The Military Vaccine Resource Directory

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Military Vaccine Resource Directory.

This is the news stories administration area. All archived stories are listed in the table below.

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1/1/2004 to Present (Default)
10/1/2003 to 12/31/2003
7/1/2003 to 9/30/2003
1/1/2003 to 6/30/2003
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Web sites with older archives:
Dr. Meryl Nass' web site
AVIP Exposed

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Biodefense lab? Not in my backyard.
The Strait Times - Monday September 29, 2003
"BOSTON - THE United States government is pumping billions into universities to set up biodefence laboratories across the country to study deadly viruses such as anthrax. But the trouble is that many communities are losing sleep over the prospect that some rogue strains may escape. Some of them are filing suits to keep the labs from their neighbourhoods. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson recently announced US$350 million (S$600 million) in federal grants to eight biodefence programmes around the US..In Boston, a coalition of community groups plans to sue the Boston University Medical Center, which is bidding for federal funds to build a biodefence lab. In California and New Mexico, communities are suing to stop biodefence experiments at federal government facilities such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory..For their part, lab officials say their studies of the new facilities show any environmental effect would be minimal. This is despite the fact that one of them lies in an area of earthquake fault lines and Los Alamos has faced major wildfires."

Bioterror: Stepping on Toes?
MSNBC/Newsweek - Monday September 29, 2003
"Tommy Thompson, the secretary of Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge have one thing in common-they both love to talk about how much better prepared America is for a bioattack like the still-unsolved anthrax letters of two years ago. But a turf fight between the two departments has seriously hindered those preparations, officials say..Now DHS is in charge of deploying HHS's stockpiles of vaccines and medicines, but it lacks health-care expertise and experience, HHS officials say. The dispute is diverting attention from the real problem: the health-care system is drastically underfunded..'The bottom line,' says Tara O'Toole of the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at Johns Hopkins, 'is that hospitals are not prepared. There is no plan to prepare them and there is no one in charge of making it happen.' Contrary to reassurances from national-security officials, it is only getting easier to deliver toxic substances like anthrax. And today's beefed-up airport- and building-security checks would not stop someone from walking in with a vial of anthrax, which resembles talcum powder."

'You lied, they died,' US parents tell Bush
by Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles - The Guardian (Great Britain) - Saturday September 27, 2003
The father of a soldier killed in Iraq accused President George Bush yesterday of being responsible for his son's death.
Fernando Suarez, whose 20-year-old son, Jesus, was one of the first fatalities, said: "My son died because Bush lied."
Mr Suarez, from Escondido, California, speaking at a press conference to publicise tomorrow's anti-war demonstrations in eight US cities, said that about 1,300 parents of troops stationed in Iraq were involved in a movement against the oc cupation. "It is time for these troops to come home," said Mr Suarez. "Neither my wife nor my family want more children to die in this illegal war. We are no less patriotic for wanting peace. Bush wants $87bn [ﾣ52m] for this war, but what does he give us for our schools?" he asked.
In another sign of the growing protest movement, the father of two soldiers serving in Iraq used a full page advertisement in yesterday's New York Times to demand the sacking of the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

WORKSHOP: The Sanctity of Human Blood
by Dr. Tim O'Shea - Dr. Tim O'Shea, D.C. - Thursday September 25, 2003
11 Oct 03 -- LOS ANGELES, CA
Saturday -- 8 am
Radisson Hotel -- 6161 Centinela Av -- 310 649 1776 (near LAX)

This full day multimedia presentation will focus on:
- history of vaccines
- ingredients of vaccines
- how vaccines are made
- the science behind vaccines
- current laws regarding vaccines
- The Germ Theory of Disease
- mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde
- hematology review; blood detox
- role of the FDA
- natural vs. artificial immunity
- scientific proof of efficacy
- hematology review - blood detox
- Gulf War Syndrome
- the chiropractic position on vaccines
- exemption forms / exemption laws
- the real causes of disease
- comparison with Europe's required list
- bioterrorism and vaccine sales
- difference between vaccination and immunization - the human genome
- why there are 40 mandated vaccines for US school children
- Congressional hearings on autism, mercury, and anthrax, Rep. Dan Burton
- new vaccines coming soon: AIDS, anthrax, smallpox, SARS
- the new Mandated Schedule (Jan 2002)
- the new 'High Risk' category
- the history and science of smallpox vaccine
- Homeland Security Act

More dates and explanations available by clicking on this link.

Pilots' Corner section still available
Military Vaccine Education Center - Wednesday September 24, 2003
The Pilots' Corner section of this web site is undergoing some programming surgery. There will be a link again soon. Meantime, please use this link if you would like to read the first two stories of pilots who have refused, received, and/or protested the anthrax vaccine. As soon as the new programming is finished, we will be adding more stories.

New Labs, New Vaccines section still available
Military Vaccine Education Center - Wednesday September 24, 2003
The New Labs, New Vaccines section of this web site is still available at the link above. It is currently undergoing programming surgery. Once the new programming is done, we will continue to add information about new and renovated bioterrorism labs and new bioterrorism vaccines as the information comes in. Thanks for your patience.

New Decision on Hepatitis C
by Mike Murphy - Mt. Shasta Live - Wednesday September 24, 2003
YREKA, CA - My office just received some really good news for veterans suffering with Hepatitis C. The newly created specialty rating team in Cleveland, Ohio known as the "Tiger Team" awarded a Vietnam veteran a service connected disability for Hepatitis C. The decision, which just came out in August of this year, was as a result of the "Jet Injectors" used for inoculations of most service members during the Vietnam Era and after. As I have written about in previous columns, Vietnam Era veterans have been the fastest growing number of Hepatitis C patients. The biggest mystery has always been why. Many of these veterans belong to no "high risk" group such as homosexuals or IV drug users, and many did not even serve overseas. The only risk group they belong to is being in the military during this era. It appears that a link has finally been established as to the reasons for this.

Wounded in Iraq, Deserted at Home commentary follows
by By Bill Berkowitz - WorkingForChange.com - Tuesday September 23, 2003
Column ran Sept. 12, 2003: More than thirty satellite trucks and nearly a hundred reporters hunkered down outside the Eagle County (Colorado) courthouse on Wednesday Aug. 6th waiting to get a glimpse of Los Angeles Laker basketball star Kobe Bryant entering the courtroom for a scheduled ten-minute appearance. Most of the major television networks and cable news and sports networks had reporters and camera crews at the scene.
Across the country, where plane loads of wounded soldiers are airlifted back to the states, unloaded at Andrews Air Force Base, and sent off to area hospitals, there are no hordes of television cameras recording these tragic trips off the tarmac.
In a summer marked by the media's focus on the Bryant sex case, the entrance of Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) into California's recall election, the killing of Saddam Hussein's sons and the hunt for their father, little attention has been paid to U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and stuffed into wards at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the nation's biggest military hospital, and other facilities.
There are no pictures of wounded soldiers undergoing painful and protracted physical rehabilitation. There are no visuals of worried families waiting for news of their sons or daughters.

Commentary:
Quote from the column: "The war was televised and sold as a sanitized war with minimal US casualties," said John Stauber, co-author of the recently released book, "The Weapons of Mass Deception," in an email exchange. "Showing wounded soldiers and interviewing their families could be disastrous PR for Bush's war. I suspect the administration is doing all it can to prevent such stories unless they are stage-managed feel-good events like Saving Private [Jessica] Lynch."

National Institutes of Health Awards $85 Million for Biological
Global Security Newswire - Monday September 22, 2003
"The U.S. National Institutes of Health announced plans last week to establish five biological defense research centers nationwide (see GSN, Sept. 4). Officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will distribute $85 million over more than four years to the newly established Cooperative Centers for Translational Research on Human Immunology and Biodefense. The centers will be located at the Baylor Research Institute in Dallas, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the Emory University medical school in Atlanta, the Stanford University medical school in California and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, according to the NIAID..The new research centers will focus on the human immune system, the release said."

Soldiers Medical Testing Faulted commentary follows
by Thomas D. Williams - Hartford Courant (CT) - Monday September 22, 2003
U.S. forces were sent to Iraq without the necessary medical testing to support future service-related health claims, veterans' advocates say. Having investigated the history of similar claims brought by tens of thousands of 1991 Gulf War veterans, advocates fear history may be repeating itself, resulting in claims being rejected, or not settled quickly. By failing to secure blood samples immediately before and after deployment, by refusing to use modern medical technology to re-evaluate samples from 1991 and by ignoring requests for more comprehensive medical evaluations, the Pentagon has made it difficult to establish direct links between exposures to biological and chemical agents and subsequent illnesses, critics say.

Commentary:
"Some Defense Department health initiatives have been implemented. But all of these blood sampling and hazardous exposure issues demonstrate that the Department of Defense did not learn the lessons from the first Gulf War, nor did they implement policies to protect soldiers from the exposures in this war," said Steve Robinson, a veterans' advocate (see the National Gulf War Resource Center at http://www.ngwrc.org)

Bioshield Bill commentary follows
by Dr. Joseph Mercola - Mercola.com - Sunday September 21, 2003
"The BioShield Bill currently making its way through Congress gives $6 billion of taxpayer money to the major pharmaceuticals to subsidize the development of drugs and vaccines as "countermeasures" to possible biological and chemical attacks. The bill pays for the warehousing of drugs and vaccines for which the FDA has granted a special exemption from the usual approval process to allow the countermeasures to be fast tracked through FDA approval and used on the public with no human testing at all, an unprecedented step for an industry that is already the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States."

Commentary:
The link is for Part I of the BioShield Bill. You can view Part II at: http://www.mercola.com/2003/sep/20/smallpox_vaccine.htm

Bioterror lab foes threatening lawsuit
by Jennifer Heldt Powell - Boston Herald - Saturday September 20, 2003
"Boston residents who hope to stop a bioterrorism research lab proposed for the South End say they plan to sue to block the project based on the public land it would require. The residents charge that project supporters haven't filed a plan outlining potential environmental impacts for the proposed use of the land as required by state law. Boston University Medical Center has applied for a large federal grant to build a top-level security laboratory for research on such things as anthrax and smallpox. The project would use two parcels of land that the state is transferring to the Boston Redevelopment Authority..A decision about which of several applicants will get grants to build the top-level security laboratory to analyze biological agents is expected by the end of this month. The legal challenge will be made if the Boston site wins federal support, Benson said."

Mystery pneumonia toll may be much higher commentary follows
by Mark Benjamin - UPI - Tuesday September 16, 2003
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.

Commentary:
"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."

Mystery Deaths Fuel Vaccine Anxieties commentary follows
by Timothy W. Maier - Insight Magazine - Monday September 15, 2003
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 [see "A Dose of Reality" and "Why BioPort Got a Shot in the Arm," Sept. 20, 1999]. 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.

Commentary:
Quote from the article: "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."

Troops' Pneumonia Outbreak Spurs Medical Hunt commentary follows
by David Brown - Washinton Post - Friday September 12, 2003
...What's clear so far is this: Since early March, about 100 soldiers deployed to the Persian Gulf region and Central Asia have contracted pneumonia. About 30 have been ill enough to be sent to hospitals in Europe or the United States. In medical slang, 19 "crashed" within hours of getting sick, not responding to antibiotics and requiring mechanical ventilators to breathe for them. Two have died.
...Overall, the incidence of pneumonia in deployed troops has not been wildly out of line with what is expected. It's the number of severe cases that's unusual -- that and the fact that 10 of them showed proliferation of uncommon immune system cells called eosinophils.

