sen. Jeff Bingaman is to introduce a resolution today 
  asking that it be voluntary, said Jude McCartin, press secretary for the New Mexico Democrat.
  
  Anthrax appeared in mail in Eastern and Southern states weeks after the   Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Five people died after coming in contact with it, but its origins have never been determined.  The Defense Department requires troops going to high-risk areas for  more than 15 days to be vaccinated to protect them from chemical  warfare. Hickman's unit, the 196 th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, has been told it could be deployed Jan. 2 but has not been told where.   Hickman is a specialist, a broadcast journalist who produces video of the Guard in action. He joined the Guard two years ago.   If Hickman does not receive the shots, he cannot be deployed, Sims said.
  
  More than 900,000 members of the armed forces have had the anthrax vaccine, according to the Defense Department.  Since 1999, 2,700 Ohio National Guard members have received the anthrax vaccine, Sims said. The other 20 members of Hickman's company received their first injections Saturday at an armory in Westerville.
  
  Hickman was told he had until yesterday, his 20 th birthday, to be inoculated. He called his commanding officer and told him he had not changed his mind. He is in Granville on winter break from Ohio University until Jan. 4. 
  Hickman's attorney, Kenneth Levine of Blue Bell, Pa., said other military personnel he has represented who refused to be vaccinated have  been dishonorably discharged, while one left the military.  "He's a relatively young guy who is trying to put in his time with the National Guard, and it kind of blows up in his face," Levine said. "He 
  is willing to be deployed to Iraq or wherever else they want them to go.  "He has just chosen not to take the vaccination, for safety and legal reasons."
 



QUOTE: "Hickman has not refused to be deployed with his Ohio National Guard 
unit, which is scheduled to go overseas in January..."

www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20031201/localnews/744182.html

Guardsman formally charged for refusing anthrax vaccination
Advocate staff report 
Newark, Ohio
Dec 1, 2003

GRANVILLE -- A member of the Ohio National Guard who refused to take an anthrax vaccine before an overseas deployment was charged Friday with failing to comply with an order. Kurt Hickman, 20, a junior at Ohio University and a guardsman for two years, could spend 100 days in jail for refusing the shot, which protects U.S. 
military personnel against exposure to anthrax, said Kenneth T. Levine, Hickman's attorney. Hickman has not refused to be deployed with his Ohio National Guard unit, which is scheduled to go overseas in January, said James Sims, deputy director of public affairs for Ohio National Guard. Hickman is the first Ohio guardsman to refuse the vaccine, Sims has said.

Hickman is slated to be arraigned Wednesday by a military judge, Sims said. If Hickman is sentenced to 100 days in jail, the National Guard could again order him to take the vaccine against his will and prosecute him if he refuses the vaccine a second time, Levine said.  Hickman's Ohio National Guard unit is scheduled to be deployed overseas in January. He reported to his drill base, Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Columbus last month as requested, but refused to take the shot. The vaccine is known to have adverse effects ranging from headaches and muscle aches to dizziness and difficulty breathing.  If Hickman does not receive the shots, he cannot be deployed, Sims has said. 

Since 1999, 2,700 Ohio National Guard members have received the anthrax vaccine with only one serious reaction, Sims has said. 

Originally published Monday, December 1, 2003

 



Snip: "FDA inspections and Congressional oversight also proved sequeline was
in my vaccine illegally"

"sequeline = squalene"

http://www.kpvi.com/index.cfm?page=nbcheadlines.cfm&ID=16047

LOCAL SOLDIER GIVEN ANTHRAX VACCINE

12/26/2003
Wednesday, a U.S. district judge ordered the military to stop adminstering the anthrax vaccine to service members without their consent until a trial can be held on the matter. Plaintiffs in the case argue that the anthrax
vaccine is being used as an experimental drug. But for one local Air Force member, the ruling may have come too late. Bryan Latham explains.

Vance Wasden, USAF-honorably discharged:

"Last Christmas Eve, they had to have an ambulance come and get me because my wife thought that I was dying because I stopped breathing and my eyes rolled in the back of my head."

It is just one of the many traumas Vance Wasden lives through. But it wasn't always like this - Wasden was once a very healthy 24-year-old serving in the United States Air Force. However, his life changed back in 1998 when he had an adverse reaction to the anthrax vaccine. "The joint pain, the muscular pains, the memory loss, concentration problems..."

Plus chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia - all which he battles daily. In total, Wasden lives with over a dozen different conditions - all due, he says, to a bad vaccine. "My vaccination was five years old and they changed the date on my vaccine just so they could give it to me and the FDA inspections and Congressional oversight also proved sequeline was in my vaccine illegally." 

Suprisingly, Wasden says he whishes he could still serve, loves the military, and has nothing but admiration for those still serving. "I am not doing this out of hostility towards the military. I am just hoping that what I say and what other people say will protect our troops."

He has a document outlining other members of his unit who have become sick too.

"I hope that they will take the time to write their congressmen, write their senator, and write to Washington, and ask that the people who were jailed - they'll be given an honorable discharge, and all those who are sick be given
a proper military retirement and for the families of those people who are dead, will get retribution." What he wants is every soldier to be properly honored.

 



Granville soldier still embroiled in anthrax dispute

            By BRIAN MILLER
            Advocate Reporter 

GRANVILLE -- As a battle over the safety of anthrax vaccines heats up, Spec. Kurt Hickman of Granville is left with few clues on how his refusal to take the vaccine will affect his military future.  Hickman, 20, was convicted in a Dec. 13 court martial after he refused to take the anthrax vaccination along with other members of his Ohio National Guard unit in preparation for being sent to the Middle East. About a week later, the military ordered a halt to the vaccination after U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled the vaccine had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use against inhalation anthrax. 

            With the vaccination requirement lifted, Hickman was allowed last week to accompany his unit, composed of journalists, to a training base in Indiana in preparation for a year's duty in Iraq. His unit will write base newsletters and escort media around the country. But last week, in yet another reversal, the military reinstated the vaccine after the judge, in response to an FDA ruling saying that the vaccine is safe and effective against inhalation anthrax, reversed his ruling. "I think it is only a matter of time before he is asked to take it again," said Hickman's attorney Kenneth Levine. And if Hickman again refuses -- and Levine would expect him to -- he could face a second court martial hearing, this time by the Army. 

            The recommended sentence he received from a military judge in Ohio -- that he be jailed for 40 days, demoted to the rank of private and be given a bad conduct discharge -- still stands. The 73rd Troop Command, the authority that oversees Hickman's unit, will review the sentence and decide whether to accept, reduce, or dismiss it, said James A. Sims II, deputy director of public affairs in The Ohio Adjutant General's Department. 

            Sims said he doesn't know when the sentence may be decided, but that any sentence handed down by an Ohio military authority won't be effective while Hickman is under federal orders.  "He'd have to be back from duty and off of orders," he said. Hickman could find relief if the judge rules in favor of the group of military members who filed the class action suit against the administration of the vaccine, which prompted his initial order to halt the vaccine.  The judge was expected to meet with the parties in the dispute this week. Levine said a decision could take anywhere from 30 days to six months. "There is a lot of legal wrangling between the FDA, the Department of Justice, and attorneys representing military personnel," he said. 

            Reporter Brian Miller can be reached at 328-8597 or bmiller@nncogannett.com. 
            Originally published Tuesday, January 13, 2004

 



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/02
/BUG8Q22FF91.DTL&
    
VaxGen gets big boost 
Government gives firm $80.3 million anthrax contract 

Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer       Thursday, October 2, 2003 
    
Shares in VaxGen Inc. rose Wednesday on news that the Brisbane firm was awarded an $80.3 million government contract to continue development of an anthrax vaccine and scale up manufacturing to 3 million doses.  The three-year contract keeps VaxGen in the running for additional awards totaling $1.4 billion to make and maintain a stockpile of 60 million doses of anthrax vaccine to protect the U.S. population in case of bioterrorism. 

VaxGen's competitor, Avecia Group PLC of Manchester, England, which has been developing a similar vaccine based on a protein fragment that stimulates the immune system, was awarded a $71.3 million contract.  Funding for the $1.4 billion anthrax vaccine stockpile depends on congressional passage of Project Bioshield, which would provide nearly $6 billion to prepare an arsenal of medicines against anthrax, smallpox and other potential terrorist weapons. The bill was approved by the House, but is pending in the Senate. 

It would allow the government to choose a contractor or contractors by early 2004 to make an initial 25 million to 30 million doses, the first phase of an effort to build up a full stockpile by 2013.  VaxGen stock had been rising like stair steps through September as the date approached for a decision on the anthrax contract by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. After the agency's announcement Wednesday, company shares gained 58 cents, or 4.81 percent, to close at $12.65. 

Share value has nearly tripled since Sept. 2. 

"We are pleased to have been awarded a contract that plays such an important role in our nation's defense,'' said Lance Gordon, VaxGen's chief executive officer.  Government vaccine work has helped to sustain VaxGen this year after clinical trials on its AIDS vaccine yielded little or no benefit. The company, which was founded to develop the AIDS vaccine it acquired from Genentech Inc., saw its shares lose half their value when the disappointing data were revealed in February. 

Then VaxGen snared a $16 million contract to develop and test an anthrax vaccine created by Army researchers. 
Now the company not only has a shot at the $1.4 billion in potential anthrax vaccine contracts, but is also vying for a share of another $1.4 billion that Project Bioshield would spend on a stockpile of smallpox vaccine. 

In a research note, Punk Ziegel & Co. analyst Sharon Seiler said VaxGen is well positioned to win the anthrax stockpile contract. Its South San Francisco manufacturing plant is equipped to produce 100 million doses a
year. Furthermore, the company just lined up back-up manufacturing capacity in the United Kingdom through an agreement with that country's Health Protection Agency. 

Seiler owns VaxGen shares, and her firm does investment banking business with the company. VaxGen is conducting human trials to make sure the anthrax vaccine dose has no harmful side effects, but people are not exposed to anthrax germs to test its effectiveness. Under Food and Drug Administration rules, the
effectiveness is being tested in animals.  Dow Jones News contributed to this report. 

E-mail Bernadette Tansey at btansey@sfchronicle.com 
 



QUOTE (last sentence): "When you are starving for information, then whatever reasonable trial you can do to get some information is something that you want to pursue," [Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] said. 

