by Bill Straub
Cincinnati Post
October 27, 2000
WASHINGTON - An anthrax inoculation, which some military personnel believe causes physical and neurological disorders, is being cited as the major reason members of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve are leaving the service, assuming inactive status or transferring.
A study conducted by the General Accounting Office for the House Government Reform Committee, established that 25 percent of the pilots and air crew members in the Guard and Reserve have changed their status or transferred since September 1998.
The most important factor, they said, was the required anthrax inoculation, with 25 percent of those changing status citing it as the basis for their decision.
Of those still in Guard and Reserve units, 18 percent said they plan to leave the military within the next six months. Again, when asked to rank the most important factor, 61 percent cited the anthrax immunization.
While most members of the Guard and Reserve support immunization programs in general, 65 percent of the pilots and aircrew members opposed the anthrax inoculation.
The study was ordered by the committee to determine what effect the inoculation program might have on troop strength. Some lawmakers, including Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., the committee chairman, fear the ranks might be critically thinned if the inoculation program continues.
Concerns about the anthrax immunization emerged last year when some members of the military, including former Air Force Major Sonnie Bates, a 14-year veteran from Independence, Ky., based at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, refused to take the required shots.
Some in the military complain that the anthrax vaccine can cause fevers, muscle aches, dizziness and a variety of other side effects.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, operated by the federal government, has since 1990 received 1,561 reports of problems thought to be related to the anthrax shots, including 76 cases deemed serious.
The Department of Defense reports that 442 members of the military have refused a direct order to submit to the series of six shots over 18 months plus an annual booster.
Despite the reports, Mark Elengold, a deputy director at the Food and Drug Administration, insists that no clear patterns have emerged that could link the vaccine to a specific malady.
Anthrax, a disease that typically affects animals - primarily sheep and cattle - can cause death in humans if dried spores, like those used in chemical weapons, are inhaled. Fearing the possibility of germ warfare, the Department of Defense ordered that all 2.4 million active military and reserve personnel undergo the inoculation.
Recently, however, because of a supply shortage, Defense Secretary William Cohen ordered that the shots be restricted to personnel in high threat areas.
Bates, the highest ranking officer to refuse the order, was not court martialed. He was instead given a general discharge under honorable conditions last spring and ordered to pay a fine.
U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer 3rd Class David Ponder, of Kenton County, who also refused to take the shots, remains on duty but still faces the possibility of court martial.
Publication date: 10-27-00