At odds over anthrax: Some say no to vaccine

MILITARY: Aaron Roblero of Lake Forest is among hundreds of servicemen and women punished for rejecting what they believe is a harmful and untested drug.

May 14, 2000

By Elizabeth Aguilera

The Orange County Register

Aaron Roblero spent 60 days below deck in a hold just above the USS Constellation's engines. It was hot and stuffy. Hard to breathe.

He could have nothing but a Bible. No radio. No textbooks. No jazz CDs.

He left the compartment, where beds are stacked three high, only to eat and work 16-hour days. He completed his regular duties as an aviation maintenance administration man and did extra tasks - scrubbing toilets, moving boxes and cleaning. He was forbidden to leave the ship.

At the end of the 60 days he was fined $700 and restricted to the ship for an additional three months.

His crime: refusing to roll up his shirt sleeve for the mandatory anthrax vaccine.

In 1997, Secretary of Defense William Cohen ordered that all 2.4 million military members be inoculated by 2003 in case of biological warfare. Anthrax is a naturally occurring bacterium usually found in farm animals. If inhaled, the spores almost always cause pneumonia and death.

For Roblero of Lake Forest, it was an order he could not obey. The vaccine, he says, poses a threat to his health.

"Someone got a hold of the pamphlet that comes with the vaccine, and it said things about birth defects, making you sterile and heart problems," he said. "This is a vaccine that uses the dead virus to help fight it; I didn't want that in my body."

Roblero isn't the only one disobeying the order. So far, 351 members of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force have refused out of concern for their health, questions about whether the vaccine works and concerns about its manufacturing quality.

In Orange County, where 227,000 veterans live and more than 1,000 recruits are signed up each year, the issue hits close to home.

So far only those deployed to or possibly going to high-risk areas have been inoculated. The second and third phases of the program are expected to begin before the end of the year, said Army Surgeon General Ronald Blanck.

Since the program began in 1998, the military has lost senior officers and reserve pilots over the issue; 30 percent of those vaccinated developed medical reactions; and the issue has lowered morale, said Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., who is trying to halt the program.

The Department of Defense says the vaccine is safe, producing minor reactions such as swelling and mild fever.

So far, 1.7 million shots have been administered to almost 500,000 service members, Blanck said. The six-shot series is given over 18 months, and annual boosters are required.

The Institute of Medical Health says 215 people reported adverse reactions to the FDA between 1990 and July 1999. Most of the reports describe rash, headache, fever and swelling, but 22 were considered serious and included severe injection-site reaction, onset of inflammatory demyelinating disease, bipolar disorder, aseptic meningitis, lupus and Guillain-Barre syndrome. Ongoing studies in South Korea and at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu show that nearly 40 percent of those vaccinated report symptoms, Jones said.

Independent researchers believe the vaccine developed in 1970 hasn't been tested adequately and is causing serious illnesses, neurological disorders and cancer.

Pathologists who tested sick service members say an illegal ingredient, called squalene, has been added to the vaccine. Squalene, used to enhance the vaccine, causes the autoimmune system to attack itself, said Dr. Pam Asa, who
is studying the effects of the vaccine.

Defense officials say squalene has never been used in the vaccine. Blanck said the department has used the vaccine for medical personnel since the 1960s without major problems.

In his research, Roblero found service members who said they had developed fatigue, rashes, seizures and serious diseases such as lupus after taking the vaccine.

He decided to refuse. Like others who shunned the vaccine, he was punished. A few have been court-martialed. Some were stripped of their rank and docked in pay. Career officers gave up retirement benefits and resigned. Better to have health, they say.

This worries Jones, who has four military bases in his district, where service members get routine vaccinations regularly.

"We have a multitude of men court-martialed because of this issue, and reserve and active-duty pilots who have left over this issue," said Jones, "We don't need to be losing anyone over this issue."

Former Air Force Maj. Sonnie Bates, the highest-ranking military member to refuse, resigned his 14-year post in April after almost facing a court-martial. He refused the vaccine, saying his Dover Air Force Base squadron members developed autoimmune disorders, cysts and thyroid disorders shortly after taking the vaccine.

Blanck says the diseases are not associated with the vaccine.

"At Dover Air Force Base, 50 folks have been extensively reviewed by doctors and there was no commonality of symptoms and therefore it was not connected to the vaccine," Blanck said. "We went through this with vaccines for typhoid and tetanus. Their fear has no basis in rationality."

Bates lost his pension and retirement benefits, was fined $3,200 and was billed $6,000 for time not served and educational costs. He gave up his $72,000 annual salary and a yearly $25,000 bonus.

"It was an easy decision for me because I care about my health," Bates said. "I understand where the (Defense Department) is coming from, but they shouldn't harm the troops in the process."

The reserve unit at Dover lost half its pilots because of the program, Jones said.

The department does not keep statistics on how many reservists refused the vaccine or resigned because of it, said Jim Turner, a spokesman for the Department of Defense.

Roblero, who narrowly escaped a court-martial, just wants to complete the remaining four months of his enlistment and then go to college.

He wasn't always eager to get out. At one point he even considered becoming a commissioned officer.

When Roblero walked into a Mission Viejo Navy recruiting office four years ago, he wanted to weave a safety net for his life. Build a foundation. Leave drugs. Abandon the streets. Go back to school.

The youth had struggled through high school, getting his diploma from an adult education center. He fought an inner battle with drugs and bounced from his mother's Lake Forest home to his father's Riverside residence to his brother's house in El Centro before joining the military.

Six months into his hitch, he became aware of the vaccine.

"When I first heard about the shot I didn't know much," he said. "I was scared."

The first time Roblero refused, he was one of 200 sailors who said no. At the end of the 60-day restriction, he was one of two.

"They were calling me a coward for not taking it," said Roblero, nicknamed Robo by his shipmates.

"But people I know who have taken it have the flu all the time, have blood in their stools, and a friend of mine who took it now has skin cancer."

Jones and Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y., tried last year to halt or make the program voluntary until more studies could be done. Both bills (HR2543, HR2548) are stuck in a committee.

Jones did succeed Wednesday in getting protective measures into the proposed military budget being reviewed by the Armed Services Committee.

The measures include a tracking system for any disciplinary action that has to do with the anthrax vaccine, and establish medical treatment for those who report adverse reaction to the vaccine.

The Defense Department is committed to the program, despite a government reform committee's recommendation to suspend the shots after finding the program to be overly broad and vulnerable to supply shortages and price increases because it uses only one supplier.

The Defense Department is using vaccine that was manufactured before 1997. New vaccine will not be available until BioPort Corp. gets an FDA biological license, Blanck said.

The Lansing, Mich., company, the sole maker of the vaccine, applied last year for the license after an extensive remodeling.

An inspection in November identified 30 critical areas that must be addressed before approval is granted, said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, spokeswoman for BioPort.

So far the United States has given $52 million to BioPort, owned by a group of investors lead by former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe Jr., to help with financial troubles, Jones said.

The second and third phases of the shots, which cost $10 per dose, will not begin until the FDA approves the newly made vaccine, Blanck said.

"If you have a threat that has been verified and you have something to counter the threat that has been well-tested, how could you not use it?" Blanck asked.

For now, those who don't want to take it must refuse, like Roblero and Bates.

"I love my country and I would die for it, but I won't die from a shot," Roblero said. "Nowhere in my contract does it say you must be an experiment."