Lawsuit Filed Over Vaccine

By Thomas D. Williams

The Hartford Courant

May 03, 2001

A U.S. Air Force pilot forced out of the military for refusing to take the anthrax vaccination and an Air Force doctor being court-martialed for the same reason filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington Wednesday seeking to halt the mandatory program.

Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who recently asked the Pentagon and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop requiring the vaccinations, said he is pleased by with the lawsuit.

"I welcome this and respect their courage in taking this next step, which hopefully will raise these issues to a higher level of awareness both within the military and among the public," he said.

Blumenthal has said he believes the vaccine has never been properly licensed for its present use.

Mike Milord, a Pentagon spokesman, said only: "We are aware of it [the lawsuit] and have yet to see it."

The legal action was brought on behalf of former Air Force Major Sonnie Bates, 36, a pilot last stationed in Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Del., and Capt. John Buck, 32, an emergency-room doctor at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.

Bates was forced out of the military in March 2000 and ordered to pay the Air Force $6,000 in pay and expenses because he refused the drug. The penalty was worked out just before Bates was slated to go on trial for disobeying an order to take the drug. Buck is slated to go on trial in a military court at his base this month for the same reason.

Bates said he and Buck decided to challenge the vaccine together because their situations "are so high profile" in attracting the attention of the military community and the press while fighting what they believe is an illegal, unsafe and ineffective drug.

"I can't help but be hopeful after such a long look at all the documents and my faith of the truth going into this case. I can't help think that a judge will call this drug investigational.'' He said he believed the military court trying Buck will now have to look over its shoulder at the federal court deciding upon the legality of the vaccine.

But Buck said he hopes the case will be resolved in military court. "I still have this hope - and I may be na•ve - a hope in the back of my mind and in my heart that this will be addressed in the military system. Because we don't want to have 50 or 60 court martials and then the federal court steps in and says they are wrong."

Since it became mandatory in 1998, the inoculation of some 508,700 service people has resulted in more than 1,530 official reports of adverse reactions of varying severity, everything from swollen arms and minor rashes to long-term autoimmune disorders. Many opponents of the program believe thousands of more service people do not report adverse reactions for fear of losing their military jobs.

In the meantime, thousands of persons have left the military, thousands have reported illnesses from the vaccine and hundreds have been disciplined for refusing it. The vaccine's manufacturers have been the recipients of four extremely critical federal inspections, some critics say any one of which should have closed the operation down.

The mandatory program was ordered by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen who claimed just a small bag-full of anthrax bacteria spores could kill hundreds of thousands of service members if fired by terrorists or enemy nations.

But as a Republican U.S. Senator from Maine, his Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1989 learned from an inquiry into the vaccine that the Pentagon then considered it unsafe, ineffective and inappropriate for the mass immunization of troops. Documents from that inquiry were filed along with Bates' and Buck's federal lawsuit. The Pentagon, backed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has since said tests of monkeys show the vaccine is indeed safe and effective.

Source:

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