This is rich:

"Half of the volunteers will receive "active" vaccine and half placebo shots. All, however, will be counseled extensively on how to avoid infection and will be told not to count on the shots to enhance the protection that comes from their own behavior. For that reason, scientists expect the infection rate among trial participants to be lower than that of people like them not in the study. "

In other words:  Stay away from unprotected sex, stay away from sharing needles and be very careful on blood transfusions because this vaccine isn't going to do jack.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27970-2004Jan18.html

U.S.-Backed AIDS Vaccine Trial in Thailand Is Questioned 
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 19, 2004; Page A02 

 



http://www.columbian.com/01192004/front_pa/109936.html

The Colombian, WA

January 19, 2004
Keeping Faith, Losing Job

Monday, January 19, 2004
By DEAN BAKER, Columbian staff writer

    With his five little children hugging and kissing him and his wife beaming beside him, Erick Enz looks like a winner, five months after being drummed out of the Marine Corps.   The trim, smiling Enz, 33, said he's sure he did God's will by refusing to take an anthrax shot as ordered by the Marines before his unit shipped out for Iraq. The Enz family is devout, attending Rehoboth Jewish Messianic Church in Vancouver.  The price for his belief in God and his action backing it up was high, Enz said. But worth it.

    He was convicted of disobeying an order and was dismissed from the Marines and sentenced to seven months in prison. He served just 25 days in the brig under a pretrial agreement. He was left without income and without a job, facing a future as a felon, unable to vote or hold federal office.   His case is on appeal and his conscience is clear, said Enz, who returned to Vancouver with his family in August from Camp Lejeune, N.C. He hopes to be reinstated as a Marine aviator and to have the felon status lifted. But he isn't counting on it.

    "Either way, it won't stand in the way of what God has for my wife and I," he said. "Even though things may not seem fair, I know things have worked out the way they are supposed to. If things change in the future,
that would be great. But if they don't, I'm still moving forward."     The military says nearly 700,000 soldiers have received the anthrax vaccine since June 2002 prior to service in Iraq. The Associated Press reported that in 2002 the federal government surveyed 1,253 soldiers who received anthrax vaccinations and found 84 percent suffered minor reactions, with 24 percent having major multiple "systemic" reactions, more than 100
times higher than the estimate of the manufacturer.

    Enz wasn't alone in refusing the shot. Dozens of soldiers refused out of safety concerns, and many have been court-martialed, forced out of the military or imprisoned.  Washington lawyer Mark S. Zaid has filed suit challenging the use of the vaccine, arguing that research on it is incomplete.  Not health issue But Enz said it wasn't the safety of the shot that made him act. Through prayer, he came to believe that God didn't want him to take the shot, he said, although he didn't understand why.

    "I wasn't afraid of the shot," he said. "I've taken lots of shots. It wasn't that I doubted the value of the shot. It was just that God told me not to do it." He said God earlier had improved his poor vision to make it possible for him to become a Marine aviator, so he was a committed believer in prayer and conscience. In federal court, however, the Marines refused to allow the divine intervention defense. They simply court-martialed Enz and convicted him for disobeying an order.

    As a result, he lost his career. He had entered the Marines in 1990 and served in the Gulf War. After a few years out, he joined again. He was a first lieutenant and CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter pilot and up for promotion
to captain.  He insists he still is technically a Marine, although "dismissed" from the service. His case is on appeal, and he said he is on "appellate leave" without pay.   Regardless of terminology and legal technicalities, he was out of the military and in limbo last summer. Folks back home in Clark County and Portland read about his case and began writing him and sending money.

    "The Marine Corps quit paying me, but God took care of us, provided for us. We were able to take care of all of our bills. We were never late," he said. "One person gave us a check for $5,000." He declined to name the
person and said quite a few supporters were anonymous.  "It wasn't just one person," said his wife, Keelee. "It was many people."   "God told us that he would take care of us, and he did," said Enz, who has a correspondence degree in theology from Christian Life School and an associate's degree at Clark College. He also attended Portland State University, where he played football.

    Today, Enz supports Keelee, 28, and their children by working as a regional distribution manager for Airgas, a Portland-based gas and welding supply company. He supervises distribution in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.     Their children are Joshua, 8; Matthew, 7; Rachel, 5; Annamarie, 2, and Caleb, 10 months. Keelee's father, Larry Sapp, lives in Vancouver. So does Enz's father, Dan Enz.  "It motivates me to see him stand up so strongly for what he believes in," said Enz's 1991 Gulf War Marine buddy, Lance Powlison, 33, of Canby, Ore. "I think it's commendable, and I think his wife is pretty amazing to support him through all of this. Maybe they can't let him get back in the Marines, but taking away the felony would be a nice thing."     "He's a fine young man, isn't he?" said Enz's attorney, Marine Maj. Stephen Newman at Camp Lejeune.

    No traction

    Newman added, however, he doesn't believe Enz will gain any advantage in his appeal from recent court decisions questioning the government's use of the anthrax vaccine. He said Enz faces a long wait to find out how his case comes out on appeal.  In December, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., gave Enz hope temporarily by issuing an injunction blocking mandatory anthrax inoculations. The judge said the drug was experimental and "being used for an unapproved purpose."

    But then on Jan. 7, Judge Sullivan reversed himself and lifted the injunction and again allowed the inoculations for all U.S. service members, except six unnamed plaintiffs in the Zaid lawsuit challenging the legality
of use of the vaccine.  The legal machinations won't have any effect on Enz's case, Newman said. "It appears this was a lawful order," an order which no Marine can disobey, he said.

    "But if the Marine Corps called me back, I would love to serve," Enz said. "That's why I went in the Marine Corps. I love my country. And I love being a helicopter pilot. I'd go back in a heartbeat. I told them before
this happened that my bags were packed and I was ready to go to Iraq, without the vaccine, but they wouldn't allow it."
 



http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/0104/25anthrax.html

Legal fight puts Marine in limbo 

By RON MARTZ 
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 

Jan 25, 2004

For the last three years, Ocean Rose of Marietta has been trapped in the military version of purgatory. In January 2001, the Walton High School graduate pleaded guilty to disobeying a superior officer. Busted to private, he was drummed out of the Marine Corps with a bad conduct discharge. With his case on appeal since then, he technically remains a member of the Marine Corps even though he is not being paid and is not allowed to perform his duties as a firefighter and hazardous materials specialist. Neither in nor out of the service, he finds his life and career in legal limbo. "It's odd," Rose said recently at his parents' east Cobb home, "but maybe because it's been going on so long, it seems normal to me."

Rose, 23, is among hundreds of members of the armed forces who since 1998 have faced legal action for refusing to obey the same order: Submit to a series of anthrax inoculations. The refusal of all of them stems from their concern about the safety and effectiveness of the shots. Yet their punishment has been far from uniform. • Air Force Capt. John Buck, a physician from Pascagoula, Miss., stationed at Keesler Air Force Base, was convicted at court-martial in May 2001 for refusing to take the vaccine. He was denied promotion and fined $21,000 but given an honorable discharge.

• Joy Jama of Fairfax, Va., a former senior airman at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., refused three times to take the anthrax shots. Instead of a court-martial, she was given what the military calls nonjudicial punishment, decided on by her commander. Eventually she received a general discharge under other than honorable conditions but was allowed to keep her top secret security clearance and now works for a defense contractor. • James Muhammad of Washington, a former sergeant who wanted to make the Marine Corps his career, refused to take the anthrax vaccine last year. He pleaded guilty at a court-martial and was sent to the brig for 60 days, busted to private and given a bad conduct discharge.

• Kurt Hickman, an Ohio National Guard soldier, is facing a second military trial for refusing to take the vaccine. Found guilty in the first trial under Ohio's version of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he was sentenced to 40 days in jail, ordered to repay a college loan from the state, and given a less-than-honorable discharge. Before Hickman went to jail, his unit was mobilized for duty in Iraq. Again he refused to take the vaccine, this time while on active duty, and a decision on another court-martial is pending.

Marines 'the worst'

Critics of the anthrax vaccine program complain that the punishments are not equitable across the services. They also say refusing to take the vaccine should not be a crime in the first place. Instead, they argue the order is illegal because the vaccine has not been proved safe or effective in humans. "We don't know why there is such a disparity [in punishment] among the services, but the Marines seem to be the worst in the sense of being the harshest," said Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who has filed suit against the Pentagon on behalf of six anonymous vaccine refusers.

Pentagon officials contend the anthrax inoculations are necessary because the virus could be used by terrorists as a biological weapon. Those who resist the shots are endangering not only themselves but also others around them, these officials say. Zaid, a defense lawyer in 10 trials involving the vaccine program, said military judges had not permitted the Pentagon's order to be challenged in any of the vaccine refuser cases. Neither have defense lawyers been able to question the safety of the vaccine or its possible harmful side effects.

"Military judges shot us down every time," Zaid said. "We never got to the merits of the argument."Calling his defense "very limited" because of similar rulings, Rose said that "the court made it obvious anthrax [vaccine] was allowed, it was not against the law, and . . . it's safe." Before deciding to refuse, Rose submitted to two of the shots in early 2000, shortly after arriving at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. After the first shot, he experienced flulike symptoms and "a pretty good-sized lump in my arm." He had the same reaction to the second shot.

Then he went for a physical that included an electrocardiogram. "The EKG indicated I was having a heart attack," Rose said. "I started to get worried because heart disease runs in my family. My father has had a heart attack, and my grandfather died of a heart attack." He asked for a second test on a different machine. The results, he said, were the same. Puzzled, Rose wondered how he could go in just a few months from being a healthy young Marine to someone with heart trouble. When Rose expressed concern that the aberrant heartbeat might have resulted from the anthrax shots, a Navy doctor replied that they were safer than flu shots.

"This wasn't adding up," said Rose, who began doing research on the vaccine. "I found things the military doesn't want you to know" about possible adverse effects and health risks for those who take the vaccine. Critics of the vaccine have questioned the adequacy of its testing and expressed concern about possible links to cancer and birth defects. The military insists the vaccine is safe. "Our position is the same position as the [Food and Drug Administration]: The vaccine is safe and effective," said Jim Turner, a Pentagon spokesman. But the FDA did not make that ruling until last month. For the previous 18 years, Zaid said, the vaccine had been considered an investigational drug, that is, one that is under study but is not yet permitted to be legally marketed and sold in the United States.

Injunction halted

The FDA's finding came in the midst of Zaid's suit against the government and just a week after a U.S. District Court judge in the District of Columbia issued an injunction stopping the Pentagon from ordering further anthrax inoculations because of his concerns about their safety. Despite his misgivings about the timing of the FDA's ruling, Judge Emmet Sullivan lifted the injunction and the shots resumed. Over the last three years, Zaid said, many vaccine refusers have been given nonjudicial punishment and a general discharge rather than court-martial.

