Officers Challenge
Anthrax Program
By Randall Chase
Associated Press
Writer
May
2, 2001
DOVER, Del. -- Two Air Force officers disciplined for refusing to
take the military's anthrax vaccine filed a federal lawsuit
Wednesday, claiming the drug is experimental and can't be
administered without a soldier's consent.
Former Maj. Sonnie Bates was forced to end his 14-year career
last year and Capt. John Buck, an Air Force doctor in
Mississippi, faces a court-martial.
If the lawsuit is successful, hundreds of soldiers discharged
from the military or disciplined for refusing the vaccine could
have their records cleared, the plaintiffs' lawyer said Wednesday.
The plaintiffs claim the vaccine has never been approved by
the Food and Drug Administration for mass inoculations to protect
against airborne anthrax. Those inoculations began during the
Gulf War.
They also claim the vaccine is being administered incorrectly
because there is a shortage of it. Defendants in the lawsuit,
filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, are the Department of
Defense, the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services and
vaccine manufacturer BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich.
Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said the FDA wrote to Rep. Dan
Burton, R-Ind., in 1999 that the military's use of the vaccine
was "not inconsistent" with its labeling. "The
vaccine is an approved vaccine that provides protection against a
very real and deadly threat that our troops face on a daily
basis," Turner said. "It's safe...and it has a record
of 30 years."
But Lou Michels, an attorney representing Bates and Buck, said
the FDA letter does not amount to approval by the agency.
Anthrax vaccinations became mandatory for all 2.4 million
soldiers in 1998, but the program has stalled because of
production problems at BioPort.
About 500,000 military personnel have received at least one dose
of the six-shot series. Inoculations will restart early next year
if the federal government approves BioPort's production process.
Buck will be arraigned May 14 at Keesler Air Force Base on a
charge of disobeying a lawful order. If convicted, he faces up to
five years in prison.
"I
feel strongly that it compromises the practice of medicine to
achieve military objectives," Buck, an emergency room
doctor, said of the vaccination program. Bates - believed to be
the highest-ranking Air Force officer to refuse the vaccine - is
seeking back pay, compensation for lost promotion opportunities
and reinstatement.
"I shouldn't have to give up a career to point out a safety
issue, and it's a valid safety issue," said Bates, who lives
near Dover.
© Copyright
2001 The Associated Press