Commentary:
"This picture is more typical of an out-of-control immune system reaction than an infection."
..."There didn't appear to be any drug that had been taken by the 10 patients..." But they certainly did have drugs in common; they were all vaccinated with the same vaccines in order to be deployed. They had military drugs in common, and if these are not investigated as possible causes then the Dept. of Defense is, at minimum, in denial, and at maximum, once again covering up and stonewalling, refusing to admit that it gives our troops unsafe and illegal drugs. How many lives must continue to be lost at the hands of the very government our troops are sworn to protect?

A hard homecoming commentary follows
by Rick Foster - The Sun Chronicle, MA - Friday September 12, 2003
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.

Commentary:
From the National Vaccine Information Center: 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 once-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.

Pentagon Suspects Cigarette Smoking as Cause of Pneumonia Cases commentary follows
Global Security Newswire - Wednesday September 10, 2003
An outbreak of pneumonia cases among U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and southwestern Asia may be related to the fact that many of those infected had begun smoking before falling ill, U.S. Defense Department official said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 19). The Pentagon has ruled out a number of possible causes, such as anthrax and smallpox vaccinations, for the 19 cases of severe pneumonia, including two deaths, that occurred from March to August, according to the New York Times. Investigators have found that 10 patients, including the two who died, had a high increase in the number of a white blood cell known as an eosinophil. Nine out of the 10 patients with high eosinophil count reported that they had recently begun smoking, said Col. Bob DeFraites, the Army's chief of preventive medicine. Tobacco smoke is known to increase susceptibility to pneumonia, according to the Times. Smoke, along with a combination of other factors such as heat, dust and stress, may have caused the pneumonia, DeFraites said (Lawrence Altman, New York Times, Sept. 10).

Commentary:
Hmmm. We wonder how many people who are smokers did NOT get that same pneumonia and did NOT die. Suppose the military investigated that end of the equation?

Marines' Malaria Cases Show Protections Failed commentary follows
by David Brown - Washington Post - Wednesday September 10, 2003
Despite extensive preventive measures, most of the more than 200 Marines who spent time ashore in Liberia last month apparently contracted malaria, with about 43 of them ill enough to be hospitalized. The malaria outbreak amounts to a stunning failure of standard protections against a disease that the American military is unusually keen to prevent in troops deployed to the tropics. So many Marines became sick in such a short period of time that Navy physicians for a while doubted the illnesses could all be due to the mosquito-borne infection.

Commentary:
"The outbreak occurred even though the troops were taking a drug to prevent the disease, were instructed to use insect repellents and were wearing uniforms treated with long-acting insecticides."
The drug was Lariam...the drug widely suspected as the cause of a number of psychotic episodes in troops, and known to cause suicidal tendences.

Evans Opposes Proposal to Drastically Limit Eligibility for Veterans'
by CONTACT: Mary Ellen McCarthy at 202-225-9756 - House Veterans' Affairs Committee - Wednesday September 10, 2003
Washington, DC - Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, the Ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, today reacted strongly to Administration suggestions that dramatic limitations be placed on the ability of veterans to qualify for service-connected compensation benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
According to press reports, the Bush Administration is recommending drastic restrictions which would require veterans to prove that their disabilities were incurred or aggravated during performance of official military duties in order to be compensated. Evans called the suggestion "an insult to the men and women who are putting their lives on the line in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the world."

U.S. Pharmaceutical Company Receives Grant to Develop Botulinum
Global Security Newswire - Tuesday September 09, 2003
The U.S. pharmaceutical company Dynport Vaccine Co. announced last week that it had received an $11 million grant to develop a new and more effective botulinum vaccine (see GSN, June 3). Under the grant, provided by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dynport will develop manufacturing processes for a vaccine within two years to be effective against five of the neurotoxins known to be produced by the botulinum bacterium. The company is set to develop processes for a vaccine effective against all seven kinds of toxins produced by the bacterium within five years..The current botulinum vaccine is only effective against three toxins and only after infection, the Associated Press reported (David Dishneau, Associated Press, Sept. 9).

Latest, Expert View of Evolving Terrorism Threat Incorporated Into
PR Newswire - Tuesday September 09, 2003
...the expected RMS risk outlook shows only a remote chance that groups such as Al Qaeda could acquire chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) capabilities in the near future. According to Pete Baxter, director of global consultancy operations at Jane's Information Group, the more stringent security environment that has developed since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks has made terrorist groups more likely to employ conventional weapons and attack modes...

Project Bioshield Could Allow Withholding Drug Information From Military commentary follows
by David Ruppe - Global Security Newswire - Monday September 08, 2003
WASHINGTON: Congressional leaders may soon address a proposed law that critics say would reduce the U.S. military's obligation to inform soldiers about the health risks of unlicensed biological defense drugs and vaccines they might be required to receive in an emergency.
The provision, contained in the House version of the Project Bioshield Act of 2003, would allow officials to respond to some emergencies by administering drugs to the nation that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The law would require officials to inform potential drug recipients of the drug's potential health risks and to get the recipients'consent to administer the drug, but it would also permit the president and other senior officials to waive these requirements when delivering the drugs to U.S. military personnel.

Commentary:
Since when is a law needed for this? The Dept. of Defense is not providing information to the troops now; it is certainly not providing informed consent; and it is not waiting until an emergency happens to administer investigational, experimental drugs. Is this just window dressing to make the illegal and unethical somehow palatable?
But there is one good thing here: this proposed law makes it absolutely clear to those who may not have faced it yet that the Dept. of Defense considers it perfectly all right to perform medical experiments on our troops.

This War on Terrorism is Bogus commentary follows
by Michael Meacher - The Guardian - Sunday September 07, 2003
The 9/11 attacks gave the US an ideal pretext to use force to secure its global domination Massive attention has now been given - and rightly so - to the reasons why Britain went to war against Iraq. But far too little attention has focused on why the US went to war, and that throws light on British motives too. The conventional explanation is that after the Twin Towers were hit, retaliation against al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan was a natural first step in launching a global war against terrorism. Then, because Saddam Hussein was alleged by the US and UK governments to retain weapons of mass destruction, the war could be extended to Iraq as well. However this theory does not fit all the facts. The truth may be a great deal murkier.

Commentary:
The author of this article, Michael Meacher MP, was the UK's environment minister until June 2003; his extremely well documented observations about the US response to 9/11 and the planned response to the war on terrorism (planned before there was any terrorism) are eye-opening and absolutely critical to understand. Meryl Nass, MD

Serious pneumonia source found in 4 U.S. troops
Associated Press/CNN - Friday September 05, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Army officials investigating a number of serious pneumonia cases among troops in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns say they have discovered what sickened four soldiers. The overall review continues into all the cases -- 19 instances of pneumonia so serious the patients had to be put on ventilators and flown to Europe. Two of the cases were fatal. The Army's surgeon general's office said Thursday that medical teams had determined four of the 19 illnesses were caused by bacteria and that the patients recovered..Officials said there is no evidence the cases were caused by exposure to chemical or biological weapons, environmental toxins or Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)."

Schools to Develop Bioterrorism Vaccines
by Julie Halenar - Associated Press/Washington Post - Friday September 05, 2003
BALTIMORE - The University of Maryland School of Medicine has been chosen to lead a multi-school effort to develop vaccines to protect against bioterrorism, the school announced Thursday. The Middle Atlantic region will receive a five-year, $42 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Besides creating vaccines to guard against anthrax, smallpox and West Nile virus, they will study antibodies that could produce short-term protection..

Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals to Present at Roth Capital Partners Conference
Yahoo/Press Release - Thursday September 04, 2003
...Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a development-stage pharmaceutical company based in San Diego, working to become the world leader in the development of a new class of investigational drugs known as Immune Regulating Hormones (IRHs). The goal of IRH therapy is to direct, through controlling gene expression, the production of key cytokines and enzymes that re-regulate immune and metabolic functions toward homeostasis, a profile that could be useful in a wide variety of diseases. The Company has a number of investigational IRHs under development, including HE2100, which the Company is co-developing with the U.S. military for use in protection from radiation injury and HE2000, which is currently being studied in a number of infectious diseases.

Number of wounded in action on the rise commentary follows
Washington Post - Thursday September 04, 2003
"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."

Commentary:
"Notice the last part."
..."Speaking of mentally (as well as physically) ill--the DMSS database extracts in Appendix G of the IOM report on anthrax vaccine safety and efficacy (March 6, 2002) are striking--they indicate that a number of different emotional problems (including depression, psychosis and adjustment disorders) are much more common following anthrax vaccination. I suspect this is a reflection of the widespread central nervous system dysfunction that so frequently accompanies the other manifestations of illness post-vaccination."
Meryl Nass, MD

Officials Discover Leaking Mustard Gas at Deseret Chemical Depot
Global Security Newswire - Wednesday September 03, 2003
Authorities last week discovered mustard gas leaking from seven projectiles at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah, the Tooele Transcript Bulletin reported (see GSN, Aug. 19). Workers found the leaking munitions Aug. 27, sealed them in larger containers and decontaminated the unit. Another leaking projectile was found two days earlier in the same storage area, according to the Transcript Bulletin. More than a cup of mustard agent leaked from the munitions before the problem was discovered (Tooele Transcript-Bulletin, Sept. 2)."

Dear Mr. President: What Have You Got Against Veterans?
by Gene Collier - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Saturday August 30, 2003
Sunday 24 August 2003 -- At the dining room table of this modest Penn Hills home, Joseph Gluvna has convened the relevant documents with the kind of reflexive precision you acquire from having given 21 years of decorated military service to your country. Principally, it was correspondence he was showing me. Letters to state and federal representatives, to both Pennsylvania senators, and responses from both them and the various bureaucracies to whom a 54-year-old veteran with service-related hearing loss is still somehow required to genuflect. But this is mostly about a five-page handwritten letter to George W. Bush he wrote here Feb. 8. Five pages starting "Dear Mr. President" from a military man with 10 years of active duty and 11 in the reserves to his Commander-in-Chief. Five pages on his grave concerns for those in service now, on the viability of the Iraqi operation, on America's role in global politics, on the difficulties faced by veterans in getting benefits due them, and on a half-dozen other salient points. Five pages that sit on his table and agitate him like little else, mostly because they represent too great an effort.

War chemicals, from Russia with love
by Stephen Blank - Asia Times - Friday August 29, 2003
"It has long been known that during the Soviet era the USSR established and maintained a large-scale and robust program of both biological and chemical warfare. It is equally well known that at the same time as immense exertions were being made to sustain these programs, the Soviet government was a signatory of treaties banning these forms of warfare. Yet nothing happened, and these programs remained opaque to foreign inspectors throughout the Soviet period.. Recently, Moscow claims to have undertaken chemical demilitarization, but that program will take years to complete, if it is ever completed, and will last at least through 2012, provided that foreign funding is made available..Meanwhile, Russia is still refusing to admit foreign inspectors into the country to verify its biological and chemical warfare holdings and the ongoing destruction of these programs according to international agreements and treaties..This obstruction may be what the Russian military - the last great unreformed Soviet bastion inside Russia - wants.. Since virtually anything in the way of weapons can be bought from Russia, Belarus or Ukraine, which often function as surrogates for Russian arms deals that Moscow does not wish to see advertised, the danger of proliferation of these stocks is immense."

Scientists Find Link In Iraq Pneumonia Cases commentary follows
by Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes - Stars and Stripes European Edition - Thursday August 28, 2003
ARLINGTON, Va. Scientists have marked a trend in some patients who have suffered serious bouts with pneumonia recently while deployed to Iraq and the region, but have yet to determine the cause of the illness.
Ten of the 19 cases deemed "serious" have shown a higher than usual number of a white blood cell type called eosinophils.
Eosinophils are commonly produced by the body when fighting any type of infection or when a person suffers from asthma, hay fever or other types of allergies.
"They still don't know the cause, but they've seen a branching among the cases for the first time," said Lyn Kukral, a spokeswoman for the Army's Surgeon General's office. "But the cause in the 10 cases could be the same, or could be 10 different causes. They're still investigating."