The services differ on the quality of statistics they keep regarding vaccine refusers, despite a law requiring them to submit detailed annual reports to Congress. Spokeswoman Valerie Burkes said 85 vaccine refusers in the Air Force had legal action taken against them since 2000. Only three were court-martialed. Army spokeswoman Martha Rudd said the Army did not specifically track cases of vaccine refusers. "We are aware of a few cases in the last several years, but the number is small," she said in an e-mail response to questions. Burkes, also responding by e-mail, said no policy determined how commanders should deal with anthrax refusal cases or what punishment should be given.

"Each commander exercises his or her own best judgment, after reviewing all the facts, in determining how to appropriately handle a case in the best interests of justice," Burkes wrote. The Navy judge advocate general's office, which handles Navy and Marine Corps cases, said it also did not track vaccine refuser cases. Carolyn Alison, an office spokeswoman, said "fewer than 10" anthrax refusal cases were pending before the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, Rose's among them. Rose decision perplexing

Rose's case has twice gone before the Naval Clemency and Parole Board, which reviews discharges for possible upgrading. The first time, a recommendation that Rose be reinstated to active duty was denied. The second time, a recommendation that his discharge be upgraded also was denied, said Geoff Lyon, a Washington lawyer and retired Marine lieutenant colonel who was on the board. Of 16 cases considered for upgrading when he was the board's president, Lyon said 12, including Rose's, were sent to the Department of the Navy with a recommendation for upgrade.

"His package was stronger than the other 12 we upgraded," said Lyon. But the upgrade was denied without explanation. Rose is permitted to wear his uniform but chooses not to. He does not want to strip off the treasured lance corporal stripes he earned during the two years he served. Rose has no discharge papers, since legally he is still a Marine. Without a discharge, many prospective employers are reluctant to hire him because he could be called back to active duty at any time. If his bad conduct discharge is not overturned or upgraded, he will be unable to get a government job or be eligible for veterans benefits.

Until about six months ago, Rose made do with a series of low-paying jobs. He now works as a hazardous materials specialist for a New Jersey company. Rose's lone hope is for the appeals court to side with him. But that could take years. Some appellate cases are more than 5 years old. He said he has no regrets and still loves the Marine Corps. "I'm comfortable with the decision I made," he said. "But I thought the punishment seemed severe. I was being compared to someone who disobeyed an order to protect my country, but all I did was refuse to take a shot."
 



SCANDAL OF THE ANTHRAX BABIES 
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/content_objectid=14000046_
method=full_siteid=106694_headline=-SCANDAL-OF-THE-ANTHRAX-
BABIES-name_page.html

Feb 29 2004
By Mike Hamilton 
   
THE curse of Britain's Gulf War babies is revealed today by the Sunday Mirror.

Deaths, still-births, miscarriages, physical defects and sickness are all being blamed on anthrax jabs given to soldiers who went to Iraq.

In the case of 33 Field Hospital - an Army unit of 105 men and women who served in the Gulf last year - not one pregnancy has been trouble-free since the war. Among the victims were Lance-Corporal Andy Saupe and wife Alex, who lost baby Kye at just five weeks old.

FIVE minutes was all they had. Five precious minutes to say goodbye. Five minutes to cradle baby Kye in their arms before he died. Lance-Corporal Andy Saupe was among 105 men and women serving with 33 Field Hospital who were given anthrax vaccinations before being called up for Gulf War 2. Three months after returning home from Iraq he and wife Alex lost their five-week-old baby, born 10 weeks premature with growth problems and limb defects. But they are not alone. The Sunday Mirror can reveal that since the war was declared over last May at least seven young couples linked to 33 Field Hospital have suffered pregnancy complications - most with tragic circumstances.

In fact not one pregnancy has been trouble-free.

As well as the death of Kye there has been one still-birth, two miscarriages, a forced termination and two premature births. In every case one of the parents was given anthrax jabs. The figures are shocking, especially when compared to the national average. Among the general population, around one in 20 babies are still-born. One in 85 babies is born with some sort of physical defect. One in 10 babies is premature. Miscarriages hit one in four pregnancies. Last night Kye's distraught mother Alex said: "We want answers. "There have been too many problems in this unit for it to be a tragic coincidence."

33 Field Hospital was deployed to the Gulf at the beginning of last year and stationed on the Iraq-Kuwait border.

The unit - comprising medics, chefs, Royal Engineers, drivers, clerks and quartermasters - then moved up to Basra in southern Iraq. Army sources say that in Gulf War 1 women soldiers were warned not to conceive within 12 months of various vaccinations being administered. But members of 33 Field Hospital, based in Gosport, Hants - and other troops who served in the Gulf - say no warnings were given about anthrax jabs.

Experts now fear thousands of British troops who had the vaccinations face problems with having children.

The victims of 33 Field Hospital include:

-LANCE-CORPORAL Andy Saupe, 23, and wife Alex, 25, whose son Kye died after five weeks fighting for life.

-LANCE-CORPORAL Johann Haggerty, 28, and wife, Zoe, 23, whose son Joshua was still-born after a healthy pregnancy.

-PRIVATE Justin Bowen, 27, and his 20-year-old wife Vicky, and Army Nurse, whose son Scott was born premature and is still fighting for life.

-A ROYAL Engineer whose wife had to have a forced termination at five months because the baby was not developing properly.

-A WOMAN Fusilier who had a miscarriage.

-AN NCO whose wife, in her mid-30s, suffered a miscarriage.

-ARMY Medic Kirsty Wilson, 21, whose pregnancy was plagued by illness. Her son, Ryan, born eight days early, now suffers serious skin problems. Last night the MoD was facing demands to stop anthrax vaccinations immediately and there were calls for the Government to hold a full public inquiry. Professor Malcolm Hooper, a member of the MoD's independent vaccines panel, said: "This situation looks like a cluster and I am sure it is linked to the Anthrax vaccine.

"The numbers are relatively small and the Army will try to dilute them out with everyone else. But this is hugely significant and should not be ignored.

"Somebody should go down to Gosport and look at this problem carefully, not belittle people and brush this under the carpet."

Paul Tyler - a Liberal Democrat MP and member of the Royal British Legion Gulf War Group - said: "This sounds like conclusive evidence that the cocktail of vaccinations given to troops was totally unsafe. "I'm afraid this is too much to be a coincidence. There should now be a full public inquiry - out in the open - into the inoculations given to troops.

"But instead there has been a constant state of denial from MOD officials and ministers over what amounts to a dereliction of duty and care to people serving their country."

Shaun Rusling, President of the National Gulf Veterans and Families' Association, praised the Sunday Mirror's investigation.

"It is extremely worrying that you have discovered these seven cases in one small unit," he said.

"Veterans across Britain are having problems but may not realise there is a wide scale problem until they read something like this.

"It is disgraceful that the Government will not hold a public inquiry into the erroneous vaccinations regime that is causing deaths and deformities in the children of war veterans." Last night an MoD spokeswoman said: "Congenital disabilities are unfortunately common, affecting about one in 33 live births. "In about two-thirds of these cases, no cause is found. "The anthrax vaccine has been used for many years by both military and civilian professions, and no serious side-effects have been reported. "People that are pregnant are advised to see a doctor on a one-to-one basis regarding vaccinations "No advice was issued to military personnel with regard to conception in either conflict because no adverse reactions have been reported."

-The NGVFA's helpline number is 01482 833812.

OUR WORST NIGHTMARE
BABY KYE: DIED, 5 WEEKS

LANCE-CORPORAL Andy Saupe had two anthrax injections 10 days apart in December 2002 after his unit was called up for The Gulf. Weeks later his partner Alex became pregnant and the couple married a week before Andy was sent to the Gulf on February 16 last year.

While Andy, a chef, was in the Gulf, an initial scan showed Alex and baby were well. But when Alex went back a few weeks later doctors noticed serious problems. The baby was showing a lack of movement. His limbs were also not forming properly. As concerns about her pregnancy grew, Alex went into St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth for more tests and was also sent to see geneticists at Southampton General Hospital. Alex said: "Doctors were baffled by the whole thing and could not tell me what was causing the problems." On July 24 last year Alex and Andy were in bed at their Army home in Gosport, Hants, when she went into labour 10 weeks early. She said: "I was having really bad stomach pains. Eventually I got up and phoned the hospital and they said to come in. Andy borrowed a friend's car and we started heading to the hospital in Portsmouth."

On their way there Alex went into labour. "We pulled over and I got into the back seat," said Alex. "I gave birth and Andy had to deliver Kye. He did a great job although he has only got basic Army first-aid training. The ambulance got there soon afterwards and they had to perform CPR (heart resuscitation) on Kye. They rushed him straight to hospital and then I had to wait for another ambulance to come and get me."

Kye, who weighed just 2lbs 10oz, was taken into intensive care. His facial features were not formed properly and his limbs were "fixed". He had 10 times the normal level of fluid around his heart and dark patches on the brain. For five weeks Kye fought for his tiny life, but eventually doctors told devastated Andy and Alex to prepare for the worst. The couple then took the heart-breaking decision to turn off his life-support equipment. "Eventually they told us to say our goodbyes," said Alex. "I spoke to Kye and said, 'If you are going to go, you can go now'."

Before Kye died Alex and Andy held him for five minutes to say goodbye. Alex said: "It was heartbreaking - every parents' worst nightmare."Alex initially thought they had suffered an unexplained tragedy like those that hit many couples. But then she began hearing about others in Andy's unit who had suffered miscarriages, had premature births or had babies born desperately ill. Alex asked doctors if the problems could be linked to the jabs Andy was given. She was told it could be possible - that preservatives used to store the anthrax could be to blame.

THE VICTIMS

LANCE-CORPORAL Andy Saupe, 23, and wife Alex, 25, whose son Kye died after five weeks fighting for life.

LANCE-CORPORAL Johann Haggerty, 28, and wife, Zoe, 23, whose son Joshua was still-born after a healthy pregnancy.

A ROYAL Engineer whose wife had to have a forced termination at five months because the baby was not developing properly.

A WOMAN Fusilier who had a miscarriage.

AN NCO whose wife, in her mid-30s, suffered a miscarriage.

PRIVATE Justin Bowen, 27, and Army Nurse wife Vicky, 20, whose son Scott was born premature and fighting for life.

ARMY Medic Kirsty Wilson, 21, whose pregnancy was plagued by illness. Her son, Ryan, now suffers serious skin problems.

A DEADLY CHEMICAL WEAPON

ANTHRAX is a deadly spore-forming bacteria which multiplies if it gets into the body.

Humans inhale the spores or can be infected through breaks in the skin. Spores then produce a toxin that is released into the bloodstream. The toxin starves tissues of oxygen, eventually inducing respiratory and heart failure.

