Uzis, bombers,
nukes ... and a sheep virus? As if there weren't already enough
ways to get killed or injured while serving your country, the U.S.
military is getting set to inoculate millions of servicemen and
women with a highly controversial anthrax vaccine. Its intent is
to protect against possible biological warfare. But reports of
serious side effects are leading military personnel--and some
politicians, including Connecticut Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal--to speak out against what they see as unlawful
medical experimentation.
Veterinarians
and other animal workers have for years occasionally received
vaccinations against anthrax, an infectious animal disease that
can be fatal to human beings. The military vaccinated 150,000
people who served in the Gulf War in 1991 and began mandatory
inoculations in 1997. But the vaccine was never approved for
airborne anthrax--the variety that would be encountered in war.
And Bioport, the Michigan company that makes the vaccine, shut
down in 1999 after repeatedly failing FDA inspections. It
reopened this year, and the full-scale immunization program is
set to restart in October.
Connecticut
natives Thomas Rempfer and Russ Dingle hope to prevent the
program from getting off the ground. The two pilots were ordered
to resign from the Connecticut Air National Guard in 1999 after
they refused to take the vaccine and spoke publicly against it.
The Guard had asked them to investigate the vaccine as part of a
team of concerned servicemen and to present any questions that
arose.
"The
inoculation program was to have been on hold until satisfactory
answers were received," Dingle says. Instead, the men were
informed that their safety questions would not be answered and
that anyone refusing to receive the vaccine would be forced to
resign.
"I
made a personal and professional decision, based on my research,
that the anthrax policy was questionable in its legality, and as
a military officer I have a duty to challenge such orders,"
Rempfer says. Both men are now leaders of a national movement
protesting the vaccine.
Rempfer
and Dingle's experiences inspired Blumenthal to directly
challenge the FDA's licensing of the anthrax program on the
grounds that it is experimental and that Connecticut could be
held responsible for sickened personnel.
"I
am dismayed that the commencement of [the Anthrax Vaccine
Immunization Program] appears to have been made without
consideration of what entity, in the state or federal government,
would be responsible to State National Guardsmen should any
illness or disability occur as a result of the immunization,"
Blumenthal wrote in one of several letters requesting that U.S.
officials reconsider the policy.
Blumenthal
has reason to be concerned. Evidence is mounting that reactions
to the vaccine may have caused some of the symptoms of Gulf War
Syndrome, and at least 52 people have been hospitalized following
inoculation. Yet responses from the federal government have been
consistently unsympathetic.
"Wearing
helmets isn't voluntary because everybody needs protection. The
same is true of anthrax vaccination," wrote Defense
Department official Charles Cragin in response to Blumenthal's
plea.
But
Robert Johnston, a Yale history and American studies professor
who has studied vaccinations programs and their opponents, says
the sheer number of military officers opposing the program--400
have so far refused the shots--calls for heightened scrutiny.
"There's a history of medical experimentation in the
military that has been really dreadful," Johnston says.
"When military personnel question any kind of medical
procedure, our bells and whistles should go off."
For now, however, the U.S. government isn't making a sound.