Commentary:
Notes from a Michigan veteran:
As I read this, it reminded me of an incident I had after taking the anthrax vaccine. I missed work for 3 days, and ended up in the emergency room. I had spells of getting hot, kick covers off, then freezing, pull covers on, off, on, off, on.... this went on for the 3 days. Not to mention the throwing up everywhere.

1) I never had the flu or pnemonia in the past. (minus flu-like symptoms after taking the flu vaccine).
2) I was never deployed.
3) I didn't have allergies or asthma.
4) Nobody else around me was sick.
5) My white blood cell count was elevated.

According to Grabenstein, vaccines just don't do this to people. Really? Is that why LTC Thompson from Brooks AFB, diagnosed a cluster from Battle Creek who took the vaccine with the "flu"? I'm willing to bet that none of the walking, talking mouthpieces ever saw this one coming. <

My question is, I wonder how many more need to die before an honest assessment is given?

Groups Sue to Block New U.S. Biowarfare Labs
by Andrea Orr - Reuters/Yahoo News - Wednesday August 27, 2003
"Environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to block the construction of biowarfare labs at two national nuclear weapons facilities, saying both units lacked the sound safety records required to handle extremely dangerous materials like anthrax..The facilities are designed to conduct research into various biowarfare agents such as anthrax, plague and botulism. The suits were filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco against the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico..Both groups said they were concerned that the planned facilities would pose numerous safety and security threats including, sabotage, transportation accidents, escaping research animals, as well as leaks during natural disasters. The Department of Energy, which operates both the Lawrence Livermore and the Los Alamos weapons labs, said it has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. However, it said in a statement that environmental assessments had already been conducted on the proposed projects, and had concluded that the effects on the environment would be minor and would therefore not require more extensive environmental impact statements before construction began."

South Africa Approves IAVI Sponsored AIDS Vaccine Candidate for Human Trials
Yahoo/Press release - Monday August 25, 2003
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Aug. 25 /CNW/ -- South Africa's Medicines Control Council (MCC) has given approval for the start of a Phase I human trial of a preventive AIDS vaccine candidate under study by an international research team sponsored by the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

...HIVA.MVA is the second preventive AIDS vaccine candidate that the MCC has cleared for human trials in South Africa. In June, the MCC gave approval for a Phase I trial of AVX101, designed by the US biotechnology firm AlphaVax Inc. The trial will be conducted by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network of the US government's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. A Phase I trial of AVX101 already is underway in the US.

Pentagon Slow in Vaccine Death commentary follows
by Mark Benjamin - UPI - Sunday August 24, 2003
Story originally ran Aug. 18, 2003. The following commentary refers to this story as well as one other mentioned within the commentary.

Commentary:
If this was about the procurement and wear of socks or boots it would be one thing, but it's not:

**'The Army said it is excluding Lacy's death from its investigation because she 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.' See http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030813-041249-8246r.htm.

Comment: Actually, that's THE issue. Vaccines are the common denominator for the deployed and non-depolyed -- just as they were in the first Gulf War.

Also, **'Grabenstein, the military vaccine expert, said vaccines are probably not to blame for the sicknesses. "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."' See http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=20030818-060641-9420r.

Comment: Pharmacist Grabenstein knows, or should, that the illness at issue is likely not pneumonia, per se. The illnesses are most likely autoimmune disorders that manifest themselves with pneumonia-like symptoms. So he may be correct that vaccines do not cause pneumonia. But do they cause BOOP (bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia)? That's the question, with this followup: is Grabenstein trying to intentionally mislead the media, or could there be competency issues involved?

Three military physicians (not pharmacists) analyzed this very anomaly one year ago. In other words - DoD and Grabenstein knew and know, or should have. The article was published in Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Journal CHEST, titled: "Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis Following Anthrax Vaccination -- A case of hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) following anthrax vaccination is described."

DoD Reports Progress in Pneumonia Investigation
Dept. of Defense - Friday August 22, 2003
The Department of Defense announced today progress on the investigation of a number of cases of pneumonia among military members deployed for military operations in Southwest Asia. "From what we have learned so far, it appears there are a series of unusual pneumonia cases that have occurred in Southwest Asia. These cases do not represent an epidemic, and it is not being spread through person-to-person contact. We are making significant progress in eliminating a number of possible causes, such as SARS and vaccines. Our investigatory process is helping to determine if there is a single explanation, or if there are multiple cases," said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. "Understanding the cause is important to prevent future cases."

Military Mute On Vaccine Danger?
CBS Evening News - Thursday August 21, 2003
When Army Reservist Rachael Lacy got her military shots last spring, she became deathly ill in a matter of weeks. The coroner listed "recent smallpox and anthrax vaccination(s)" as contributors to her death.

Yet the military doesn't mention Lacy under "Noteworthy Adverse Events" in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association touting its smallpox vaccine success. It claims no deaths.

Guilford soldier to get Bronze Star posthumously commentary follows
by Mary E. O'Leary - New Haven Register - Thursday August 21, 2003
NEW HAVEN: Army Staff Sgt. Richard S. Eaton Jr. of Guilford will be awarded the Bronze Star for valor, according to military officials. Eaton, 37, was found dead in his bed at a base camp in Ramadi, Iraq, last week, and officials are looking into heat stress and dehydration as the cause of death. Major John Whitford, director of communications for the Connecticut National Guard, said the award is rare and is given to someone who serves with valor in combat.

Commentary:
QUOTE: "The autopsy report is not expected to be finalized for up to two months. The official cause is pulmonary edema, or water in the lungs."

UPI Investigation of malria drug Larium commentary follows
by Mark Benjamin and Dan Olmsted - UPI - Wednesday August 20, 2003
One article's summary:The Army has told Congress that there is "sufficient evidence" to question the use of a controversial malaria drug because of mental problems, but not enough evidence to stop using it on U.S troops, according to a document obtained by United Press International.

Commentary:
There is never enough evidence to stop using unsafe drugs on our troops. They become immediately disconnected from the rest of us the moment they put on a uniform. No longer someone's son, husband, brother, sister, wife or daughter, those who serve our country in the Armed Forces become sub-human pawns to the Dept. of Defense. They are numbers and masses without names; statistics on a sheet of paper that provide information but have stopped becoming human to their "handlers" as well as to the entire chain of command.

It is easier to fight a war when the enemy is not seen as human; it is easier to conduct medical experimentation when those receiving the drugs are not seen as human either. We demand the utmost from our troops as we give them the least.

Tap Broader Expertise To Tackle New Gulf Illness
USA Today - Tuesday August 19, 2003
"...But the military is repeating one mistake from its Gulf War experience. It is limiting the involvement of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC could provide the best comprehensive probe into the pneumonia cases and head off suspicions that the Pentagon is putting troops' health at risk or hiding information."

CombiMatrix Names Colonel, ret., Dr. David L. Danley Director, Homeland Security and Defense Programs
Business Wire press release/Yahoo - Tuesday August 19, 2003
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 19, 2003--Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:CBMX - News; Nasdaq:ACTG - News) announced that Dr. David L. Danley, Colonel (ret.) U.S. Army, has joined CombiMatrix Corporation as its Director, Homeland Security and Defense Programs. Dr. Danley's responsibilities will include all of CombiMatrix's defense related activities, including the joint development of its proprietary products for the detection of biological and chemical warfare agents. Dr. Danley, who retired earlier this month, was Project Manager of the Chemical Biological Medical Systems and Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program for the Department of Defense, where he developed critical new vaccine efforts against smallpox, anthrax, and other deadly agents. His responsibilities included advanced development FDA licensure and fielding of medical products against chemical and biological threat agents and for rapid diagnostic systems. Previously, Dr. Danley served as Commander of the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research, where he started a program to develop and evaluate small, low power sensor technologies for toxic compounds. Dr. Danley also served as the Assistant Program Manager for the Joint Program Office for Biological Defense where he initiated the Department of Defense Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program for the development of biological defense vaccines.

BioSante Pharmaceuticals Reports Superior Results With CAP Vaccines
Yahoo News/Busienss Wire Press Release - Tuesday August 19, 2003
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 19, 2003--BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC BB:BISP) announced today results of several studies demonstrating the superiority of its innovative calcium phosphate nanoparticulate (CAP) vaccine adjuvant and delivery system, BioVant(TM), compared to the only approved adjuvant, aluminum salts (alum). The results were presented at the 6th annual Conference on Vaccine Research in Arlington, Va. The company also recently announced a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army to use the new technology in the development of biodefense vaccines.

Vaccinations probably did not cause pneumonia cases, Army official says
by David Ruppe - Global Security Newswire - Tuesday August 19, 2003
Anthrax vaccinations are not considered to be probable causes of 18 serious pneumonia cases involving U.S. Army personnel that were stationed in Southwest Asia, a senior Army medical official said Monday.

"At this point in the review, vaccinations are considered unlikely to be a factor in this series of cases," Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director of the Army's Military Vaccine Agency, said in an e-mailed statement responding to questions from Global Security Newswire.

Army reports say that since March 1, about 100 military personnel in the region have shown pneumonia-like symptoms, and "more than half in Iraq" have become seriously ill, requiring ventilator support. Two have died.

Airman Dies Weeks After Return to U.S.
Air Force Times, Aug. 18, pg. 5 - Saturday August 16, 2003
An airman who returned home after serving five months in the Middle East died of a RUPTURED SPLEEN, the Air Force said Aug 5..."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."

Vaccine ingredients could trigger autoimmune disease
by Helen Dell - BioMedNet.com - Saturday August 16, 2003
Story ran Aug. 6, 2003: Mineral oils that are common components of vaccines induce the production of pathogenic autoantibodies and an inflammatory immune response when injected into mice, report US researchers. They suggest that these oils could be inducing autoimmunity in susceptible people. The oils are used as adjuvants in vaccines - substances that enhance the immunogenicity of an antigen.

Shays watching U.S. response to troop illness
by Mary E. O'Leary , Register Topics Editor - New Haven Register - Friday August 15, 2003
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays' office, which has conducted hearings into the anthrax vaccine and Gulf War syndrome, is closely monitoring the government's response to the mysterious pneumonia that has affected about 100 military people in the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns.
Army Staff Sgt. Richard S. Eaton, 37, of Guilford, died this week in Iraq of pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs, while serving as a counterintelligence analyst.

Adding the layers: Ronald Blanck Joins Mitretek Systems Board commentary follows
Press release - Thursday August 14, 2003
This announcement is from a Mitretek press release.
The Board of Trustees of Mitretek Systems, Inc., a non-profit research engineering organization, have elected Ronald R. Blanck, former Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command, to serve as a member of the Board.

Commentary:
Retired LTG (Dr.) Ronald Blanck has already been paid as an "expert" by BioPort for a junk-science report advocating use of BioPort's anthrax vaccine for American civilians. Now Blanck is receiving the payoff for repeatedly endorsing the junk-science supplemental testing of BioPort's anthrax vaccine stockpile in 1998-2000.

Mitretek was hired by DoD to oversee BioPort's testing of its own vaccine stockpile. This supplemental testing was directed by DoD after BioPort's predecessor's repeatedly failed FDA inspections. Ultimately, the supplemental testing completely broke down, yet DoD has persisted in the fiction that each lot released for use on servicemembers was "safe" because it was supplementally tested.

Although GAO (Government Accounting Office) stated that post-production testing could not validate a flawed manufacturing process, LTG Blanck repeatedly cited the Mitretek-BioPort supplemental testing as "proof" the anthrax vaccine was safe. Internal Army and DoD documents make clear supplemental testing had no regulatory significance.

