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Articles : Sci-TechPoisoning U.S. Troops: Anthrax, Lies and Vaccines
The U.S. Defense Department quietly announced on Monday that mandatory anthrax vaccinations would resume for military personnel and civilians deploying to 28 countries across the globe and even for some based in the U.S. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs said, “Time and again (this vaccine) has been looked at by experts, … and each time the conclusion is the vaccine is safe and it is effective.”
Tell that to the family of Jesse Lusian. The 24-year-old Northern Californian died last month “from complications resulting from an anthrax vaccine he received while serving our country as a Merchant Marine on a cargo ship in Diego Garcia, a Navy support facility in the Middle East (sic) [Diego Garcia is an island in the Indian Ocean – ed.].”
And tell it to Senior Airman Tom Colosimo, who suffered from fatigue, headaches and painful cysts after first being vaccinated in February 1998. Colosimo soon lost 50 pounds, had dangerous fainting spells and was diagnosed with anthrax intoxication, yet faced a “retaliatory” military when he tried to get medical care for his increasingly debilitating condition.
Tragic cases such as those of Lusian and Colosimo will become more commonplace when potentially hundreds of thousands of military personnel and civilians are soon forced to take the anthrax vaccine. There’s no excuse.
It’s worth noting that mandatory vaccination is a bipartisan outrage, first initiated by the Clinton administration in 1997; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) didn’t even rule the vaccine to be safe and effective until December 2003. In October 2004, a court order ended mandatory vaccinations for active-duty personnel, but under the policy adopted this week, affected servicemembers will be forced to begin the anthrax inoculation series in the next few months. Merry Christmas U.S. troops.
The DoD’s handling of the anthrax vaccine has been atrocious. As The Daily Press reported in December 2005, “The Pentagon never told Congress about more than 20,000 hospitalizations involving troops who’d taken the anthrax vaccine, despite repeated promises that such cases would be publicly disclosed.” Instead, from 1998 through 2000, “a parade of generals and Defense Department officials told Congress and the public that fewer than 100 people were hospitalized or became seriously ill after receiving the shot.”
Even worse, there’s been no long-term study of the health impact of anthrax inoculations, and quite conveniently, the quarterly analysis of medical care data for vaccinated servicemembers was ended in 2002. Hard to fault the anthrax vaccine for your physical breakdown when pertinent medical records aren’t available.
The vaccine scandal is yet another case of well-connected companies cashing in on non-competitive governmental contracts. The firm responsible for producing the military’s anthrax vaccine, for example, has continued to receive hundreds of millions of Pentagon dollars despite being racked with mismanagement and production problems. BioPort Corp didn’t even have FDA approval for its vaccine plant from 1998-2002, but continued pumping out unusable batches at taxpayer expense regardless. Similarly, VaxGen, the company contracted to produce 75 million doses of anthrax vaccine for civilian use in case of a domestic bioterrorism attack, has faced serious accounting problems and FDA accusations of making “false or misleading statements” about its vaccine’s benefits.
Of course, the DoD has also made false and misleading statements by calling the anthrax vaccine “safe,” but that’s another story.
Service members appropriately point to lack of anthrax risk as further justification for refusing the vaccine. Airman Jessica Horjus, for example, ended her military career in 2004 with a less-than-honorable discharge rather than being inoculated. She wrote the appellate authority at her Air Force base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, “There is no evidence that stockpiles of anthrax exist in Iraq or with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere. As a single mother, I cannot afford to unnecessarily risk my long-term health on a highly-reactive vaccine that supposedly protects against a threat that cannot be found.” Horjus noted, “I have a kid to take care of. The Air Force can always fill my slot with someone else, but who’s gonna fill the mommy slot??”
What a shameful irony that hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops told they’re fighting for freedom could soon face court martial for refusing to take a vaccine which has led to disabilities, chronic illnesses and even death in others.
Would you take it?
Action Ideas:
1. To learn more about the anthrax vaccine, read The Daily Press’ amazing 16-part series entitled Special Report: Anthrax Puzzle.
GulfWarVets.com also offers a comprehensive archive of related articles, while The Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project provides news reports and other resources.
2. Active-duty troops and veterans can find support at The Military Vaccine Resource Directory, which covers such topics as “If You Are Refusing A Direct Order To Take A Vaccine” and “If You Are Sick.”
GNN contributor Heather Wokusch is the author of The Progressives’ Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now and can be reached at www.heatherwokusch.com.
Posted by anthony
Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc,...
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Talk about instant karma.
Diego Garcia, a Navy Support Facility in the Middle East
The Middle East? I would hardly call the Indian Ocean the Middle East!
It’s part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a British overseas territory.
The US lease of Diego Garcia is set to expire in 2016, although both US and UK governments have the option of extending the lease for another 20 years if considered necessary.
Beyond this date, it appears from statements made by Mauritius to the United Nations Human Rights Committee that the United Kingdom has undertaken to cede the islands to Mauritius once they are no longer required by the United States.
Diego Garcia is a part of the Chagos Archipelago which is a member of the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty, but both the US and the UK deny that Diego Garcia falls under that treaty. (Which in turn could mean there are nukes on the island!)
Here’s an excellent artilce: Diego Garcia: Paradise Cleansed by John Pilger
Sorry, I’m a islomaniac and I can’t let this geographical blunder go by without attempting to set the record straight…
Anthony, why don’t you leave stories about the welfare of our heroes to people who care about our troops. You should stick to your favorite issues.
What writing about these issues do is it creates the false impression that you are just trying to villifiy the Administration for its own sake.
Diego Garcia, a Navy support facility in the Middle East (sic) [Diego Garcia is an island in the Indian Ocean – ed.]
haha, nice one Anthony!
