By Reni Winter
The Sun Herald (Biloxi,
MS)
May 16, 2001
KEESLER
AFB -- A 1999 e-mail exchange between defense officials in
Washington highlights oversights in military anthrax vaccine use
and raises questions about the relationship between the
Department of Defense and the Food and Drug Administration, a
lawyer for Air Force physician John Buck said Tuesday.
Lead
defense attorney Frank Spinner offered that e-mail, and about 30
other defense documents, to support the testimony of Dr. Meryl
Nass during the second day of pretrial presentations in the court-martial
of Capt. Buck, an emergency room physician at Keesler Medical
Center.
Buck
is charged with refusing a lawful order to receive a series of
vaccinations against anthrax, a deadly bacteria that Defense
Department officials believe could be used in germ warfare.
Spinner said Buck will plead innocent to the charge if the case
continues to trial.
Spinner
spent the day Tuesday trying to convince Lt. Col. Mark Allred,
the judge who is hearing Buck's case, that the mandatory anthrax
vaccination program breaks numerous laws regarding the use of
experimental drugs and proper drug licensing and testing.
If
Allred rules the order was not lawful, the case will be over,
with Buck the victor, although defense attorneys expect the
government to appeal if that is the outcome.
While
questioning Nass, Skinner presented the e-mail as evidence
against the Defense Department and FDA and their relationship to
BioPort, the only company licensed to produce anthrax vaccine in
the United States.
"I
believe we are digging ourselves a hole that will be too
difficult to crawl out of," Brig. Gen. Eddie Cain wrote to
Col. John Wade regarding the anthrax vaccine. "If we provide
any more oversight, BioPort could technically be called a (government-owned
contractor-operated manufacturer). And if you think Congressman
Shays was critical of the current relationship between FDA &
DoD, wait until he finds out that DoD is calling all the shots on-sight."
Rep.
Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of a congressional
subcommittee on national security, veterans affairs and
international relations, said Tuesday the anthrax vaccination
program is heading toward almost certain collapse. He accuses the
Defense Department and FDA of "coddling the vaccine maker,
BioPort. We've known for some time DOD was propping up a company
and a vaccine that would otherwise never survive normal scrutiny
by the FDA or the commercial marketplace."
Allred
denied a request by his defense lawyer to call expert witness
Kwai Chan. Allred did, however, listen all day to testimony
by Nass, a Freeport, Maine, internist and self-taught anthrax
expert. She said standard FDA procedures were not followed in
licensing of the anthrax vaccine used by the military and that
scientific data-collection procedures were not followed in tests
the government asserts were done on the vaccine.
The
Defense Department's Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program Agency,
however, claims that 13 human studies have adequately assessed
the safety of the anthrax vaccination.
Today,
the defense team will continue to question Nass and discuss more
of the 50 documents introduced Monday. The prosecution is also
likely to question Nass today.
Reni Winter can be
reached at 896-0538 or at rbwinter@sunherald.com