Blanck also repeatedly denied long-term serious adverse reactions caused by the vaccine during Congressional testimony and on CBS "60 Minutes." In 2002, the FDA acted to prohibit the use of any further use of anhrax vaccine lots that were subjected to the Mitretek-BioPort supplemental testing.

Now General Blanck will be compensated by Mitretek for aiding its effort to rubber-stamp DoD, forcing adulterated vaccine on servicemembers that should have been considered an experimental product out of compliance with the Food Drug and Cosemtic Act. The Director of Mitretek's board of trustees is a former Secretary of the Army and the Board also includes another former Secretary of the Army, Togo West."

Illness low on list of troops' fears Pentagon: Pneumonia bad but not surprising commentary follows
by Donna Leinwand - USA Today - Thursday August 14, 2003
BAGHDAD -- While relatives at home fret over reports of pneumonia that has sickened dozens of U.S. troops, many soldiers in Iraq say they haven't heard much about the outbreak and have more important worries anyway. ''The heat is what bothers us more than anything. It's like an oven out here,'' Florida National Guard Spc. Charles Miller of Tampa says outside the headquarters of coalition authorities. He calls the guard post here ''hell's kitchen.'' It's not the heat that bothers Spc. Bryan Kienzle. Rather, it's the visibility of U.S. troops standing guard: ''Being shot'' is at the top of his concerns.

Commentary:
The significance of this article is the continued failure of US Army medical corps spokesmen to even mention anthrax or smallpox vaccine as a possible cause...when, based on 1999 Congressional testimony and a 2002 medical journal article, they KNOW a link exists...instead, the illnesses simply 'puzzle and concern' the Army...

Two more soldiers in Mideast fall ill - 2 more pneumonias
AP Health News - Wednesday August 13, 2003
WASHINGTON - Two more soldiers overseas have come down with serious pneumonia, bringing the unexplained cases to 17, the Army said Monday. Officials are investigating the cause of some 100 cases counted since March, focusing on a number of them so serious the patients had to be put on ventilators and flown to Europe.

Thanks for the M.R.E.'s
by Paul Krugman - New York Times - Wednesday August 13, 2003
...One writer reported that in his unit, "each soldier is limited to two 1.5-liter bottles a day," and that inadequate water rations were leading to "heat casualties." An American soldier died of heat stroke on Saturday; are poor supply and living conditions one reason why U.S. troops in Iraq are suffering such a high rate of noncombat deaths?

Coming Home: Disabled Soldier Faces Battle in Seeking Benefits
by Robert Tomsho and Rachel Zimmerman - Wall Street Journal - Wednesday August 13, 2003
Story ran Aug. 12, 2003: BLUFFTON, Ind. -- Jason Stiffler, a high-school dropout, hoped the U.S. Army could help him make something of himself. But two years after enlisting, the 20-year-old veteran of the Afghanistan war struggles just to care for the tiny garden outside his rented trailer home.On a recent afternoon, Mr. Stiffler eased himself from his crutches to weed the flowers, dragging himself on his bottom. Half an hour is usually all he can take. "I still can't feel parts of my legs," says Mr. Stiffler, a gaunt man with dark, buzz-cut hair.Mr. Stiffler was injured while manning an Army watchtower near Kandahar in April 2002: He plunged to the ground, leaving him in a coma for days and without memory of the incident. The Army says it was an accident, although it has never provided the veteran with details.He continues to suffer from partial paralysis, memory loss and episodes of post-traumatic stress disorder. He and his wife have struggled to make ends meet. After missing payments on their car, they lost it in January. Trying to save on heat, they dragged mattresses into the living room of their trailer and slept around a space heater.Since his discharge last October, Mr. Stiffler has relied on payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, to provide for his wife and toddler son. When he argued that he deserved more than the $731 a month he was receiving -- because his disabilities were more serious than doctors originally thought -- he ran up against a vast medical bureaucracy. The wait for final disposition of his disability claim and appeal took seven months, a timetable that the VA concedes would have been even longer if it wasn't prompted to act by inquiries from The Wall Street Journal for this article.Mr. Stiffler's story shows the human toll when critical benefits judgments are delayed, and the confusion veterans and their families often feel when they're forced to confront bureaucracy.

Marine dies after returning from Iraq
Associated Press via CNN - Wednesday August 13, 2003
WEARE, New Hampshire (AP) -- After eight months in Kuwait and Iraq, Marine Master Sgt. Dale Racicot just wanted to see his wife and two daughters. Giddy with excitement, they headed for the airport on Friday in Racicot's cherished "Marine Corps green" pickup truck to start what his daughter, Keri Magnarelli, called "a reunion of a lifetime." Back home three hours later, Racicot collapsed onto his dining room floor, dead of a heart attack at 54.

Dead soldiers' families want outside probe
by Mark Benjamin - UPI - Wednesday August 13, 2003
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The families of two soldiers in Iraq who died after apparently suffering pneumonia-like illnesses are seeking independent analyses of the deaths.

"We as a family are concerned that we are not being told the truth," say the similar Aug. 12 letters to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, facilitated by the National Gulf War Resource Center , a veterans' advocacy group.

Soldier Dies of Embolism in Iraq
by DIANE SCARPONI - Associated Press - Middle East - Wednesday August 13, 2003
GUILFORD, Conn. - An Army counterintelligence analyst who had been assigned to the Pentagon (news - web sites) when it was attacked by terrorists died of an illness while serving in Iraq, his father said Wednesday.

Richard Eaton said military officials notified the family that his son, Staff Sgt. Richard S. Eaton Jr., died in his sleep Tuesday. Maj. Bill Adams, a casualty assistance officer, said the cause of death remains under investigation but is thought to be pulmonary edema ﾗ a buildup of fluid in the lungs.

Poindexter Resigns From Pentagon Projects Group
Associated Press/Fox News - Wednesday August 13, 2003
WASHINGTON: Quitting government service under fire for the second time, John M. Poindexter (search) says he hopes Congress will save the less controversial parts of his much-criticized research project designed to predict terrorist attacks. The more controversial elements Poindexter's project -- developing a futures market on Mideast developments and scanning public and private databases loaded with personal information about innocent Americans -- drew a hail of criticism from privacy advocates and politicians in both parties.

For some, war isn't the end of conflict
by LOLITA C. BALDOR - Associated Press - Tuesday August 12, 2003
WASHINGTON - After Army Sgt. Vannessa Turner survived a still-unknown illness doctors feared would kill her, she thought her toughest battle was over. But since a military flight brought Turner home, she says she's had to fight to get medical treatment and can't even get personal items returned. The homefront, she's finding, can be as daunting as the front lines in Iraq. "It's easier to stay a soldier and be in harm's way than to come home and get care," said Turner, her quiet voice quaking with emotion.

AVANT Immunotherapeutics Announces Plans for Pilot Manufacturing Facility in Massachusetts
Avant Press Release/Business Wire - Tuesday August 12, 2003
AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVAN - News) today announced that it has reached agreement with MassDevelopment for AVANT to occupy and buildout a process development and pilot-manufacturing facility in MassDevelopment's technology center located in Fall River, Massachusetts.

...AVANT will establish this 11,000 square foot process development and pilot manufacturing facility to support the clinical development of its portfolio of bacterial vaccines, including vaccines for biodefense, as well as continue development and product application of its patented thermo-stable preservation technology, VitriLifeﾮ.

Third family seeks answers
by Marsha Paxson - Lake Sun Leader - Tuesday August 12, 2003
The Colunga family of Bellville, Texas received a devastating call Aug. 4. Their son, Spc. Zeferino E. Colunga, 20, stationed in Baghdad, had been diagnosed with acute leukemia and was not expected to live. Then on Aug 6., just as his parents and sister boarded a plane for a Hamburg, Germany hospital they got another call, that he had died of pneumonia. "We just don't understand," Teresa Colunga said of her older brother. "He was so healthy. The Army is trying to blame our family and say that cancer runs in our family but it doesn't. When we asked if they would check to see if what killed him was the pneumonia that is killing other soldiers in Iraq they told us it wasn't. They never said anything else."

Neusche family waiting to know what in Iraq killed their son
by Marsha Paxson - Lake Sun Leader - Camdenton, MO - Sunday August 10, 2003
Story ran Aug. 7, 2003: LAKE OF THE OZARKS - The U.S. Army Surgeon General's office says it expects to be able to tell the families of two dead U.S. soldiers what killed them within 10 days. Spec. Josh Neusche, 20, of Montreal, Mo., died July 12 of organ failure. Sgt. Michael L. Tosto, 24, of Apex, N.C., died June 17. The deadly outbreak, which has sickened more than 100 soldiers in Uzbekistan, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq, began around March 1. Mark Neusche says he isn't sure what to make of news that he may soon know what killed his son.

Father of dead soldier claims Army coverup
by Mark Benjamin - UPI/Washington Times - Thursday August 07, 2003
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.

Army: No unusual factors in pneumonia cases
CNN - Tuesday August 05, 2003
(CNN) -- Two epidemiological teams investigating pneumonia cases among U.S. military personnel in the Persian Gulf region have so far found nothing indicating they were caused by unusual factors, an Army doctor said Tuesday. There have been about 100 cases of pneumonia among military personnel in the area since March 1. Fifteen of those had to be treated with respirators, and two later died.

U.S. investigates pneumonia in troops
Reuters via CNN.com - Saturday August 02, 2003
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Army has dispatched a team of medical experts to Iraq to investigate a spate of serious pneumonia cases among U.S. troops, with two dead and more than 100 sickened, officials said Friday.
Lt. Gen. James Peake, the Army's surgeon general, has sent two doctors and four other experts to Iraq and two more doctors to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where some of the troops were treated after being flown from Iraq, officials said.

Has the Pox Bioshield bill turns pharmaceuticals into bioweapons factories?
by Lynne Born - Z Magazine - Saturday August 02, 2003
The BioShield Bill currently making its way through Congress gives $6 billion of taxpayer money to the major pharmaceutical companies to subsidize the development of drugs and vaccines as "countermeasures" to possible biological and chemical attacks. The bill pays for the warehousing of drugs and vaccines for which the FDA has granted a special exemption from the usual approval process to allow the countermeasures to be fast tracked through FDA approval and used on the public with no human testing at all, an unprecedented step for an industry that is already the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Death of soldier from Missouri will be investigated amid spike in pneumonia cases
Associated Press - Friday August 01, 2003
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Epidemiologists are investigating two unusual deaths from illness among troops in the Middle East to see whether they are related to 10 cases of severe pneumonia, The Springfield News Leader reported.
A Missourian, Spc. Joshua Neusche, 20, of Montreal, Mo., died of an illness July 12. His parents said the disease caused various organs to break down.
..."The doctor said (Josh) got into some type of toxin that began degenerating his muscles," Mark Neusche said Friday.
...The investigation comes at a time of overall concern about pneumonia. DeFraites said there has been a noticeable increase in pneumonia cases among soldiers since the war in Iraq began.

Deceit, danger mark U.S. pursuit of new WMD
by Heather Wokusch - Baltimore Sun - Wednesday July 30, 2003
VIENNA, Austria - Illegal biological and nuclear weapons production is on the rise - in the United States. Ignoring the internationally recognized Biological Weapons Convention, the U.S. Army has patented a grenade capable of delivering biological and chemical agents.

Plan for 'terror market' canceled
Associated Press via CNN - Tuesday July 29, 2003
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon will abandon a plan to establish a futures market to help predict terrorist strikes, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday." "...The little-publicized Pentagon plan envisioned a potential futures trading market in which speculators would wager on the Internet on the likelihood of a future terrorist attack or assassination attempt on a particular leader. A Web site promoting the plan already is available."