Allied Forces feared Saddam Hussein had a stock of anthrax which he was prepared to use against troops. The controversial vaccine given the soldiers involved using dead anthrax bacteria to produce an immune response to the disease. The vaccine cannot be given to pregnant women, under-18s or over-65s because their immune systems are weaker than others. Short-term side-effects include swelling, muscle-aches, fever and nausea. One in 50,000 end up in hospital after suffering severe reactions.

Campaigners claim the vaccination is among causes of Gulf War Syndrome. And research in America shows children of Gulf veterans exposed to vaccines, including anthrax, are more prone to birth abnormalities. Last month we told how a three week-old baby had become Britain's youngest Gulf War Syndrome. The American study also found veterans and their partners ran twice the risk of miscarriages.-DO you know a Gulf War Syndrome scandal we should investigate? Then call us FREE on 0800 289 441
 



http://www.sundaypost.com/news2.htm
The Sunday Post
Vaccines warning ignored by MoD


EXCLUSIVE
By Jackie Bytheway


NEW evidence has come to light that scientists warned the MoD of their concerns about giving soldiers pertussis and anthrax vaccines before the first Gulf War. But the test results and evidence were destroyed just after the conflict. Now new research, details of which have been leaked to The Sunday Post, appear to back up the original fears. The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire, carried out the tests and voiced their concerns in 1990. The results of their studies showed severe reactions and significant damage to the auto immune system in mice. In a letter from the NIBSC to the Department of Health, written on December 21, 1990, a scientist warned the anthrax and pertussis vaccines caused side-effects to laboratory animals. He said, "I would emphasise that these findings are preliminary, but they do suggest that if used in man as a combined preparation an enhanced degree of reactagenicity could occur. "The users of the vaccines may wish to take these findings in consideration."

In a letter the same day from the Department of Health to the MoD, one scientist said, "I think your medical department needs to be aware of these preliminary results." But the MoD ignored their concerns and tens of thousands of troops were inoculated.

Results destoyed
Many had three combined jabs of anthrax with pertussis in three weeks. They were also given two plague injections, as well as yellow fever, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, rabies, meningococcal C and diphtheria. But the NIBSC have admitted they destroyed the results. In a letter to the National Gulf Veterans and Family Association sent last month Dr Michael Corbel, head of bacteriology, said, "At the request of the
MoD, for obvious reasons of national security, the original studies were performed under strict secrecy.
"Once the emergency was over, all data relating to these studies were destroyed as there was at that time no indication that they would ever be needed again." 

The NIBSC has recently carried out repeat studies, which they said "broadly confirm the previous observations". A copy of the current research, due to be published later this year, has been leaked to The Sunday Post. The leaked report states that within a few hours of injection the mice were seen suffering lethargy, arched backs, squinted eyes and ruffled fur. By the 12th day, two mice had died and six more were culled because of poor health. All mice developed enlarged spleens.

The NIBSC said they were unable to comment on their warning given to the MoD in 1990. They added they couldn't comment on the latest report as it is unpublished. An MoD spokesman said, "The researchers have made it very clear that caution should be exercised in applying these results to humans. "The DoH did not tell the MoD that it should not vaccinate troops with anthrax and pertussis -its advice was that our medical department needs to be aware of these preliminary results. "The reference to a 'mouse dose' is misleading. The original studies were carried out using four to five times the human dose. The follow-up studies were carried out using a single human dose (in accordance with current Home Office guidelines). "There is no evidence that thousands of Gulf War veterans are suffering from auto-immune conditions."

 




They did it then but certainly wouldn't do it now, right? They would do it to 18+ year olds, but never to your newborn baby or toddler or teen, right?
Sheri

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595063439,00.html

Exposure to agents was widespread, GAO report says

By Lee Davidson, Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON - It may have sounded awful when the Pentagon reported last year that nearly 6,000 soldiers may have been unwittingly exposed to germ and chemical weapons in 50 tests conducted worldwide from 1962 and 1974 by Army scientists based in Utah.

But congressional investigators said Friday that figure was just the tip of the iceberg.

The U.S. General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress, said those Pentagon-reported numbers were just for one series of experiments, called Project 112 or Project SHAD. "We have determined that hundreds of such classified tests and research projects were conducted outside Project 112," GAO officials said in a new report released Friday.

In fact, the GAO said it quickly found that at least 100 secret germ and chemical experiments were conducted at Utah's Dugway Proving Ground alone, or more than double the number of tests conducted under Project 112 during the same time period. The report said hundreds more secret tests were conducted in the 48 contiguous states.

So the GAO said the Pentagon, which declared last June that its work in identifying potential chemical and germ arms victims for Project 112 was complete, should continue probing further now to try to identify soldiers and civilians possibly exposed in all those other tests. In response, the Pentagon said it is planning to try to do so. The Deseret Morning News has shown through the years, through documentsobtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that thousands of open-air trials occurred in Utah with chemical, biological and radiological weapons, often upwind from populated areas.

The newspaper also first reported the Project SHAD and Project 112 tests, many of which were conducted at sea. Some sailors had sought the newspaper's help, complaining they were suffering from cancer and nervous system ills they blamed on the tests. But Veterans Affairs denied claims because the Army said the tests never occurred.

Despite the newspaper obtaining reports and plans of some of those tests, the Pentagon continued for years to deny they occurred. But after pressure from national media, members of Congress, the VA and
sailors, the Pentagon finally said in May 2002 that some initial research showed such tests happened. It said last June that it had identified all the places and the names of veterans likely involved.

The new GAO study was ordered to measure the adequacy of that recent Pentagon work. The GAO said the Pentagon generally did a good job of identifying all Project 112 tests and most of the veterans involved. But it said a few veterans and many civilian workers were likely missed because records of some tests have yet to be found.

The Pentagon has entirely ignored other series of tests that may have exposed more people than Project 112, the report says. "While there is no database that contains information concerning the biological and chemical tests that have been conducted, we determined that hundreds of such classified tests and research projects were conducted outside Project 112," the GAO wrote. "In addition, information from various sources shows that personnel from all services were involved in chemical and biological testing," it said. Many were designed by the old Deseret Test Center, which originally was at Fort Douglas and later relocated to Dugway before disbanding.

"A former Deseret Test Center scientist estimated that the number of chemical and biological tests conducted at just one location - Dugway Proving Ground, Utah - was over 100, or more than double the number of tests conducted under Project 112," the GAO reported. GAO said it found one old study that listed biological field tests conducted at locations including Dugway; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Detrick, Md.; and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The GAO noted that its office and others also previously reported that "hundreds of radiological, chemical and biological tests were conducted in which hundreds of thousands of people were used as test subjects." Also, it previously reported that the Army Chemical Corps conducted classified research on incapacitating agents that used at least 7,120 volunteers.

The GAO said that amid its probe, the Pentagon in February "began preparing a plan to identify tests outside Project 112 that might have exposed service members," and civilians. "However, that office has not yet completed its plan for doing this," the GAO wrote. The GAO called for finalization and implementation of that plan. It said the Pentagon "concurred with our report findings and recommendations and agreed to implement our recommendations."
 



MALARIA DRUG:  Join the queue

Lariam, the world's most powerful anti-malarial, is a firm favourite with all of us here at WDDTY.

It's always in the news, and never for the right reasons.  The latest to fall victim are six American soldiers who have been diagnosed with permanent brain damage after taking the drug while on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American drug watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration, last year warned that Lariam (mefloquine) is linked to suicide, while psychiatric and neurological side effects have been reported to last long after it has been taken.

The Pentagon has announced a new safety study of the drug.  It shouldn't have to look too hard.  A six-year-old girl died in an English hospital after taking the drug while on holiday in Nigeria, while 300 Britons launched a class-action suit after they suffered severe and long-term effects, such as hallucinations, anxiety attacks, seizures and sever mood swings.

British Airways has issued a warning to all staff about taking the drug, while doctors have reported that many patients have refused prescriptions for it. So if all these people know this about the drug, why is the US military still dishing it out to its soldiers?

 



http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/news/stories/20040825/localnews/1112684.htm
l
Visalia Times-Delta, CA
August 25, 2004

'I want to be healthy again'
Visalian says anthrax vaccine ended his Air Force career
By David Castellon
Staff writer

As a teenager graduating from Visalia's Mt. Whitney High School in 2000, Wess Hardin had plans for his future. Those plans included time in the Air Force and maybe being a police officer. The 22-year-old says he believes a vaccine that was supposed to protect his life has de-railed those plans. "This sucks. I want to be healthy again," said Hardin, sitting in the dining room of his parents' Visalia home. He has lived with his parents since being honorably discharged from the Air Force in December 2002, just a year-and-a-half into his initial four-year enlistment.

He said he was honorably discharged over a "failure to adapt" to Air Force life. But that "failure" was tied into a bout of alcoholism, mood swings and talking back to superiors. However, Hardin said, the drinking and aggressive behavior aren't rooted in a bad attitude. In-stead, he said they stemmed from a series of health problems, which included dizziness, depression, chest pains, seizures, a diagnosed bipolar disorder, poor memory retention and some hair loss that he didn't suffer from until after he began receiving injections of the military's controversial an-thrax vaccine. "Wess wasn't this way before. He was articulate," said his father, Del Hardin, a retired Tulare County sheriff's deputy. He referred to the lethargic, almost sleepy way that his son moves and talks, and his frequent lapses of short-term memory, like somebody intoxicated or on drugs. Wess Hardin said he no longer drinks, though occasionally he does smoke marijuana.

But it's the depression and lack of energy -- "I wish I had energy" -- that he said has affected his demeanor and speech. "That just sounds so unlike him," said Marlin Roehl, who taught Hardin American literature at Mt. Whitney. "I mean, every day he was full of energy, enthusiasm, good humor. He always had plans. ... I don't think I ever saw him down."

Hardin isn't alone in claiming that the anthrax vaccinations have caused health problems, many of the sort Hardin described. The vaccinations are a series of shots required for all military members deployed to high-threat areas, including the Persian Gulf. From the beginning, the shots have caused controversy, largely about safety concerns. Some reactions by people who have been injected with the vaccine have been so severe and debilitating they require hospitalizations and medical discharges from the services.

Hardin knew of the controversy before he took his first anthrax shot before being deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2002, and even considered refusing. Del Hardin, who also served in the Air Force, also was concerned about the shots' safety. But he ended up encouraging his son to get the injections rather than risk being drummed out of the Air Force or face court-martial for disobeying a direct order.

