Lawmakers hit military on anthrax vaccination

By Michael Kilian

Chicago Tribune

May 31, 2000

WASHINGTONThe dispute between members of Congress and the Pentagon over involuntary anthrax inoculations escalated Wednesday as lawmakers accused the military of ignoring potential health hazards and demanded that the vaccines be stopped.

On Thursday, lawyers for an Army enlisted woman, Pfc. Jemekia Barber of Ft.Carson, Colo., were expected to ask the federal courts for an injunction against the mandatory injections on the grounds that they would threaten any future pregnancy and would represent an unconstitutional denial of her rights.It will be the first time the anthrax vaccination issue will be tested in civilian courts.

Led by Reps. Jack Metcalf (R-Wash.), Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and John Conyers Jr.(D-Mich.), the bipartisan group of 35 lawmakers asked Defense Secretary William Cohen on May 16 for a suspension of the anthrax inoculations until the safety of the vaccine could be determined.

In a new letter sent to Cohen on Wednesday, the members of Congress ask that the program be halted and that the military make the shots voluntary. Britain and other NATO allies have voluntary inoculation programs, they said. Cohen has ordered all 2.4 million active duty and reserve uniformed military personnel to undergo the 18-month, six-shot inoculations to protect them against possible attack from terrorists or rogue nations using anthrax-spore biological weapons. Without this immunization, a single inhalation of the germs would prove fatal, Cohen contends. Refusal to take the shots is being treated as insubordination, with penalties including imprisonment, loss of pay and discharge from the military. To date, about 570,000 military personnel have had at least one of the shots. More than 700 have complained of significant side effects and 300 or more have refused to take them.

The military acknowledged that as many as one-third of those vaccinated likely will have some side effects but has insisted they are largely minor and pose no threat to long-term health.

In Wednesday's letter, the 35 lawmakers charged that the Pentagon freely quoted from an American Public Health Association analysis to defend the vaccinations, while ignoring the association's request for caution. In the analysis, the association urged the Defense Department to "delay any further immunization against anthrax using the current vaccine, or at least make such immunization voluntary, until a panel of public health experts reviews the evidence for the safety and effectiveness of this vaccine."

"You must no longer dismiss the preponderance of evidence which demonstrates significant problems with the current vaccine and its impact on morale, retention and recruitment," the lawmakers wrote. A spokeswoman for Cohen said Wednesday's letter "will be looked at carefully."

In a reply to the lawmakers' May 16 request, Acting Undersecretary of Defense Charles Cragin said halting the vaccinations would "place thousands of these fine men and women in a vulnerable position. ... " Cragin asserted that the American Public Health Association's communicable disease control manual does call for the use of vaccine to immunize "high risk" individuals against anthrax.

He conceded, however, that women are more likely to suffer side effects than men, citing three studies. One showed 4 percent to 7 percent of women so affected compared to 2 percent to 4 percent of men. The ratio in another survey was 4 percent to 14 percent for women compared to 2 percent to 5 percent for men. Yet anotherconducted by a military hospital in South Korea showed 72 percent to 74 percent of women suffering side effects from the vaccine compared to 42 percent to 44 percent of men, according to Cragin's statement.

In a statement accompanying her legal brief, Pfc. Barber said she is a 26-year-old African-American woman married to a soldier also stationed at Ft. Carson and that the two "have plans to start a family in the very near future." Barber cited warnings on the anthrax vaccine product labels that the injections could be hazardous to "the female reproductive system and fertility."

"Thus far, I have refused to submit to the ... injections because my own research has led me to believe that submitting ... will lead to irreversible health problems or other serious adverse consequences," she said.