FDA Rewrites rulse on Biologics
by Susan Warner - The Independent/Great Britain - Sunday July 27, 2003
In a move designed to speed approval of new biotech products, the US Food & Drug Administration has transferred oversight for many new biotech therapies from its office that reviews biologics to the one that approves traditional drugs. Biotech and pharmaceutical companies had been pushing for the change for years, because it's generally believed that companies can more easily get regulatory clearance from the drug review section of the agency.

U.S. Army awards veterinary college researcher $1 million grant to develop vaccine
by Jeffrey S. Douglas - Press release - Thursday July 24, 2003
Blacksburg, Va. -- A bacteriologist in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine has been awarded a $1.06 million grant from the U.S. Army to develop a vaccine for tularemia. ...The etiologic agent of tularemia is Francisella tularensis, which the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) classifies as a Category A bioterrorism agent.

Pentagon plans draft of medics
by Mark Libbon - Charlotte News Observer/Newshouse News Service - Wednesday July 23, 2003
Article actually dates from March 21, 2003; WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is firming up a plan to draft thousands of doctors, nurses and other health-care specialists in the event of a worst-case crisis. The Selective Service System is dusting off its plan for a "health care personnel delivery system," which has been on the shelf since Congress authorized it in 1987 to cope with military casualties from a large-scale biological or chemical attack.

Mysterious Illness Kills Missouri Soldier
by Eric Eckert - Missouri News-Leader - Wednesday July 23, 2003
Story ran July 16, 2003: ...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.
..."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."

The Pentagon's best kept open secret; low-profile firm heads government science efforts
CNN.com/technology - Monday July 21, 2003
..."Other technology designed by SAIC tells soldiers where they are on the battlefield in relation to ground and air forces. Its 1,500 researchers at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, are trying to cure diseases and develop vaccines against bioterror."

UPI Investigates: The vaccine conflict
by Mark Benjamin - UPI - Sunday July 20, 2003
..."-- Members of the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee get money from vaccine manufacturers. Relationships have included: sharing a vaccine patent; owning stock in a vaccine company; payments for research; getting money to monitor manufacturer vaccine tests; and funding academic departments. -- The CDC is in the vaccine business. Under a 1980 law, the CDC currently has 28 licensing agreements with companies and one university for vaccines or vaccine-related products. It has eight ongoing projects to collaborate on new vaccines."

House OKs bill on bioterrorism
New York Times - Thursday July 17, 2003
Washington -- The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to establish a $5.6 billion fund designed to encourage the development of drugs, vaccines and other defenses against biological, nuclear, radiological or chemical attack.

Cheney under pressure to quit over false war evidence
by Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Marie Woolf - The Independent/Great Britain - Wednesday July 16, 2003
Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President and the administration's most outspoken hawk over Iraq, faced demands for his resignation last night as he was accused of using false evidence to build the case for war. He was accused of using his office to insist that a false claim about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium from Africa to restart its nuclear programme be included in George Bush's State of the Union address - overriding the concerns of the CIA director, George Tenet.

Grassroots Uprising Fights to Protect Rights and Freedoms
by Betsy Barnum - Common Dreams News Center - Wednesday July 16, 2003
In October 2001, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act setting aside many of our individual freedoms for the sake of fighting terrorism. Since then, I've worried about what's happening to democracy. Do we understand the threat USA PATRIOT poses to our civil liberties? Or are we willing to give up our rights and freedoms in return for a promise of safety, and shrug off the danger to democracy from an unaccountable government? I'm not worried anymore.

In '93, Biological Defense Program Was Misguided, Poorly Managed
by Seth Shulman - Special Report to the Center for Public Integrity - Tuesday July 15, 2003
Note: This is a 2001 report, just posted here in 2003. Exerpt: "...Our report reveals a government program that is largely insulated and unaccountable."

Death of Soldier Who Received Multiple Vaccines Investigated
by Deborah Funk - Army Times - Monday July 14, 2003
Federal and Minnesota state health officials are investigating the death of a 22-year-old Army specialist who died weeks after receiving multiple vaccines, including anthrax and smallpox vaccinations. Rachael Lacy of Lynwood, Ill., a nursing student and combat medic with the 452nd Combat Support Hospital at Fort McCoy in Milwaukee, got five different vaccinations March 2 as her unit prepared to deploy to the Persian Gulf. Ten days later, she went to the post clinic with shoulder pain and vomiting and was treated for what health workers thought was a bronchial infection. Over the next three weeks, she was treated at three different civilian facilities, one of which diagnosed her with pneumonia, said Fort McCoy spokeswoman Linda Fournier. Lacy died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on April 4 of lung damage. Dr. Eric Pfeifer, the Minnesota coroner who performed the autopsy, said 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," Pfeifer said in an interview.

Drug giant accused of false claims - vets on Neurontin should read this
MSNBC News - Sunday July 13, 2003
" Franklin says the rules went out the window from the moment he arrived on the job. For instance, he was told not simply to wait for doctors to ask him for his scientific opinions, but to instead target doctors and convince them to prescribe Neurontin, even though he knew that there was no FDA approval for its off-label uses."

Malaria drug warning follows problems
by Mark Benjamin and Dan Olmsted - UPI - Thursday July 10, 2003
WASHINGTON, Jul 10, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The Food and Drug Administration has taken the rare step of ordering that patients are warned directly of serious mental problems and reports of suicide linked to a common anti-malaria drug called Lariam. The move -- which the FDA has ordered only 17 times previously -- follows a decade of increasingly dire warnings about the drug, and a trail of horror stories from people who said they have suffered from side effects from the drug. Lariam hit the news last summer after three Fort Bragg, N.C., soldiers accused of killing their wives after returning from Afghanistan appeared to have taken the drug. Two of the three shot themselves after killing their wives; the third hanged himself in his jail cell in March. A U.S. Army report said the drug was an "unlikely" factor for the cluster of deaths but did not rule it out in any one case.

GOP blocking abolishment of Disabled Veterans Tax
by Joseph L. Galloway - Knight Ridder Newspapers - Wednesday July 09, 2003
WASHINGTON - Its formal title is The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2003. Veterans say it is a long overdue measure to end what they have nicknamed The Disabled Veterans Tax. By either name it is a hot-button issue for 670,000 disabled American military veterans. What the bill would do is redress a century-old injustice - a law that says anyone who retires after a full career of military service and draws retirement pay will have that pay reduced, dollar for dollar, for any payment received from the Veterans Administration for permanent service-connected disability.

Former U.S. Army Surgeon General Ronald Blanck Joins Carrington Laboratories Board of Directors
PR Newswire/Yahoo - Monday July 07, 2003
IRVING, Texas, July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Carrington Laboratories, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARN - News) today announced that Dr. Ronald Ray Blanck, a retired lieutenant general and former Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and commanding general of the Army Medical Command, has been elected to the company's board of directors. Dr. Blanck, 61, who is currently president of the UNT Health Science Center (UNTHSC) in Fort Worth, joins the existing six-member board. He assumed his current position at the UNTHSC shortly after retiring from the Army in July 2000.

Race Is On to Save the First Aids Vaccine - But Does it Even Work?
by Sarah Boseley, Health Editor - Guardian Unlimited (UK) - Tuesday July 01, 2003
What was billed as the first Aids vaccine, with potential to end a global disaster that is killing millions every year, has ended with an ignominious whimper, as a Californian biotech company arranges to pull out of Thailand before the final analysis of its clinical trials involving 2,500 Thai volunteers.

Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Added to Russell 3000 and 2000 Indexes
Business Wire - Tuesday July 01, 2003
"... The Company has a number of investigational IRHs under development, including HE2100, which the Company is co-developing with the U.S. military for use in protection from radiation injury and HE2000, which are currently being studied in a number of infectious diseases. "

Anthrax Vaccine

Back to list

VaxGen wins $80 million U.S. anthrax vaccine contract commentary follows
Reuters - Tuesday September 30, 2003
LOS ANGELES: Vaccine developer VaxGen Inc. Tuesday said it was awarded an $80.3 million contract from the U.S. National Institutes of Health for development of an experimental anthrax vaccine.
The three-year contract could pave the way for a significantly larger contract for a national stockpile of anthrax vaccine, the San Diego-based company said in a statement.

Commentary:
Quote from article: The vaccine's effectiveness will be determined through animal testing instead of large pivotal-stage studies in humans, the company said.

Exposed Workers Blame Cipro for Crippling Effects.
by Patrick Rucker - Westchester County Weekly, NY - Monday September 29, 2003
Story ran Sept. 25, 2003: When an anthrax-laced letter was opened in the Washington office of South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle on Oct. 15, 2001, Capitol Hill staff had good reason to panic. Ten days earlier, Bob Stevens, a 63-year-old photo editor at the supermarket tabloid the Sun, had died from complications relating to inhalation anthrax. "Are you afraid?" the letter taunted. Yes, they were. Nearly three dozen Capitol Hill staff tested positive for anthrax exposure. Spores of the deadly bacterium were found in the mailroom and were feared to have been disseminated throughout the building.
The only prudent thing to do, authorities decided, would be to administer doses of the powerful antibiotic Cipro to those who were in proximity to the infected letter.
Daschle's office adjoined that of Montana Sen. Max Baucus. Baucus staffer John Angell took the drug along with all of his colleagues. Neither Angell, nor anyone else working at the Capitol, contracted inhalation anthrax. The drug seemed to work. But now some are asking, "At what cost?"

CANADIAN FDA's Whistleblower
CNEWS - Canads (Canoe) - Monday September 29, 2003
OTTAWA (CP) -- Shiv Chopra is not your typical Fat City bureaucrat.
He has breached gag orders, fought suspensions and vexed his Health Canada bosses in a self-described quest to protect public safety.
To some, he's a hero. To others, a relentless communications headache who should show the loyalty owed by faithful government workers.
Chopra, a microbiologist and drug evaluator in the federal veterinary drugs bureau, goes before a public service tribunal Tuesday. He's fighting to recoup about $4,000 in salary lost during a five-day suspension in April 2002. He was penalized for publicly criticizing, the previous fall, Health Canada's plans to stockpile antibiotics in case of a bioterrorist attack.
Chopra, 69, dismayed his supervisors by telling reporters that the fear of biological agents such as anthrax was greatly exaggerated. Such organisms cannot spread en masse, he stressed, adding there was no need to horde medicines.
"Stockpiling of antibiotics only looks good for the minister of health to say: 'We're prepared,'" Chopra said at the time. "I think it's just media hype and unnecessarily scaring people."

A daily struggle
by Peter Guinta - St. Augustine Record - Monday September 29, 2003
Tall and healthy B.J. Priester Jr. of St. Augustine once looked forward to a career that brought him to exotic countries as a staff sergeant with the U.S. Air Force.
Stationed at Minot, S.D., he was sent for temporary duty to the Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2001.
But after Sept. 11, U.S. military were all required to be inoculated with the anthrax vaccine or be court-martialed or discharged. After Priester was vaccinated, he said, the Air Force discontinued using that batch of anthrax vaccine. He was sent back to the United States, then volunteered for a transfer to Korea.
He came home in May and, while on the family's motor boat, 'The Survivor,' felt strong pains in his kidney. They didn't go away. 'On May 22, I couldn't stand it, so I went to the hospital,' he said.
Doctors at Flagler Hospital removed a foot of his gangrenous bowel. But that didn't help. His body swelled, he couldn't breathe and his heart rate went up. Again, he went into surgery.
The Priester family believes the anthrax vaccination caused B.J.'s illness. But the law won't let them sue the government, and the maker of the vaccine, Bioport of Lansing, Mich., was released from indemnity by the government long ago.
'You can't refuse the vaccine. They punish people who don't take it. It's fishy that they stopped giving it.' Even Congress thought the Anthrax Vaccination Immunization Program was a bad idea. In February 2000 -- long before Sept. 11 -- the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations found the program 'a well-intentioned but overwrought response to the threat of anthrax as a biological weapon.'.
B.J.'s medical discharge from the Air Force is still pending. Now, he said, he wouldn't allow himself to be immunized with anthrax."