At first, Wess Hardin seemed to suffer no ill effects. But upon his return from Saudi Arabia, Del Hardin said he noticed subtle changes in his son that just got worse. "He sounded sick all the time" and complained of body aches, dizzy spells and congestion in his throat, the senior Hardin said. He grew concerned enough that he went online and found a list of ailments reported by people claiming adverse anthrax vaccine reactions. The ailments were so consistent with those his son was experiencing that he became convinced the vaccine was the culprit.

But convincing the Air Force was a different matter.

"I saw a mess of [Air Force] doctors," Wess Hardin said, and they couldn't determine a cause for his condition except to say, "It's in my head. Anxiety." And tests by civilian doctors -- including one two weeks ago after he again suffered chest pains -- have been similarly inconclusive, he added. Some of the people medically separated from the military over vaccine reactions have received disability pay and ongoing medical care. Hardin said his discharge wasn't medical, so he got no such benefits. He said he has to live with his parents because his health problems have made it hard to hold down a job or to aspire to go back to college or trade school.

Even driving is off limits to him because of the risk he could have a seizure behind the wheel. And since leaving the Air Force, Hardin said he has done little to try to seek financial or medical assistance from the military, in part because he believes "they're not going to help me." But Kathy Hubbell, president and founder of the Military Vaccine Education Center, a watchdog group providing information on the anthrax vaccine and counseling to military members, disagreed. "He needs to apply to the [Veterans Affairs] system for disability. He needs to start with his local VA chapter," she said.

In addition, she said, Hardin needs to make sure he files a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System report with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which track adverse reactions to vaccines. "And he needs to write everything he went through down on paper. We recommend people keep a daily journal ... because that's the only way you may be able to prove to the VA that [the health problems are] related to the shots.

"It's going to be a long fight. It sometimes takes the VA a couple of years to kick in."

Del Hardin said he wants the military to give his son treatment for his ailments. But he also wants parents to know that if their children join the military there is a risk that comes from rolling up their sleeves and taking the anthrax vaccine. "I believe young adults have a responsibility to their country, but they should not be treated as cattle," and they should have the right to refuse the vaccine, he said.

 



 Posted on Sun, Sep. 26, 2004 

ERRY BROOME – STAFF 
Lavester Brown was medically retired from the Air Force on Friday because of heart failure, and it felt like leaving family. He doesn’t blame the military; he blames the anthrax vaccine. “You should have a choice,” he said, “about whether to inject something into your body.” 

OBSERVER WATCHDOG
Victims of vaccine?

N.C. troops say military program is unsafe

ELIZABETH LELAND

Staff Writer
Two days after a military nurse injected Lavester Brown with the anthrax vaccine at Pope Air Force Base near Fayetteville, his heart failed.

Brown was 34, an avid athlete, career military. Doctors had warned him to avoid vaccinations, he said, because of a reaction to a malaria drug in the early '90s. But when Brown told superiors, he said, they warned he could be kicked out of the military if he didn't get vaccinated for anthrax.

Brown was afraid: of the vaccine, of losing his job. He had a wife and four young children to support.

"I kept telling them, `I can't take the shot.' "

The vaccination is mandatory, part of the military's war on terrorism. Brown had been in the Air Force 14 years and was trained to follow orders. So when a commander, a major, a captain and a first sergeant all ordered him to be vaccinated, Brown, a technical sergeant, rolled up his sleeve and took the jab.

He is now awaiting a heart transplant.

Thousands of soldiers have suffered unexplained illnesses after getting the anthrax vaccine, ranging from muscle aches to death. The federal Food and Drug Administration says the vaccine has no more side effects than other vaccines, but cases like Lavester Brown's raise troubling questions:

Is the vaccination safe?

Should the military require troops to take it?

There was concern about the anthrax vaccine long before the threat of global terrorism.

In the 1990s, the FDA found problems with quality control procedures at the only U.S. company that makes the vaccine, then owned by the state of Michigan. The FDA warned that if the problems were not corrected, the company could lose its license. The state halted production in 1998 and began renovations, then sold the plant to BioPort.

After terrorists hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, and anthrax-laced letters killed five people and infected at least 13 others, demand for a vaccine erupted. In January 2002, the FDA gave BioPort approval to distribute its vaccine to the military.

The FDA and the Department of Defense and BioPort all say the vaccine is safe. A vocal group of current and former military personnel, doctors and members of Congress claims it is not. Three lawsuits challenging the vaccine are now in federal court.

To the emergency room

Brown knew nothing of the controversy on Friday, Feb. 27, when he got the fourth in a series of six anthrax shots.He rarely got sick, not even a cold. He didn't drink. He didn't smoke. He stood 5 feet 11 1/2 inches and weighed 207 pounds, but so much was muscle, he looked lean.

The day after the fourth anthrax shot, Saturday morning, he played basketball at the gym as usual but quickly tired. He went to the emergency room that night, he said, and a military doctor diagnosed a gastrointestinal infection.

By Sunday, he felt as if his body was filling up with fluid. The muscles in his neck throbbed and bulged. He had trouble breathing. Back at the emergency room that night, he said, a doctor again diagnosed gastrointestinal infection.

Something else is happening, Brown remembers saying. I can't breathe. He said his wife, Ebony, insisted on X-rays. "When they looked at the X-rays," Brown recalled, "the doctor got this look on his face. I knew something was terribly wrong." Brown said his heart was so enlarged, it had almost stopped pumping. He now takes medication to keep it beating until a transplant becomes available. He has dropped to 151 pounds, and walking only a few feet exhausts him. Friday, he was medically retired from the Air Force.

Before he got sick, Brown sometimes worked two jobs to provide for Ebony and their four children, ages 5 to 12. Now Ebony works and the children help care for him, and that's been a tough transition.

"I wish we had done our homework before Lavester got in line (for the vaccine)," Ebony said. "We trusted the military."

Mandatory shots

Until recently, anthrax had been considered primarily a livestock disease. People can be infected in three ways -- through skin contact, by eating infected meat or by breathing airborne spores -- but it's rare.

The military became convinced that Iraq had developed biological weapons, including anthrax, and might pack its Scud missiles with the deadly bacteria. Nearly everyone who inhales anthrax dies if not treated.

In 1998, the Defense Department made vaccinations mandatory.

Since then, about 1.2 million military personnel have received the vaccine, six doses over 18 months, followed by yearly boosters. (Several hundred thousand, a Pentagon spokesman said, got the vaccine during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.)

Out of 4.7 million doses given since 1998, the government says it has received 3,817 reports of adverse reactions, from headache, fatigue and fever to cancer, cardiac arrest and autoimmune diseases. The reaction rate, the government says, is about the same as for other adult vaccinations.

Studies have reached conflicting conclusions.

The Pentagon cites a 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine, a private, nonprofit scientific group, that said a better vaccine is needed, but that the current vaccine is "acceptably safe and effective."

Other studies link the anthrax vaccine to Gulf War illness, a medically unexplained fatigue suffered by veterans of the first Gulf War. One study found more adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccine than to other vaccines, and urged doctors to report all reactions so the scope of the problem could be determined.

Many cases, critics say, still go unreported.

Dead at 29

Christine Nilson, who lives in Wilmington, hadn't heard about the controversy over the anthrax vaccine until after her husband, Erik, died.Now she's convinced it killed him.

Erik Nilson flew CH-46 helicopters for the Marine Corps and was vaccinated twice, before two separate six-month deployments to the Mediterranean.

Soon after he came home for the second time, in October 2001, Christine noticed the whites of his eyes had yellowed. Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington discovered bile duct cancer, a slow-moving, usually fatal cancer that most often attacks people over 60.

Nilson was 29 and had a 2-year-old son, Luke.

He was, Christine said, "a man's man," who loved hunting, fishing and the Marines. He had had a rough childhood, she said, and often told her he wanted nothing more than to be a good father.

Six months after the cancer was discovered, Erik Nilson died.

Christine Nilson said no one from the military ever mentioned a possible connection with the anthrax vaccine. The national Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System has no record of Nilson's death.

But the more Christine Nilson read, the more she believed there was a connection.

"There is," she said, "no other explanation for it."

Rapid-acting diseases

Other service members have died of rapid-acting diseases after getting the vaccine, including Army cook Sandra Larson of Kansas. Four weeks after her sixth anthrax shot, she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare disorder resulting from failure of bone marrow to produce blood cells.

She died two months later. She was 32.

The package insert on the vaccine, approved by the FDA in 2002, cites her death and the deaths of five other vaccinated military members. But a panel of civilian doctors concluded that none of the deaths was related to the vaccine.

The Pentagon has linked only one death to the vaccine: Rachel Lacy, a 22-year-old Army reservist, who died in April 2003 of a pneumonia-like illness after receiving five vaccines, including anthrax. The Pentagon said the vaccines may have triggered the illness that led to her death, but that "the evidence was not conclusive."

Critics say the government is stonewalling the way it did with the herbicide Agent Orange in the Vietnam War and with Gulf War illness.

"The first thing they do is fight, deny, obfuscate ...," said Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group for veterans. "Meanwhile people are getting sick."

About 10,000 Vietnam veterans receive disability benefits because of exposure to Agent Orange, and tens of thousands of others suffer illnesses. An estimated 100,000 Gulf War veterans suffer a range of symptoms, including memory and thinking problems, fatigue, joint pain, depression, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and rashes.

No proof, no medical help

Robinson said he has spoken with hundreds of veterans who said they had adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccine, but they can't prove it and are not getting the medical help they need. They complain of chronic fatigue, bone and muscle pain, migraine headaches, short-term memory loss and cognitive impairment."While anthrax is a threat," Robinson said, "the American public, much less the military, should not be given an inferior vaccine."

Meryl Nass, an internist in Bar Harbor, Maine, who has testified before Congress about the vaccine, said she has treated dozens of soldiers and corresponded with thousands more.

"I've seen so many people with the exact same thing, the same story," she said. "They can't think straight. They have pain in different parts of their bodies ... and they're fatigued." Usually, she said, they have something else wrong, too: multiple sclerosis or lupus or a sleep disorder.

As a doctor, Nass said, the last few years have been an emotional roller coaster "watching 1 million be vaccinated when I knew at 100,000 what was happening."

Forced vaccinations

In federal court, two lawsuits are pending against BioPort, a third against the Food and Drug Administration, the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The lawsuits challenge whether the vaccine is safe, effective, even necessary.

On Dec. 22, 2003, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., blocked the Pentagon from forcing soldiers to get vaccinated. He ruled that the FDA had never approved the vaccine for use against inhaled anthrax. The military, he said, could not make troops "serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs."

Eight days later, the FDA approved the vaccine against inhaled anthrax.

Although Sullivan called the timing of the order "highly suspicious," he lifted his injunction.

