Washington Post

6 Feb 2000

Regarding the two Outlook articles of Jan. 30 on resistance by some members of the armed forces to the military's program of anthrax vaccination:

Anthrax is a highly lethal biological agent that at least 10 countries have in their arsenals or are in the process of acquiring. In 1996 the Joint Chiefs of Staff identified it as the number one biological threat to our troops. As a weapon of mass destruction, anthrax is cheap and much easier to develop than nuclear munitions. When dispersed in aerosol form, the bacteria cover a wide area and kill people within several days of inhalation.

In 1970 the Food and Drug Administration licensed a vaccine to protect humans who might be exposed to anthrax. It has a proven safety record throughout 30 years of use.

After evaluating the anthrax threat and the safety of the vaccine, the general who commands U.S. troops in the Middle East requested that all troops deployed to the Persian Gulf area be vaccinated for it. Every day approximately 20,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines stationed in the gulf awake knowing that they could encounter an anthrax attack. The commander of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, who face an anthrax threat from North Korea, also requested vaccinations.

The Joint Chiefs reviewed these proposals and recommended mandatory anthrax vaccination for all 2.4 million active and reserve members of our military, with the first shots going to troops in or scheduled to go to the Middle East and Korea. They reasoned that force protection should not be optional; just as it is inconceivable to allow a soldier to fight without a helmet, it makes little sense to send a soldier into battle without protection against a known threat such as anthrax. Because our armed forces must be able to deploy anywhere on short notice, they recommended vaccinations for all active and reserve personnel.

I supported the recommendation, but before launching the vaccination program, I took steps to make sure that four important conditions were met: I ordered supplemental testing consistent with FDA standards to ensure that the vaccine supplies were sterile, safe, potent and pure; I instructed the services to design a system for tracking personnel who received the required six shots; I had the services develop plans for educating people about the program; and I ordered an independent review of the health and medical protocols of the program.

The vaccinations began in 1998 after these conditions were met. Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and I were among the first to receive the shots. We experienced the same mild side effects, such as temporary soreness or a small bump on the arm, that many others feel. Our careful monitoring of the program since then reveals no unexpected side effects.

More than 400,000 active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have started receiving the shots; only some 300 have refused vaccinations.

We take seriously the concerns that people have raised about the program, and we are in the process of distributing additional educational material to military members and their families.

We have bolstered our Web site (http://www.anthrax.osd.mil) in order to counter some of the erroneous assertions circulating on the Internet.

The anthrax threat is real, and we are carrying out a prudent, safe program to counter the dangers.

WILLIAM S. COHEN

U.S. Secretary of Defense

Washington