FUAD EL-HIBRI - BIOPORT CORPORATION
Wall Street Journal - Monday September 29, 2003
CEO Interview: quote in part: "TWST: As far as your anthrax vaccine is concerned, is the Department of Defense your only customer at this moment?
Mr. El-Hibri: As far as the anthrax vaccine is concerned, it is the only customer. We did have a sale sometime in the late 1990s to the government of Canada, but other than that, the US government has been our only customer of this product. Our obligation is to fulfill the government's requirements and to replenish their stockpile and to continue to support their immunization program. We have been doing that on time and we are on track. So basically we are in the process of replenishing their stockpile; we are looking to make our vaccine available to the private Sector: primarily to first responders throughout our country and then, ultimately, to the civilian sector at large -- people who are travelers, people who live in metropolitan areas who are concerned about this potential threat.

Anthrax widow sues for $50 million, alleging lax U.S. security commentary follows
by JILL BARTON - Bradenton.com / AP - Thursday September 25, 2003
WEST PALM BEACH (AP) - The widow of the photo editor killed in the nation's first anthrax attack in 2001 sued the federal government on Wednesday, alleging that lax security at an Army lab caused his death. Stevens also filed a state lawsuit in Palm Beach County circuit court against two companies - Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus, Ohio, nonprofit research institute with many U.S. military contracts; and BioPort Corp., a Lansing, Mich., company that manufactures the only FDA-approved anthrax vaccine. ...Maureen Stevens hopes the lawsuit forces the government to take action on its languishing investigation and provides answers to the victims' families, said her attorney, Richard Schuler. ...Schuler said he believed DNA tests on the anthrax found at Stevens' office would prove it was an exact match to the anthrax produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md.

Commentary:
For more information concerning the American Anthrax Attacks see: http://www.avip2001.net/Bioterror.htm

Anthrax, Food Poisons Still No. 1 Threats -Experts commentary follows
by Maggie Fox - Reuters - Thursday September 25, 2003
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anthrax is still the main biological threat facing the United States, and poisons put into the food supply run a very close second, officials said on Thursday. They said the United States remains vulnerable to a range of attacks but is moving to patch many holes. "I still believe that anthrax is the greatest threat agent that we have," said Jerome Hauer, an assistant secretary for Health and Emergency Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "We don't have enough vaccine against anthrax at this time," he told a conference on weapons of mass destruction organized by consulting firm E.J. Krause & Associates. The United States is in the process of vaccinating up to a million troops and health and emergency workers against smallpox, but Hauer said the window of opportunity for treating anthrax victims is smaller than for smallpox.

Commentary:
QUOTE: Safer, more acceptable vaccines are needed against anthrax and smallpox, Hauer said. Better detector systems are also needed.
"The technology will catch up. It's just not there yet," he said.
Web site manager's note: Yeah, we noticed. Those suffering from chronic, debilitating pain, fatigue, and autoimmune illnesses have noticed. Those whose loved ones have died have noticed. Those who have had to pay their own medical bills while waiting two years or more for the VA to process their claims - thus losing jobs, homes, and cars - have noticed. They've also noticed that no military personnel have ever been attacked with anthrax.

Anthrax victim's widow files suits
by Kathy Bushouse and Jon Burstein - South Florida Sun-Sentinel - Thursday September 25, 2003
The widow of inhalation-anthrax victim Bob Stevens filed two lawsuits Wednesday, alleging negligence by either the federal government or by a handful of laboratories that handle the anthrax bacteria that may have led to her husband's death.
Attorneys representing Maureen Stevens filed lawsuits in both state and federal court. The federal lawsuit is against the U.S. government; the state lawsuit is against two companies -- Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus, Ohio, nonprofit research company with numerous U.S. military contracts; and BioPort Corp., a Lansing, Mich., company that manufactures the only FDA-approved anthrax vaccine.

CAN YOU LOSE YOUR HAIR FROM A VACCINE? commentary follows
by Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, PhD - Red Flags Weekly - Sunday September 21, 2003
Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Clarence L. McNamer lost his hair in June of 2000, following two months of receiving his fifth shot of the anthrax vaccine (AV). He received five anthrax shots and a typhoid shot within an eleven and half month period (Table 1). The AV was manufactured by Bioport, Inc., Lansing, Michigan. McNamer is a 51 year-old white male with 31 years of service in the U.S. Air Force Reserves...In addition to hair loss, McNamer suffered from systemic illnesses after receiving his fifth AV shot. These include reduction in his eyesight; insomnia; headaches; involuntarily twitches of the right arm muscle; and memory loss. He was also feeling chronically tired, had hot and cold flashes on his head, and cold flashes on the back of his neck.

Commentary:
Dr. Al-Bayati had substantial success in helping "Butch" McNamer discover and treat the source of his many reactions to the anthrax vaccine. More of McNamer's story, with photos of his hair loss and other symptoms, can be found at http://www.ngwrc.org/anthrax/heroes/ClarenceMcNamer.htm. A link to Dr. Al-Bayati may be found on the healthcare section of this web site.

Anthrax Survivors Find Life a Struggle commentary follows
by Scott Shane - SunSpot.net, Maryland - Thursday September 18, 2003
Two years after the first major bioterrorism attack in U.S. history nearly killed them, most of the inhalation anthrax survivors are still suffering severe physical and psychological aftereffects that have left them unable to work.
"Some days I get up, and after an hour and a half I have to lie back down," says David R. Hose, 61, who was infected on his job at a State Department mail-handling facility.
Before he breathed in the microscopic spores, Hose says in an exhausted voice from his home in Winchester, Va., he was a healthy man who routinely put in 12-hour days handling heavy diplomatic mail pouches. Today, after the anthrax and a near-fatal bout of pneumonia, "I'm on three heart medications. I have asthma. I'm extremely weak."

Commentary:
These symptoms are all to familiar to those who have taken the anthrax vaccine.
But perhaps of no small interest is that "near-fatal bout of pneumonia."
Naahhh...has to be a coincidence to associate anthrax with pneumonia, doesn't it? Doesn't it?

U.S. Postal Service Completes 15-City Test of New Anthrax Detection commentary follows
by Mike Nartker - Global Security Newswire - Tuesday September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Postal Service last month completed a 15-city test of a new anthrax detection system, an agency spokesman told Global Security Newswire today, describing the test as a 'resounding success' (see GSN, July 24). The system works by testing the air surrounding mail-handling equipment for anthrax spores, according to reports. If spores are detected, the system automatically sends an e-mail to designated officials who then will use fire alarms to alert workers.

Commentary:
And we are going to get this to the troops immediately, right? Right?

Search for Iraq Weapons Proves Elusive commentary follows
by JOHN J. LUMPKIN - Washington Post/Associated Press - Saturday September 06, 2003
WASHINGTON - Weapons hunters in Iraq have found what they interpret as evidence of Iraqi preparations to secretly produce chemical and biological weapons, some Pentagon officials say. But as the postwar weapons hunt enters its sixth month, it remains unclear whether they have found - or ever will - any evidence that Iraq had actually made such weapons or whether it simply was prepared to do so.
So far, the Bush administration has not announced anything that would validate the bulk of its prewar assertions about Iraq.

Commentary:
Here is the latest on the Iraqi WMD "threat" used to justify vaccinating nearly 1 million US servicemembers since 1998 with an unsafe anthrax vaccine -- and court-martialing and jailing those who refused. The US Congress --ignoring this failed groupthink debacle driven by geopolitics, money and bureaucratic power -- still allows the Pentagon's anthrax shots to continue and is about to fund the $6B Project BioShield Act to defend against the "threat".
Meanwhile, the post-Sept 11th [American] anthrax killer(s) -- who created the demand for Project BioShield -- remain free, while the US government's (HHS)renowned biodefense guru, Dr. Donald Henderson, is now publicly denouncing the FBI anthrax attack investigation (see link below). Why? Perhaps if the FBI were successful and found a perpetrator tied to the US government, billions in post-9/11 biodefense spending would be at risk. Billions.

Researchers Identify Key Medical Symptoms Differentiating Anthrax
by Mike Nartker - Global Security Newswire - Friday September 05, 2003
WASHINGTON - U.S. researchers have identified key symptoms differentiating infections of inhalational anthrax from influenza and other respiratory conditions. The development could lead to improved screening following a biological weapons attack, according to a study published earlier this week in Annals of Internal Medicine (see GSN, Sept. 3).. The results of the new study have helped Weill Cornell Medical Center develop a new screening protocol for use by physicians to be able to differentiate possible anthrax infections from flu cases in the event of a bioterrorist attack, according to a Cornell University press release..The new protocol could help physicians and health officials to quickly and accurately identify cases of anthrax, which in turn could help preserve scare hospital capacity in the event of a biological terrorism attack, according to Nathaniel Hupert, assistant professor of public health and medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College and lead author of the study.

Firm Negotiates Anthrax Vaccine Rights
by PAUL ELIAS, AP Biotechnology Writer - Yahoo/Associated Press - Thursday September 04, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO - Shares of VaxGen Inc. surged Thursday after the biotechnology company announced it was negotiating to sell rights to its experimental anthrax vaccine in the United Kingdom.
No deal has been made, and the company's vaccine is still years away from gaining regulatory approval.

Anthrax's line of attack questioned commentary follows
Nature Magazine - Wednesday September 03, 2003
US researchers have challenged the accepted wisdom about the way that anthrax strikes. The study is a wake-up call to biodefence researchers, they say. The bugs were generally thought to ooze a toxin that attacks immune-system cells called macrophages, causing them to release a lethal pulse of molecules called cytokines.

Commentary:
"The study is a wake-up call to biodefence researchers..."

New anthrax vaccine being tested - attacks on two fronts
MSNBC News - Tuesday September 02, 2003
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - A new vaccine that launches a two-pronged attack on anthrax - battling both the bacteria itself and the toxin it produces - is undergoing preliminary tests. THE DUAL-ACTING vaccine goes a step beyond the current product that only targets the deadly toxin, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School, who tested it in mice. In another sign of progress, researchers say they now know how to diagnose anthrax quickly and efficiently, an advance that could help doctors better deal with a large-scale attack.

Anthrax Vaccine Undergoes Early Tests commentary follows
by RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer - Associated Press/Yahoo - Monday September 01, 2003
WASHINGTON - A new vaccine that launches a two-pronged attack on anthrax - battling both the bacteria itself and the toxin it produces - is undergoing preliminary tests.
The dual-acting vaccine goes a step beyond the current product that only targets the deadly toxin, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School (news - web sites), who tested it in mice. Their findings are being published this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Interest in anthrax was spurred two years ago when spores of the disease were mailed to news media and legislators.

Commentary:
Pardon us? Two years ago? The Dept. of Defense has been interested in anthrax since the late 1970's, and has been experimenting on its own troops with a vaccine for over 20 years. Those vets who have become ill, and family members of those who have died, have been interested in anthrax and the vaccine for a lot longer than two years. Or is the writer only concerned because it finally affected civilians?