The military once again ordered vaccination.

Refusal, court-martial

As many as 500 active-duty personnel have been dismissed from the military for refusing vaccination, according to congressional testimony. At least 100 have been court-martialed.Tom Kaufmann, an airman first class at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, refused to be vaccinated in December 2002.

He had read about problems at the manufacturing plant, he said, as well as about illnesses among people who got the vaccine.

Kaufmann, now 22, was demoted, then discharged under "conditions other than honorable."

"My first sergeant repeatedly called me a coward, saying I was afraid of war, afraid of serving my country," Kaufmann recalled. "I told them that I wanted to deploy. I wasn't against the war."

He was, he said, only against the vaccine.

• Anthrax comes from the Greek word for "coal" because infected skin forms ugly black lesions.

• The rod-like bacteria were discovered in the 19th century. Louis Pasteur created the first vaccine in 1881.

• Anthrax spores can live in soil for decades. People contract the disease in three ways: through skin contact, eating infected meat or breathing airborne spores.

Most Common Adverse Reactions

erythema, headache, arthralgia, fatigue, fever, peripheral swelling, pruritus, nausea, injection site edema, pain/tenderness and dizziness.

Less Frequent Adverse Reactions

cellulitis, cysts, pemphigus vulgaris, endocarditis, sepsis, angioedema and other hypersensitivity reactions, asthma, aplastic anemia, neutropenia, idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, lymphoma, leukemia, collagen vascular disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, polyarteritis nodosa, inflammatory arthritis, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, immune deficiency, seizure, mental status changes, psychiatric disorders, tremors, cerebrovascular accident (CVA), facial palsy, hearing and visual disorders, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, syncope, glomerulonephritis, renal failure, spontaneous abortion and liver abscess. Infrequent reports were also received of multisystem disorders defined as chronic symptoms involving at least two of the following three categories: fatigue, mood-cognition, musculoskeletal system.

Fatalities

cardiac arrest (2), myocardial infarction with polyarteritis nodosa (1), aplastic anemia (1), suicide (1) and central nervous system lymphoma (1)

SOURCE: FDA-approved package insert for anthrax vaccine

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/9763416.htm?1c 

 



http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/17/Floridian/The_shots_of_war.shtml
St. Petersburg Times, FL
Published September 17, 2004


The shots of war
Cristina Kutz thinks the anthrax vaccinations that she and other troops must undergo devastated her health. Her complaints are not unique, but doctors don't back her up.
By SUSAN ASCHOFF, Times Staff Writer

RIVERVIEW - Cristina Kutz spends too many hours in these silent rooms with the beige walls endemic to starter homes in the Tampa suburbs. She is apprehensive about leaving. She fears her body will betray her.

She eats like an anorexic. Food turns on her, unleashing nausea and diarrhea. She always is tired but cannot sleep. She takes almost a dozen pills, from immunosuppressants to antidepressants, every day.


She used to be strong.

She was Senior Airman Cristina Kutz, who tracked dozens of Air Force pilots and ground crew at Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle, charting their training and readiness for battle. Suddenly, the members of her squadron were no longer rehearsing. They were ordered to the Middle East on the eve of the Iraq war.

Before leaving, they prepared for an enemy they could not see: Viruses and bacteria that Saddam Hussein threatened to unleash in lethal clouds upon the battlefield. Kutz, like some 300,000 others ordered to the war zone, was vaccinated against anthrax.

In the last decade, hundreds of troops insist the anthrax vaccine made them sick. Hundreds more have refused the shots, risking court-martial. Medical experts say it is safe. But the experts cannot definitively exempt the vaccine for a host of health problems reported by servicemen and women. Kutz believes the anthrax vaccinations ravaged her health, making her too weak to work, too precariously well to venture out of her house most days.

She thinks the U.S. government discounts her concerns that the anthrax vaccinations made her unfit to continue as one of its soldiers.

That's an order

More than 1.2-million troops have received anthrax vaccinations since 1998. In March, a year after the invasion of Iraq, the Department of Defense extended anthrax vaccinations to troops bound for South Korea, in addition to those deployed to the Middle East and Asia. Some soldiers, citizens and congressmen questioned the need for the mandatory vaccinations. Since the mid 1990s advocacy groups have urged the
Defense Department to stop them. "The use of a vaccination which appears to have the potential for serious health consequences for our troops in an effort to counter a threat that may not exist seems to unnecessarily expose our troops to risk," wrote Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico, in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

At least 400 troops have refused the shots. More than 100 have been court-martialed for defying an order since mandatory vaccinations for active-duty personnel and reservists resumed in 1998, according to
government documents and congressional hearings. Hundreds more who got the vaccine blame it for chronic illnesses, from joint and muscle pain to debilitating fatigue, leukemia to blindness.

"There's no question the symptoms are real, but there's no scientific connection to anthrax (vaccine)," says Dr. Richard Lockey, director of the niversity of South Florida's division of Allergy & Clinical Immunology. 
"For the troops, we want them protected," says Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director for military vaccines for the Army's surgeon general. "We can't protect against artillery fire, but we can do this."

Maybe it's the food

On Nov. 15, 2002, two months before traveling to the Middle East, Kutz received her first anthrax vaccination. She read warnings on the Internet that the shots were unsafe. "I remember wondering, "Why would these wusses refuse the vaccine?' I remember our commander telling us not to be babies."

Looking back, the now 23-year-old Kutz finds omissions that give her pause.

They received no briefing on health issues.

There was no distribution of package inserts, which list dozens of possible side effects, from minor swelling to death. The needle burned into her upper right arm. The next day, the site was sore and swollen, with a lump the size of a golf ball, Kutz says. She was nauseous. Her head ached. The flulike symptoms disappeared in a week but the golf ball remained. On Dec. 13, she got a second shot in her left arm. No rash this time, but the same lump. Her stomach ached. She vomited. She suffered with diarrhea marked by mucus and blood, and heavy menstrual bleeding.

Kutz decided she should get no more shots. But an incomplete series - the schedule calls for three anthrax vaccinations in one to two months and three more within 18 months - would mean she could not deploy. She received the third vaccination on Jan. 22, 2003. By February, the 15th Special Operations Squadron was overseas at a hastily constructed "barebase." Kutz was in a group of 150 special-ops forces. Their planes dropped leaflets on the Iraqis, urging surrender. Kutz resumed charting flights and crews.

But her body was fighting her, her gut roiling. She thought it was the food: too much curry, questionable chicken. She would nibble on bread and butter, make a meal of crackers and pudding cups from squad members' care packages. She carried Pepto-Bismol along with bottled water. She worked when she could. Sometimes her supervisor would tell her to take the day off. Kutz returned to the United States, as scheduled, in April 2003. Here I will be well, she thought. Still sick, she went to a gastrointestinal specialist who told her she was "just a nervous person."

On July 25, 2003, Kutz received her fourth anthrax vaccination. Bioterror via mail Vaccinating the troops against anthrax slid down the Pentagon's priority list in the mid 1990s. There were vaccine shortages; its manufacturer failed facility inspections and the production line was shut down for several years.

Then shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, anthrax-laced letters arrived at a media company in Boca Raton, NBC News in New York and U.S. Senate offices. Five people died. The 9/11 commission would later fault federal agencies for being unprepared, a cautionary tale now compelling broad strokes to defend against terrorism. In July, lawmakers approved the $5.6-billion Project BioShield proposed by President Bush. The legislation will pay millions to private companies for bioterror medicines and vaccines.

"It's a way for the government to say, "I protected America,"' says John Richardson, a fighter pilot in the Persian Gulf War, formerly with the Pentagon and now a leader in the fight against mandatory anthrax
vaccinations. He and other critics worry that soldiers' safety is being short-circuited by politics.

Because of vaccine shortages, Richardson did not get the shots. But about 150,000 Gulf War troops did. When some got sick, they suspected the vaccine. Medical experts now acknowledge a range of health problems collectively called Gulf War syndrome. They do not know the cause.

"We can pull out a population of those who got the (anthrax) vaccine and those who did not. There is no significant difference" in incidence of illness among soldiers and veterans, says Dr. Renata Engler, director of the Department of Defense's National Vaccine Healthcare Center, which monitors vaccinations and reactions. "With anthrax, we have a small clustering," she says. "A number of patients who were healthy before vaccination developed significant muscle and joint pain, fatigue - a reduction in function" after
vaccination. 

Hundreds of experienced pilots and crews in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve are leaving military service because of concerns about the anthrax vaccine, reports the General Accounting Office, which mailed 1,253 surveys in May 2000.

About 16 percent moved to inactive status, transferred or left the military between 1998 and 2000, citing anthrax vaccinations as a key factor, the report says. While those surveyed were positive about immunizations in general, three out of four said they would not get the anthrax vaccine if given a choice.
 
A gamble too big

Navy Airman Zachary Johnson decided five years ago he would not get the anthrax shots, as ordered, before shipping out to the Persian Gulf. He was the only one to refuse among 200 in his helicopter squadron. Within three months, he was court-martialed for disobeying an order.

"Most people assume you're trying to get out of something. In two years I had spent 13 months at sea. I had great reviews," the 27-year-old Jacksonville sailor says. The Defense Department significantly understates the numbers of troops such as Johnson who have faced court-martial over anthrax vaccinations, says
Lawrence Halloran, staff director for the House Subcommittee on National Security. More than 300 have been charged with refusing an order and either been pushed out or discharged, subcommittee research shows. 

A Marine pilot pleaded guilty to disobeying an order after refusing vaccines on religious grounds. A Navy aircraft mechanic was sent to the brig after refusal. An Army Reserve private in New York who worried the vaccine might harm her ability to have children got a bad-conduct discharge. Johnson was particularly worried by failed facility inspections at vaccine manufacturer BioPort Corp. of Michigan. He spent eight days in the brig. The military reduced his rank, gave him a bad-conduct discharge and took away his benefits.

"They never even sent me my last paycheck," Johnson says. For months he was homeless, his car repossessed for nonpayment, his credit ruined. "I was an outcast, a pariah, in my own squad." He says he wanted to protect the quality of the rest of his life. 

Sick of the system

From June 9, 2000, when Kutz enlisted, through Oct. 7, 2003, she received 17 vaccinations to ward off typhoid to meningitis, yellow fever to smallpox. Multiple vaccinations given to troops make evaluations of what causes subsequent illnesses difficult. At a squadron picnic, a friend shook her hand. 
"You look like a skeleton," he told her. She lost 30 pounds in three years. The 5-foot-2 Kutz weighed 98 pounds. More troubling was the mental fogginess. She had three car accidents in six months. In one, she collided with the garage door when she took her foot off the clutch to double-check whether she'd locked the front door. She fainted during a vacation with her husband in Orlando last fall.

