By Thomas D. Williams
The Hartford Courant
May 19, 2001
The U.S. Air Force is refusing
to allow a military doctor to resign rather than face a court
martial and a potential five-year prison sentence for refusing to
take the anthrax vaccine, a drug he believes is unsafe,
ineffective and illegal.
In the meantime, about 100
residents of the area around Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi,
Miss., have signed a petition asking that Capt. John Buck be
allowed to resign. The petition, faxed to Republican majority
leader Sen. Trent Lott, asks the senator to intervene with
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or with the acting secretary
of the Air Force.
Lott'spress secretary, Lee
Youngblood, said Friday the senator was on his way to Mississippi
and had not received anything that might have been sent to his
offices Friday. He said he had no idea whether Lott would receive
the message before Monday, when the court martial is slated to
start.
Lott said this week that "Dr.
Buck stood on principle" and it is unfortunate that the Air
Force is prosecuting him.
On Friday, Buck pleaded not guilty
to refusing an order to take the anthrax vaccine. A jury of
military officers will be empaneled to hear evidence regarding
Buck's refusal to be vaccinated. But Thursday, after a three-day
evidentiary hearing, the judge in Buck's court-martial, Lt. Col.
Mark Allred, ruled Buck could not present evidence at his trial
to challenge the safety, effectiveness or legality of the vaccine.
Buck argued the military court
should allow him to introduce evidence of the Pentagon's own
problems administering the vaccine and the conclusions of a
government watchdog agency and a congressional inquiry that said
the vaccine is not proven safe, effective or legal.
Buck's lawyer, Frank Spinner,
introduced in court e-mails among high-ranking Pentagon
supervisors amid a 1999 congressional inquiry of the anthrax
vaccination program which show Department of Defense officials
were having problems answering questions about the legality of
the vaccine.
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th
District, whose subcommittee recommended the vaccinations be
stopped, said the e-mails showed Pentagon officials were exerting
improper pressure on the manufacturer and the federal agency
regulating the vaccine.
In one e-mail, a Pentagon
official discusses how other agency supervisors were urging the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration and BioPort Corp., the manufacturer
of the vaccine, to release lots that had been held up for
scrutiny by the FDA.