FDA grants fast-track status for anthrax drug commentary follows
by Jane Berg Staff Writer - CIDRAP News - Thursday August 28, 2003
Aug 27, 2003 (CIDRAP News) - A Maryland company says it has received "fast track product" designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for ABthrax, a drug designed to help prevent and treat anthrax. The FDA grants fast-track status to speed the review process for products that address an "unmet medical need." Human Genome Sciences, Inc., announced in a press release that ABthrax has been shown "to be effective in protecting against anthrax in multiple experimental models in animals." Rabbits and monkeys exposed to inhalational anthrax had improved survival after receiving one dose of ABthrax. The findings will be presented in September at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Chicago, a company spokesperson, who requested anonymity, told CIDRAP News.

Commentary:
Dr. Meryl Nass notes that she has been suggesting that the Dept. of Defense develop this product for the past 13 years.

Anthrax 'person of interest' sues Ashcroft, FBI
CNN - Tuesday August 26, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steven Hatfill, the former U.S. Army bioweapons scientist named a "person of interest" in the 2001 anthrax attacks, filed suit Tuesday against Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Justice Department and FBI, saying his constitutional rights were violated.

Hebron soldier returns from war commentary follows
by David Mitchell - Northwest Indiana Times - Sunday August 24, 2003
Story ran Aug. 12, 2003
...Ponscak returned home Saturday -- greeted at Chicago's Midway Airport with a flurry of applause by people he had never met -- seemingly undaunted he has an illness that has left him paralyzed from the knees down.

...Ponscak was airlifted out of Iraq and eventually made it to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The illness, which attacks the peripheral nerves, has no known cause and no treatment. Most sufferers return to normal, but recovery can take an undetermined amount of time. Doctors told him it could take six months to a year for him to recover, but no one knows for certain.

Commentary:
More than one troop has reported coming down with Guillain-Barre Syndrome following vaccination with the anthrax vaccine.

Widow fears Pentagon 'lying' on pneumonia
by Mark Benjamin - UPI - Thursday August 21, 2003
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- 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.

Indian Company Working on New Anthrax Vaccine commentary follows
by By S. SRINIVASAN, Associated Press Writer - Yahoo News/Associated Press - Tuesday August 19, 2003
BANGALORE, India - An Indian company said Tuesday it is conducting trials for an anthrax vaccine that will be safer and cheaper than the vaccine currently used around the world, and which it hopes to begin selling by March 2004.

Commentary:
But here's an interesting quote farther down in the story:
"The old preparation contains traces of toxins which can cause a range of skin conditions, breathing difficulties, fever, nausea and even anorexia."
We wonder who the source is for this information, given the DOD's constant claims that the vaccine is safe.

Malibu filmmaker asserts in documentary that anthrax vaccinations may be killing our military
by By David Wallace/Special to The Malibu Times - The Malibu Times - Saturday August 16, 2003
On Friday, Aug. 15, The New Malibu Theater at Cross Creek Road will begin a weeklong special screening of "Direct Order," an award-winning documentary narrated by Michael Douglas. Produced and directed by Malibu resident Scott Miller, the son of celebrated ski-film maker Warren Miller, the film argues that the original GWS cases were caused by the military's inoculation of service personnel with an unproven anthrax vaccine. For him, as well as producer Tony Eldridge, who plans a feature film on the subject after finishing "The War Magician" (starring Tom Cruise), it's not much of a reach to connect the recent deaths to the anthrax vaccination program, which President Clinton extended to all 2.5 million military personnel in 1999. More than one million shots have been administered since 1991, 300,000 in the last year alone, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Pilot takes anthrax vaccine
by Scott Schonauer - Stars and Stripes European Edition - Monday August 11, 2003
An Air Force pilot who once sought a court-martial so he could confront the military's controversial anthrax vaccine policy has reluctantly taken the shot. Lt. Col. Jay Lacklen said he had concluded that he had no chance of beating the military in court.

..."I had the science to beat them, but if they wouldn't allow it into court, it would do me no good," Lacklen said..."I'd be, essentially, defenseless, despite having an excellent defense."

Discharge sought for soldier refusing vaccine
by William Kates, Associated Press - Boston Globe Online - Saturday August 09, 2003
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.

Army to consider anthrax as cause in pneumonia cases
by Mark Benjamin - UPI/Washington Times - Friday August 08, 2003
The Army will consider whether the anthrax or other vaccines could be causing a cluster of pneumonia cases among soldiers in Iraq and southwestern Asia, an official said yesterday. Col. Robert DeFraites of the Army Surgeon General's Office told United Press International that the Pentagon would look into whether vaccines, among other factors, might have triggered the pneumonia that has killed two soldiers and sickened 100.

Editor talks anthrax vaccine-pneumonia link
World Net Daily - Thursday August 07, 2003
WND news editor Diana Lynne will be a guest on the nationally syndicated radio program "American Breakfast" tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. Eastern time to discuss the possible link between the anthrax vaccine and U.S. soldiers' pneumonia deaths. As WorldNetDaily reported, a government-sponsored study published in May 2002 found the vaccine was the "possible or probable" cause of pneumonia in two soldiers. One of the study's authors is speaking out about the link in light of the current Pentagon probe into about 100 cases of pneumonia among troops in Iraq and throughout the Southwest Asia region that have developed since March. Fifteen of the cases were severe enough to warrant ventilators. Two of those died - one man and one woman - in June and July.

Vaccine link raised in U.S troops' deaths
by MARK BENJAMIN, UPI Investigations Editor - UPI - Wednesday August 06, 2003
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army should look at whether the anthrax vaccine is behind the unexplained cluster of pneumonia cases among soldiers in Iraq, according to the co-author of a government-sponsored study that last year found the vaccine was the "possible or probable" cause of pneumonia in two soldiers.

AF officer repeatedly refuses anthrax shot, but does not get day in court
by Scott Schonauer - Stars and Stripes - Sunday August 03, 2003
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.

Anthrax Treatment May Not Be Sufficient
National Academy of Science/Yahoo - Monday July 28, 2003
WASHINGTON - People exposed to high levels of anthrax may need more than the 60 days of antibiotics currently recommended, researchers say. A team at Johns Hopkins University developed a mathematical analysis of the time needed for anthrax spores to germinate in the lungs and the speed at which they are eliminated by antibiotics

Bush: Get Anthrax Vaccine
by Laurie Garrett - Newsday.com - Monday July 28, 2003
...The anthrax vaccine is not included in the $1.75 billion in scientific research funds to combat bioterrorism that were allocated for 2003 and 2004. Last year, the White House tagged on an additional $250-million request to cover anthrax vaccine development, but Congress allocated only $43 million. The White House told the NIH it had to fulfill the mandate even without designated funding, Fauci said in an interview Friday...

No Vaccine, No Glory, Navy Says
by Mark Arax, Times Staff Writer - Los Angeles Times - Monday July 21, 2003
...""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."

Another Shot in the Arm
by Lawrence Carrel - Business-Smart Money.com/Yahoo - Tuesday July 15, 2003
Vical stock soars with announcement of new vaccine research for West Nile virus; vical already has seen a stock jump from its work on the anthrax vaccine, to wit: "...Back in March, the stock soared 26% to $2.81 in a single session after Vical unveiled plans to begin testing its anthrax vaccine on humans. But that was only the beginning. During the four months since that announcement, Vical's shares have climbed an impressive 139%, far outpacing the 56% rally in the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the 24% rise in the broader S&P 500 index."

Claims US diverting AIDS funding into anthrax vaccine
ABC News Online - Friday July 11, 2003
It has emerged that United States Government funds for research on AIDS and other infectious diseases are being diverted into buying the anthrax vaccine. The BBC reports in the 2003 budget, President George W Bush asked Congress to provide funds for purchasing and evaluating a new anthrax vaccine. Congress declined but the White House has now instructed one of the Government's medical research facilities, the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, to find the funds by cutting back on other projects.

Marine Pilot Jailed for Refusing Vaccine
Associated Press - Friday July 11, 2003
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) -- A Marine helicopter pilot who refused on religious grounds to receive an anthrax vaccination was dismissed from the Corps on Tuesday and ordered to serve seven months in prison. 1st Lt. Erick Enz pleaded guilty during a court-martial to disobeying the order of a superior. He faced a maximum punishment of five years confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and dismissal from service.

Marine booted for refusing vaccine
by Eric Steinkopff - Jacksonville (NC, USA) Daily News - Wednesday July 09, 2003
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.

Anthrax Vaccine Moves into Clinical Trials
by Karen Fleming-Michael - Armed Forces Information Service - Wednesday July 09, 2003
FORT DETRICK, Md., July 9, 2003 - The next-generation anthrax vaccine, based on a decade of work at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, is now moving into not one, but four clinical trials. The group at the institute did the legwork for the current vaccine candidates by singling out which protein in Bacillus anthracis - the bacterium that causes anthrax - signals the body to produce immunity to the disease.

Vaccine deal turnaround
by John Dudley Miller - The Scientist - Friday July 04, 2003
A deal reportedly proposed last week to resolve an ongoing dispute between the Bush Administration and Congress over funding to procure anthrax vaccine appears to have fallen through. A letter sent Wednesday (July 2) from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to a Senate subcommittee outlines a plan that would take money earmarked for other research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to pay for the anthrax vaccine.

Subject of Anthrax Inquiry Tied to Anti-Germ Training
by William J. Broad, David Johnston and Judit - New York Times - Wednesday July 02, 2003
Three years ago, the United States began a secret project to train Special Operations units to detect and disarm mobile germ factories of the sort that Iraq and some other countries were suspected of building, according to administration officials and experts in germ weaponry.

Smallpox Vaccine

Back to list

Anti-viral inhaler may protect against smallpox
by Anthony J. Brown, MD - Reuters Health - Friday September 26, 2003
"NEW YORK - An inhaled form of cidofovir, an anti-viral drug, may provide protection against smallpox, new research suggests. Findings from an animal study indicate that one dose of the drug stays in the lungs for a few days where it can protect against cowpox virus--a virus similar to smallpox -- that is often used in lab tests. Currently, many people would be susceptible to smallpox in the event of a biological attack. Although vaccination can prevent infection with the virus, there is concern that mass immunization programs would be hampered under emergency situations. Therefore, there is a need for other measures that can provide rapid protection against smallpox..Although cidofovir can kill a wide range of viruses, the drug has well-known kidney side effects that can limit its use..However, the authors found that by using inhaled cidofovir rather than an injectable form, lung levels of the drug could be increased and kidney levels greatly decreased. In addition to potentially reducing side effects, this is beneficial because the lung is the usual point of entry for smallpox."

Official: Hub can't handle bioterror attack
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley - Boston Herald - Wednesday September 10, 2003
Boston's top public health official said the capital city doesn't have enough manpower to cope with a bioterrorism attack, as state officials revealed a yearlong smallpox vaccination campaign has been a near-total failure.
...State officials, meanwhile, admitted to lawmakers that they've managed to persuade only 136 front-line health-care workers to be vaccinated against smallpox, despite a yearlong effort that aimed to protect 10,000 nurses and doctors against the deadly disease. Health-care workers balked at the voluntary vaccines, citing concerns over side effects...

Firm Wins Grant to Develop Oral Drug to Prevent Smallpox
by Andrew Pollack - New York Times - Tuesday September 09, 2003
The government is giving $36.1 million to a small biotechnology company to develop a pill that could be used to treat and possibly prevent smallpox infection, providing a possible alternative to a vaccine. There are no drugs approved to treat smallpox once a person has it, so the only countermeasure is vaccination to prevent infection. But the government's effort to vaccinate 500,000 health care workers as a precaution against bioterrorism has bogged down because of concerns over the side effects of the vaccine. The money, in the form of a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is going to Chimerix, a young company in San Diego with only nine employees..So far, the drug, called CMX-001, has been tested only in mice, and not against smallpox itself but against viruses similar to smallpox, said George Painter, chief executive of Chimerix, which was started in 2002. But these early studies suggest that the drug could be effective if given within three days before or after exposure to the virus. That could mean it could be given to people as protection in a smallpox outbreak or attack."