"I didn't want to have sex, I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to talk to people. I got really, really depressed," she says. "The worst part was, no one knew what was wrong with me." She pushed for a VAERS report. VAERS, or Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, tracks vaccination problems for the military. In 10 years through October 2001, VAERS received 1,850 reports. Adverse reactions, says the military, make up a fraction of 1 percent of all those vaccinated. Critics say most servicemen and women won't file a report, fearing career repercussions. There has been no study on long-term health effects, the GAO says, and poor Defense Department record-keeping prevented any tracking of Gulf War recipients.

By the end of 2003, Kutz had been diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestines.

Immunological disorders such as Crohn's, lupus and arthritis, reported by veterans of several wars, typically occur when the body will not tolerate certain antigens and turns on itself. Researchers suspect a genetic
predisposition and a bacteria or virus may be involved. "What we need is studies to show there's not a cause and effect between anthrax vaccine and these illnesses," USF's Lockey says.

Troops do not trust the Pentagon for medical information, surveys show. Dozens have testified at congressional hearings on the issue in the last seven years. In 2003, six unnamed service personnel filed suit, asking the courts to block anthrax vaccinations. They argue that the vaccine is unapproved for inhalation anthrax and is thus an experimental drug. By law, the military is prohibited from giving troops experimental drugs without their informed consent.

District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington issued a preliminary injunction halting vaccinations, but it was lifted when the FDA in December ruled the vaccine safe and effective for both skin- and inhalation-contracted anthrax. The FDA's approval came a week after Sullivan's ruling. Suspicions about the timing prompted an FDA response: "FDA made its determinations regarding the anthrax vaccine long before the
court's ruling," it said in a news release. The vaccine's labeling does not specify the route of exposure, meaning the vaccine is effective against both skin-contracted and inhaled anthrax.

A final decision in the suit is pending.


A casualty of war

Kutz underwent a series of neuropsychological tests at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in March. She had difficulty remembering a list of words or complex figures after three minutes had elapsed. "The patient's difficulty with verbal and visual memory suggests subtle brain impairment," read the evaluation. It also said that while anthrax vaccine could not be ruled out as a cause, Kutz's depression, anemia and the sedating effects of her medications may be to blame. "The patient," the report read, "will likely do better in situations with quiet work environments and limited distractions."

On May 13, Kutz was declared medically unfit for duty.

"She reports a variety of systemic symptoms that have been progressively increasing in number and severity following each of her anthrax shots," reads one of the summaries. "There is no direct objective evidence that the symptoms are immunologically related to her anthrax vaccinations." Her poor health required access to a hospital. She could never be deployed to a battlefront.

"To me, it would be like a woman never being able to have children," Kutz says of her truncated status.

Each month she goes to Tampa for Remicade infusions, a three-hour procedure in which an IV delivers the drug to treat Crohn's. Phenergan taken for nausea makes her fall asleep for hours. She uses a contraceptive patch to regulate excessive menstrual bleeding. On July 6, she was officially out of the Air Force. Discharged with 10 percent disability, she received a severance payment of $13,000. Lawyers tell her she will never win full benefits. "I was going to make the military a career," she says. 
"At that point I just wanted it to be over." 

Susan Aschoff can be reached at 727-892-2293 or aschoff@sptimes.com

 



Spend some time on this website. It is excellent.
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/10/23squalenestillus.html

Squalene still used, author says
Book cites tests done by Tulane scientist
By HIRAN RATNAYAKE and LEE WILLIAMS / The News Journal 
10/23/2004The military is still conducting illegal experiments on troops at
Dover Air Force Base and elsewhere - and has done so for more than a decade
- according to the author of a book published this week. 

In his book, "Vaccine A," published by Basic Books, Gary Matsumoto says the government since 1987 has injected soldiers with an anthrax vaccine containing squalene to increase its potency. Some scientists say that injecting even trace amounts of squalene into the body can cause serious illness. Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner on Friday denied the military has ever added squalene to the vaccine. 

Matsumoto worked with immunologist Pam Asa, who conducted research on squalene and edited the scientific portions of the book. They said Air Force personnel getting shots today at Dover, and other bases around the nation, are risking their lives by doing so.  Key to their conclusions is Asa's finding that troops who receive the vaccine develop antibodies to squalene in their blood. Asa said that strongly indicates the vaccine contains squalene. Squalene is a fat-like substance that occurs naturally in the body. But Asa and other scientists contend that squalene injections suppress the immune system. 

Asa, a visiting professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, sampled the blood of about 35 patients as recently as March - including six from Dover Air Force Base. In June she received results of tests that determined that 18 of them had antibodies to squalene. 

Based on their shot records and illnesses, she concluded that recently manufactured anthrax vaccine lots 073, 048, 066, 068, 070 and 071 contained squalene. Although the military has not revealed the destination of all the lots, Asa said vaccines from Lot 071 were sent to Dover. This is the first evidence that recently produced lots of the vaccine may contain squalene. "People who received that lot number had autoimmune disease," she said. "And they had antibodies in their blood to squalene. Those were my tip-offs." 

Asa said the patients who tested positive suffered from severe joint and muscle pain, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. She already has published two studies during the last four years that show antibodies to squalene in troops who received the anthrax vaccine.  The second study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Experiment and Molecular Pathology in August 2002, tested four patients for antibodies to squalene before they received the shots in May and June 1999. One of the patients was from Dover Air Force Base. None of these patients had antibodies to squalene before they had the shots. After they received the
shots, they did. 

Asa noted that her findings only indicate the presence of squalene antibodies. She said the only way to determine for certain the vaccine contains it is to test the actual vaccine, something the military has refused to do for the past five years. The Food and Drug Administration found squalene in samples of specific lots that were sent to Dover in June of 1999 but didn't announce their findings until September 2000. The military has said on its anthrax vaccine Web site that the squalene was a result of faulty lab testing by the FDA. The FDA has declined comment on the issue. 

On Thursday, the Defense Department said in an official letter that the anthrax vaccine is safe and that no troops were subjected to medical experiments. The letter was a response to Delaware's congressional
delegation for an investigation into whether troops at Dover Air Force Base received experimental anthrax vaccine in 1999. The letter consisted of a copy of a question-and-answer page from the Defense Department's anthrax information Web site, which has been criticized by civilian scientists for its unattributed statements and lack of signed articles. 

The delegation requested the investigations after The News Journal reported earlier this month that troops at the Dover base in 1999 received anthrax vaccine that may have contained squalene. The newspaper interviewed dozens of current and former pilots and crews who said they became ill after receiving squalene-tainted vaccine. 

"This whole issue would be resolved if they would allow a neutral agency to pull vials off the clinic shelves and test them," said retired Lt. Col. Jay Lacklen, who has tested positive for squalene after he received shots at
Dover in 1999. "But the DOD [Department of Defense] won't let anyone test them. Those vials are locked down like a top-secret memo." 

Contact Hiran Ratnayake at 324-2547 or hratnayake@delawareonline.com. Contact investigative reporter Lee Williams at 324-2362 or lwilliams@delawareonline.com.



List:

Chappy's story will not be told by NBC, the 'powers that be' have silenced it.  The director of NBC had actually come all the way from DC to do the interview with Dave! One has to wonder why...  Was someone afraid that a nation who may now fear the draft would see how the government injures it's own soldiers with contaminated or experimental shots and then puts them through hell to get the deserved help?  Lots of troop member's families would have seen this story as well, knowing their own loved ones are still being forced to take a vaccine for which there appears to have been no real threat anyway..... Well, not NO threat, the shots appear to be the real health threat.

I remember years ago when we would actually see our Anthrax vaccine stories on National television.

Gretchen
List owner
Anthrax-no
   
  NBC just called they are not quite ready to run with this story, and so it   will not be in tonights show, but I am assured it is scheduled for one of   this weeks shows they just don't know which one yet.

  Chappy
    
   Reminder:
  
   Our vaccine injured list member, Dave "chappy"  chappy@valornet.com, completed an interview
   with NBC Nightly News.  It is slated to air  tonight. Gary Matsumoto's new book "Vaccine A"
   will be on Tuesday.
 



Posted on Mon, Jul. 25, 2005 
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/12214696.htm? 


Anthrax vaccine under fire
Refusal rate concerns military; troops speak out
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN
The Star's Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON –– Shonya McBride remembers very clearly the night she rolled over in her sleep and her hand fell across her husband's chest. She awoke with a start. "His heart was just pounding out of his chest," she said. That was in 1999, after Travis McBride, a 22-year-old Marine Corps sergeant, had received the second of six mandatory inoculations of the anthrax vaccine.

By the fourth shot, he had developed serious heart problems, chronic fatigue and severe joint pain. McBride never made it to the fifth. Within a year, he was medically discharged. He had been ordered to take the shots, like probably hundreds of military men and women who believe the vaccine boomeranged and made them seriously ill. "If I had had the option, I wouldn't have taken it," said McBride, now 28 and an Atchison County sheriff's deputy.

For the past two months, however, incoming military personnel have had the option of not taking the anthrax vaccine, as a result of a federal lawsuit won last year by some military personnel who objected. For now, instead of being threatened with courts-martial and dishonorable discharges, soldiers are told the shots are voluntary. As a result, half of the military and civilian Defense personnel asked since May to take the shots have declined, according to the Pentagon.

The refusal rate worries the military, which many believe would like to reinstate the mandatory rule for all active duty personnel and reserves. "That means that half of our (newest) troops could be harmed in an enemy attack and possibly die," said Marianne Coats, a spokeswoman for the Military Vaccine Agency. "This concerns us very much indeed." 

Vaccine critics said the situation is an improvement.

Mark Zaid, an attorney involved in the lawsuit, said that much progress has been made since the days of military courts-martial, but added that it remains subjective whether the vaccine being voluntary is a good thing. What concerns Zaid and other critics is that the anthrax information brochure that the military hands out contains none of the information that comes packaged with the vaccine about risks and medical reactions possibly linked to it. Beyond the more common nausea, fever and chills, other medical problems possibly linked to the vaccine, according to the manufacturer's insert, include multiple sclerosis, encephalitis, leukemia, blood clots, nervous system disorders, lymphoma and immune deficiencies.

"The Defense Department does not wish for troops to even know the dangers explained on the vaccine's own label," Zaid said. Col. John Grabenstein, director of the Military Vaccine Agency, said in an e-mail response to a series of questions that since 1998, the military has provided "detailed educational programs" to explain the anthrax vaccine. The Pentagon and the Food and Drug Administration insist that the  vaccine, which has been given to about 1.3 million military and some civilian personnel since 1998, is safe and effective. Citing a 2002 National Academy of Sciences study, Grabenstein said that the anthrax vaccine posed no greater risk of serious health problems than any other vaccine.

