Defense Department Defends Anthrax Vaccine Requirement

Reuters

May 17, 2000

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - The Defense Department (DoD) is refusing to budge from its requirement that military personnel submit to a vaccine to protect against anthrax. The move comes in the wake of a demand from nearly three dozen US House members that DoD should scrap the program.

``The vaccine that we currently have is safe,'' insisted Defense Secretary William Cohen at a briefing Wednesday. ``That is the reason why the chairman (of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and myself were the first two in line to receive our six shots. We were not prepared to tell our troops that they should undergo any kind of a vaccination program unless we were willing to do the same,'' Cohen told reporters.

The comments came a day after a bipartisan group of House members wrote to Cohen demanding an immediate halt to what is formally known as the Anthrax Vaccination Immunization Program, or AVIP. ``It is clear the AVIP program, while well intentioned, is a flawed policy that should be immediately stopped and re-examined in light of the growing preponderance of evidence challenging the DoD's position,'' said the letter, whose lead author is Jack Metcalf, R-Wash. The 34 signers of the letter span the ideological spectrum in the House, ranging from Democratic Conference Chairman Martin Frost, D-Texas, to Bob Barr, R-Ga., one of the House managers of President Clinton's impeachment trial.

Among the evidence cited by the letter's signers is the March 30 report from the Institute of Medicine noting a lack of published peer-reviewed literature on the safety of the vaccine, and a policy statement from the American Public Health Association's Governing Council urging that the vaccine program be delayed or the vaccine be made voluntary. The letter also cited a report from the General Accounting Office noting deficiencies found by the FDA in the manufacturing plant where the vaccine is produced.

The House Government Reform Committee has already voted to urge the mandatory vaccine policy be dropped, but so far the Department has not relented.