UK firm says has shipped half U.S. smallpox doses
Reuters - Wednesday August 27, 2003
"British drugs firm Acambis, contracted by the United States to supply smallpox vaccine, said on Wednesday it had made and tested all 155 million doses and delivered over half to the U.S. stockpile. Acambis said the remaining vials would be handed over in the coming weeks after discussions with U.S. regulators over labeling. The delay means some revenues expected in the second quarter would now flow through in the third and fourth. Fears of biological attack have persuaded governments to build up stocks of smallpox vaccine to protect the population."

Most people given smallpox vaccine in past probably still immune
Reuters Health - Tuesday August 19, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than 90% of people who received the smallpox vaccine 25 to 75 years ago show substantial immunity against vaccinia, the virus used in the vaccine, according to a report published in the August 17th online issue of Nature Medicine. Moreover, another report in the same issue of the journal describes a candidate vaccine with similar efficacy to that used up until now but with a better safety profile.

Doctor: Pentagon slow in vaccine death
by Mark Benjamin - United Press International - Monday August 18, 2003
..."I do think her illness should be classified as a vaccine adverse event for smallpox vaccination," said Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, an infectious diseases doctor at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis., who was a member of the team that treated Lacy. "If she had been a civilian, the case would almost certainly have been reported as such." ...Lacy's June 3 death certificate says the immediate cause of death was "diffuse alveolar damage," or lung damage. It lists "lymphocytic pericarditis with eosinophils, post vaccination," as an underlying cause -- that means an inflammation of the thin layer of tissue that covers the outer surfaces of the heart. Under "contributing conditions," the certificate lists "lupus-like autoimmune disease (not otherwise specified); recent smallpox and anthrax vaccination."

Effect of Smallpox Vaccine May Be Longer, Study Says
by LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN - New York Times - Sunday August 17, 2003
Scientists at the University of North Carolina have reported additional evidence suggesting that immunity conferred by smallpox vaccine may last longer than had been thought, at least for some people. But they and other researchers cautioned that the findings, from laboratory blood tests, might not apply to people actually exposed to smallpox.

No Need for General U.S. Smallpox Shots
by Maggie Fox - Reuters Health - Wednesday August 13, 2003
But are troops are not of the same value as the civiliam population? "When you take a vaccine or a drug for yourself, you are making a decision that 'I am willing to take the risk'," Strom said.
Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had that opportunity to decide for themselves?? -- editor's note

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the general public should not get the smallpox vaccine now being given to soldiers and front-line health emergency workers in case of a biological attack, experts said on Tuesday. Noting that the vaccine is dangerous and the risk of a smallpox attack is only theoretical, the committee said it does not really matter how many people are vaccinated, as long as the right preparations are in place, the Institute of Medicine (news - web sites) committee said.

Voluntary Smallpox Shots May Not Protect commentary follows
Associated Press/Santa Cruz Sentinel - Wednesday August 13, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leaving smallpox vaccinations up to individual Americans could result in many more deaths in the event of terrorist attack, according to a study. The result could be an increase of between 22 percent and 54 percent in mortality in case of a smallpox attack, according to a mathematical model developed by U.S. and Canadian researchers.

Commentary:
Wish we could get our stories straight here. The smallpox vaccine is highly dangerous; it's not advisable for the general public unless people are part of a controlled research study; it's linked to heart problems; but good golly Miss Molly, let's be sure it's not voluntary. People could die from smallpox - too.

Panel Recommends Against Smallpox Shots
by RANDOLPH E. SCHMID - Newsday.com - Tuesday August 12, 2003
WASHINGTON -- A scientific panel recommended against smallpox vaccinations for the general public Tuesday because of concerns about side effects -- both for those receiving the shots and others in contact with them.

Smallpox vaccine program faltering
Associated Press - Thursday July 24, 2003
WASHINGTON, July 24 The number of health care workers vaccinated against smallpox varies widely across the country, a top federal health official said Thursday, offering the most detailed picture yet of the foundering vaccination program.

Weakened Smallpox Vaccine Is Safer, Research Shows
Reuters Health - Tuesday July 15, 2003
Two weakened versions of the smallpox vaccine seem to work safely and are just as effective as the existing vaccine, considered the most dangerous vaccine in current use, researchers said on Monday.

People Who Should NOT Get the Smallpox Vaccine
Centers for Disease Control - Monday July 07, 2003
Among other conditions, CDC recommends not getting this vaccine if you have a weakened immune system.

Gulf War Syndrome

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Studies: Lou Gehrig's rate higher in Gulf War vets
Associated Press via CNN - Tuesday September 23, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War were at least twice as likely to be diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease as non-Gulf veterans or other people younger than 45, according to two new studies. The findings, reached separately, came almost two years after Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi decided, based on early findings, that the VA would offer health care and other survivor benefits to Gulf War veterans with Lou Gehrig's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. That marked the first time the government acknowledged a scientific link between service in the Gulf and a specific disease.

UPDATE ON H.R.1483 Depleted Uranium Munitions Study Act of 2003
Mycoplasma Registry chat group - Saturday August 02, 2003
Title: To require certain studies regarding the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium munitions, to require the cleanup and mitigation of depleted uranium contamination at sites of depleted uranium munition use and production in the United States, and for other purposes. ￢?ﾢSponsor: Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7] (introduced 3/27/2003) ￢?ﾢCosponsors: 23 ￢?ﾢLatest Major Action: 4/10/2003 Referred to House subcommittee. ￢?ﾢStatus: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Mysterious Diseases Haunt U.S. Troops In Iraq
IslamOnline.net - Friday July 18, 2003
BAGHDAD, July 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) Several mysterious diseases were reported among a number of American troops within the vicinity of Baghdad airport, a military source closely close to NATO unveiled.
U.S. soldiers deployed around Baghdad airport started showing symptoms of mysterious fever, itching, scars and dark brown spots on the skin, the source, who refused to be named, said in statements published Thursday, July 17, by the Saudi Al-Watan newspaper.

Sick Gulf War veterans show pattern of nerve problems
by Deborah Funk - Army Times/National Gulf War Resource Center - Tuesday July 08, 2003
The part of the central nervous system that controls such actions as heart rate, metabolism and pupil dilation does not work properly in some sick veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, researchers now have shown by objective physiological measurements

Gulf War Veterans with MS Start Their Own Group
by Ed Butler - National Gulf War Resource Center - Friday July 04, 2003
I wanted to update everyone as to where MSVETS stands at this point. We are now in the 10th month of this project. We have now identified 73 Gulf War Vets that have been diagnosed with MS and atleast 12 more that (in my opinion) present a clinical picture of MS, but have not been diagnosed with the disorder.

Lawsuits

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(Scottish) Firms accused of helping Saddam
by Simon Willis - BBC - Thursday September 04, 2003
Two Scottish companies have been accused of helping Saddam Hussein to build up Iraq's chemical weapons infrastructure in the run up to the first Gulf War. The accusations are part of a class action lawsuit filed in the United States by 16 former US servicemen who have all developed symptoms of Gulf War illness. Both firms deny any wrongdoing but Gulf War veterans in the UK say they are watching the case with interest because it attempts to explain the mechanism by which so many troops were affected. The American lawsuit names 44 businesses.

Victims From First Gulf War Seek Damages
by LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer - Associated Press/Yahoo - Wednesday August 20, 2003
NEW YORK - Blaming corporations for fueling former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program, victims of the first Gulf War filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking compensation for illnesses affecting more than 100,000 soldiers.

"Anyone with eyes and ears knew Saddam was killing people with poison gas in the 1980s," lawyer Gary B. Pitts said outside federal court. "These companies have to be held accountable or they'll do this same thing in the future with some other tyrant."

News from Great Britian and Australia

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Final agony of RAF volunteer killed by sarin - in Britain
The Observer - Sunday September 28, 2003
Like most 19-year-olds, Alfred Thornhill had never seen anybody die. When the fresh-faced trainee engineer from Salford answered his call for National Service, he thought he could handle anything. Dispatched to the ambulance service, the self-confident teenager arrived for a month-long posting at Porton Down, the Government's top-secret chemical weapons laboratory in Wiltshire..Until today Thornhill - now a 70-year-old pensioner - has never spoken publicly about what he saw. He feared the Ministry of Defence would send him to prison. He has now broken his silence to tell of the day he arrived at Porton Down's gas chamber and saw the convulsing body of 20-year-old Ronald Maddison thrashing around on the floor, spewing substances from his mouth. Thornhill's eyewitness testimony will form a key plank of the reopened inquest into Maddison's death, which is due to be heard in the next few weeks. Maddison, an RAF engineer from County Durham, had been used as a human guinea pig by MoD scientists experimenting on the lethal nerve gas sarin. Like hundreds of others from the armed forces, Maddison had volunteered for the trials, believing he was going to Porton Down to take part in some 'mild' experiments to find a cure for the common cold. Instead, by dropping sarin onto Maddison's skin, they used him to help determine the dosage of the lethal nerve agents

Australian Sailor vows to fight navy over anthrax vaccine
by Murray Mottram - The Age - Wednesday September 03, 2003
An Australian navy sailor sent home for refusing the anthrax vaccine on the way to the Iraq war has resigned over the handling of his complaint of intimidation.
Leading Seaman Lorne Screaton, a 20-year navy veteran from Sydney, will take leave until his discharge next year.
He has vowed to take his complaint to the defence ombudsman and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission unless the navy takes action over what he describes as a campaign of deceit and threats to force sailors to take the vaccine.

MoD IN ANTHRAX BLUNDER commentary follows
by Rupert Hamer - London Daily Mirror - Sunday August 17, 2003
Story ran Aug. 10, 2003:
DEFENCE chiefs put thousands of troops at risk during the first Gulf War - by ignoring safety guidelines on vaccinations. Soldiers were given the anthrax vaccine with other multiple jabs when guidelines warned the injection "should be given alone". Now the Ministry of Defence looks set to admit the blunder - opening the way to massive compensation claims.

Commentary:
The news out of Britain is always so refreshing. They own up to their mistakes, at least to some degree. Gulf War Vets in Britain have won important legal battles. Somehow, the government there seems to listen more than the government here; somehow, those troops and vets have a voice that matters. Perhaps they simply have less hubris there in official circles; perhaps this, perhaps that. Whatever it is, it's impossible not to cheer for the troops and veterans in Britain, who not only are heard when they fight; but who have the choice about taking the anthrax vaccine. Surely it's easier to fight for one's country when it's not necessary to fight one's own government for abuse at the same time.

TROOPS WIN RIGHT FOR GULF WAR SYNDROME TEST
by Rupert Hamer - Sunday Mirror, London - Sunday August 03, 2003
MORE than 25,000 British troops are to have a new medical test which could finally prove that Gulf War Syndrome exists. Their victory comes after scientists developed a way of tracing even minute amounts of depleted uranium (DU) in their bodies. And in a major U-turn which follows a Sunday Mirror campaign for justice the Government has agreed that ALL veterans will be able to have the test.

'Safe' alternative to depleted uranium revealed
by David Hambling - New Scientiest, UK -via Mycoplasma Registery - Saturday August 02, 2003
Controversial anti-tank shells tipped with depleted uranium may be phased out if an alternative material proves its worth. The US Army is expected to award a contract this week for the manufacture of prototype ammunition incorporating a "liquid metal" alloy. The new rounds could be in service within two years. Campaigners have complained for years about the potential health effects of DU - it has been linked to everything from Gulf War syndrome to birth defects. But the health connection is disputed and the military defends its use of DU.

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