But some former soldiers, outside experts, military activists and other supporters do not think that is accurate. Former Master Sgt. Dennis Brewster of Augusta, Kan., was diagnosed with an array of medical ailments after the shots, including chronic, widespread joint pain, chronic headaches, chronic fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome. "I knew how I was before the shot, and I got the shot and I know what happened to me," he said. 

No informed consent

The anthrax vaccine has been controversial almost from the beginning.

The FDA licensed it in 1970, but only for anthrax exposure through the skin because the disease was largely confined to the livestock industry. No human testing of its effectiveness had been done. The testing that was performed, in 1962, was on a different version of the vaccine. The manufacturing process had changed by 1970 when it was licensed. The vaccine was never approved to protect against anthrax inhalation, which is how troops would encounter the toxin on the battlefield and why the military forced soldiers to be vaccinated. Still, the Pentagon used it to vaccinate certain units against anthrax before the 1991 Gulf War because of fears that Iraq had biological weapons. Since then, researchers at Kansas State University have found a possible link between the vaccine and the series of mysterious maladies known as Gulf War Syndrome experienced by many veterans of that conflict.

In 1997, as concern heightened about troops deployed to the Persian Gulf and Korean peninsula, the Pentagon made the vaccine mandatory. The regimen was a series of six doses over 18 months, with annual boosters. The threat of anthrax as a battlefield weapon is probably greater in North Korea than anywhere else, according to Jonathan Tucker, a chemical and biological weapons expert at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute for International Studies.

"I'm not familiar with any evidence that the (Iraq) insurgency or the Taliban has access to anthrax," he said. "North Korea is assessed to have a biological weapons program, and anthrax would probably be an agent in its arsenal." Meanwhile, the sole manufacturer of the vaccine, the BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich., has been cited several times by the FDA for quality control problems. The military shut down the vaccine program last fall when a federal judge ruled in favor of six anonymous former and current Defense Department employees who alleged that the vaccine was being used in a way for which it had not been licensed and should not be forced on anyone. The government has appealed the ruling. In the meantime, the Pentagon began the voluntary inoculations in May under an emergency- use authority, citing a high bioterrorist threat.

`Blind eye' alleged

Six years after taking the vaccine, McBride's heart problems shadow his family's every move. When he takes his 5-year-old son fishing, he and his wife make sure the child remembers how to dial 911 in case his father has a problem. At the time, refusing the order to take the vaccine wasn't an option. He loved being a Marine and hoped to make a career out of it. "I was an enlisted serviceman," he said. "I was told to jump; you  asked, `How high?' I was just doing what I was ordered." So was Army Sgt. Sandra Larson of Spokane, Wash. In 2000, three months after receiving her final shot while assigned to Fort Riley, Kan., she died of a rare blood disorder at the age of 32. "It was as if there was something in her that was killing her immune system, shutting her down," her sister, Nancy Rugo, told a congressional committee after her death.

Between 1990 and 2004, 16 people died after taking the vaccine, according to the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Most suffered heart, lung and immune system problems, and cancer.

All but five were dead within three months of their last vaccination. In addition, the reporting system shows that nearly 4,500 other recipients have had medical reactions, with nearly 8 percent listed as "serious," meaning the problems were life-threatening, required hospitalization or resulted in a major disability.The reports are submitted by vaccine recipients and providers, relatives, health-care givers and others, but are not necessarily inclusive of everyone who has had a reaction.

The Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of  Sciences, called the vaccine reporting data "useful as a sentinel for adverse events." But it cautioned that the reports might be "underreported, incomplete, or duplicative," and that the claims are not always verified by medical officials.

Grabenstein said that anyone who becomes sick after a  vaccination "deserves the best care we can give them, whether a vaccine is the cause of their health problem or not." But Meryl Nass, a Maine internist and leading critic of the vaccine, said the military had turned "a blind eye" to the risks. She has examined numerous vaccine recipients with serious illnesses, including several who served in the Kansas Air National Guard.

"The people who become disabled more often than not have multiple diagnoses," Nass said. "They also, more often than not, have syndromes that are rare or nonexistent in the patients that doctors normally see. Their bodies are not doing what they're supposed to be doing."

Leaving the big B-1 behind

Worries began to seep through the military ranks within two years of the start of the vaccine inoculations. Pentagon reports show that between 2000 and 2004, 149 service members refused the vaccine. Some were court-martialed for refusing an order and given bad conduct discharges. About a dozen cases are in stages of appeal.  In a 2002 study, the General Accounting Office surveyed Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve aircrews and found that 16 percent of 
more than 800 airmen who responded had either transferred, become inactive or left the service between 1998 and 2000 to avoid the shots. An additional 18 percent said they planned to leave soon.

The GAO, now known as the Government Accountability Office, also  found that about 84 percent of the pilots and crew members who took the vaccine during that period experienced side effects or adverse reactions, a rate more than double what the manufacturer claimed at the time. In addition, the study found that about 24 percent of those reactions were systemic — meaning that they affected their entire bodies. That was "more than 100 times higher" than what the 
manufacturer estimated, the GAO said.

The military ordered former Maj. David Towne, who flew for the 128th Bomb Squadron of the Kansas Air National Guard, to take the shot in 1999. Towne was torn because he loved flying the big B-1 bombers, but worried about developing health problems and jeopardizing his civilian career as a commercial pilot.

"I wear a bicycle helmet, I wear my seat belt. I just decided it was not worth it for me to take it," he said. "They told me I was unpatriotic and would regret this for the rest of my life. They questioned my integrity."

Towne, who is 39 and now lives in Ohio, offered to resign but received a general discharge instead. He has appealed.

"These are people who volunteer their lives and livelihood to protect America," said Peter Martuscello of Wichita, a 57-year old former Kansas Air National Guard technical sergeant who was medically discharged after taking the vaccine. He developed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an immune disorder, and other problems.

"To dump on people like that is crazy," Martuscello said. "That's the sad part. They gave you no option." And no information on possible risks, according to several former soldiers who took the vaccine and became ill.

Brewster said that when his unit in the 184th Bomb Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard got a briefing about the vaccine in June 1999, "They didn't tell us about any risk. They gave us the basic standard speech," he said. "They said there was some talk out there, but it was all Internet hype."

A week after receiving the first shot, Brewster started feeling like he had the flu. Then a powerful fatigue came over him. His ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows and hands all began to hurt. He also got severe headaches. By the fourth shot, his health had further deteriorated. He was in and out of the hospital for intestinal surgery and heart problems. He also became hyperallergic.

Brewster retired in 2001 under honorable conditions after 23 years of service. He has a one-man home remodeling business that allows him to take time off when he's feeling badly and runs out of energy. He sleeps a lot.

"A lot of the guys hid the illness and still are," said Brewster, who had been a full-time civilian employee of the Guard, in addition to his military service. "Had I not ended up in the hospital, I probably would have tried to hide mine."

The anthrax vaccine, he said, "cost me my career."
Anthrax timeline

1970: FDA approves vaccine for skin exposure

1991: Military gives vaccine to some troops in the first Gulf War

1997: Pentagon orders vaccine mandatory for all military personnel 
1998: Congress passes law requiring informed consent if troops are given drugs unapproved for their intended use

1998-99: FDA finds quality-control problems at vaccine plant

2000: Sgt. Sandra Larson takes final anthrax shot at Fort Riley, Kan. Larson dies three months later.

2000: Institute of Medicine concludes vaccine is safe

2000: Federal judge stops mandatory shots.

2005: Voluntary vaccine program begins
 



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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

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MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Coast Guard backtracks on forced vaccine
Catholic officer wins right to reject shot made from aborted fetus

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Posted: May 13, 2008
9:37 pm Eastern
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WorldNetDaily 

Threatened with a lawsuit, the U.S. Coast Guard has reversed a decision to force a Catholic officer to receive a vaccine created from the lung cells of an aborted fetus. Coast Guard officials notified the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Friday it will grant Lt. Com. Joseph Healy a religious exemption to a requirement that all active-duty personnel be vaccinated against Hepatitis A.

"I am very pleased that the Coast Guard has allowed me to follow my conscience," Healy told WND. "I hope that others will be able to do the same in the future." As WND reported in January, Healy had requested religious exemption on the basis of his strong pro-life stance and Catholic theology. After Capt. Brent Pennington rejected Healy's request, the Alliance Defense Fund, on behalf of Healy, filed a lawsuit to stop the forced vaccination. "Members of the U.S. military should never be forced to make an unconstitutional choice between honoring their country and honoring their faith," stated ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. "Christians shouldn't be punished for abiding by their beliefs against abortion." Bowman said. ADF attorneys have filed a notice to dismiss the lawsuit filed Jan. 2.


Bowman said the decision "is consistent with the Coast Guard's mission to save human lives from dangers at sea; in this case, those in danger are the unborn babies in the turbulent waters of their mothers' wombs." In May 2006, the Coast Guard ordered all active-duty personnel to receive one of two vaccines against Hepatitis A or show proof of immunity. Healy researched the vaccine and discovered that an immunized person can still be a carrier of Hepatitis A if he comes in contact with infected fecal matter. Proper hygiene and simple hand washing is the best way to prevent the spread of the disease, he found.

Healy further noted, "Eighty-five percent of those exposed to the virus display slight to no symptoms and all develop a permanent immunity to the virus once exposed. Less than 3 percent of all exposures lead to severe symptoms or death." Since the disease did not pose significant risk to himself or others around him, Healy weighed his decision heavily on his Catholic faith and pro-life convictions. He said he simply could not in good conscience use a vaccine in any way connected to abortion. Following Healy's protestations, military officials argued, "Catholic teaching does not state that these immunizations are against the religious tenets of the Catholic Church."

The Coast Guard, as with other branches of the military, allows religious exemptions for personnel who hold a "religious tenet or belief contrary to immunization." Following military protocol, Healy submitted a memo requesting religious exemption based on his Catholic faith. Pennington rejected the request. "Please note that the refusal to be vaccinated or failure to comply with a lawful order to be vaccinated is a violation of Coast Guard regulations," Pennington wrote Healy. "Any member who refuses to be vaccinated or fails to comply with a lawful order to be vaccinated is subject to military proceedings under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or other appropriate administrative proceedings at the unit commander's discretion." Healy cautioned that while the Coast Guard has reversed its decision, it could, along with the Defense Department, cancel the policy allowing religious exemptions for vaccines.