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
1) Oct 16, 2006 — DoD announces resumption of mandatory anthrax vaccine shots
DR. William WINKENWERDER (Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs bio): ...There is no elevated threat situation, nor are there new specific circumstances that have given us reason to make this change and update in our policy.”...
DR. WINKENWERDER: ...I have not been vaccinated because I’m not in any of the targeted groups to be vaccinated. If I was, I would receive it — the vaccine without hesitation.
Just because the attacks were perpetrated here on U.S. soil does not mean that they were perpetrated by U.S. citizens. And I think the FBI has recently spoken to that issue, that they have under consideration the possibility of threat — of this — (inaudible) — been perpetrated by anyone, domestic or foreign. So —
Q Dr. Winkenwerder, if terrorists are a threat concern for this sort of attack, then why not have all DOD personnel, not just the ones in these specific areas? Why not vaccinate all DOD personnel?
DR. WINKENWERDER: Because in our judgment, the persons that we are now vaccinating are the persons who are at highest risk. (Technical difficulty.) I’m sorry. Have we just been interrupted again?
*
2) Oct 17, 2006 — Pres Bush uses Al Qaeda interest in weaponized anthrax during a speech:
“...The CIA program helped us uncover key operatives in al Qaeda’s biological weapons program, including a cell developing anthrax to be used in terrorist attacks.” *
3) Mar 25, 2002 — former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers grudgingly acknowledged that Al Qaeda had zero capability to produce anthrax.
transcript
EXCERPT — DoD press briefing, Mar 25, 2002:
Q: Over the weekend it was reported also that the U.S. military discovered what appeared to be the makings of an anthrax laboratory near Kandahar. Could you tell us, General, exactly what was found at this site? Was it just the equipment? Were there precursor chemicals? Was there any actual anthrax discovered so far in the exploitation of any of these sites in Afghanistan?
Myers: There was a lab in Kandahar where we did find some equipment that was indicative of perhaps manufacturing anthrax. Not all the equipment you would need was there, but there was some of the equipment. Looked like some of it had been tried to have been destroyed. There was no — at least right now, there were no large quantities of anthrax you could see. They’ll do the usual swabs and bring those back for analysis. And — so that’s what we found.
Q: Well, in any of these sites and I understand there were 60 that were exploited so far — has there been any evidence that any actual biological weapons were produced?
Myers: There have been — in the sites we have exploited so far, I think on five or six cases, some of the swabs that we took have turned out positive for anthrax and, I think, ricin. But the caveat to that is that there’s such minute amounts, that the anthrax could be naturally occurring, and the ricin could be there because of the castor bean. It could be that. And so, no, no conclusive proof of active agents.
Rumsfeld: But a great deal of evidence of a desire to have —
Myers: The intent is there to —
Q: Any idea where those five sites were that you just mentioned?
Myers: Oh, I think we know exactly where they were. (Laughter.) Are you asking, Mick? (Laughter.)
Q: I am.
Myers: We’ll have to check on that. I mean, if it’s releasable, we’ll certainly release it.
Q: Can I just follow up quickly? The equipment found, is that clearly to make anthrax or chemical/biological weapons, or was it possibly dual-use equipment?
Myers: Well, every — I mean —
Rumsfeld: Most equipment like that is dual use.
Myers: Dual use.
Rumsfeld: But there is no — we have so much evidence in writing of the desire to develop capabilities, chemical and biological capabilities, that the fact that it’s dual use is saying a pistol’s dual use; it can shoot at a target or it can shoot at a person.
Q: Well, was it clear from what you found that it was clearly for chemical —
Myers: Not only what we found there, but what led us to that particular site and how all that came together, it came together that that was a site they were using, from a good source, and so we went and we found what we found.
And somebody asked if there were agents. There were — there were no precursor chemicals either found, but there was equipment found.
Q: Can you talk about the type of equipment? Would it be things like fermenters or dryers or —
Myers: There was a dryer. There was an autoclave. There’s some other — and that’s the one I saw. There probably are others, and I just don’t know that, but not — like I said, not all the equipment you would need was present.
Yes?
Q: So it looked to you like an attempt to set it up, and they’d not gotten there yet, as far as —
Myers: I can’t — I’m just not that smart. I can’t tell you.
Oh. Joy. I managed to miss that the first time around. I’mma go hide, if you need me I’ll be under the table…
Any way to follow the ties to BioPort and this administration? Who has invested in stock… ect. Or do they just contribute heavily to both parties?
What writing about these issues do is it creates the false impression that you are just trying to villifiy the Administration for its own sake.
It’s really, really hard not to.
I wouldn’t‘ve even conceived of an idea so stupid as an anthrax vaccine before reading this. I always assumed U.S. soldiers were outfitted with NBC protection of some kind. Then again maybe I’ve watched too many war movies.
As I recall, a vaccine at the fundamental level is simply a small dosage of the microorganism, small enough to not cause undue harm as a normal infection, but small enough to allow the body to build up antibodies against it. A modicum of protection, better than nothing but not far above. I’m no biologist, but anthrax? The only successful vaccination against anthrax was with sheep. I figure it’s a little too lethal for a vaccination to be useful against the amount which would be utilized in a terrorist attack.
“There is no evidence that stockpiles of anthrax exist in Iraq or with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere. As a single mother, I cannot afford to unnecessarily risk my long-term health on a highly-reactive vaccine that supposedly protects against a threat that cannot be found.” Horjus noted, “I have a kid to take care of. The Air Force can always fill my slot with someone else, but who’s gonna fill the mommy slot?”
I found that indicative. I wonder how many will resign or be discharged over this.
And one of these days, I’ll figure out the question marks…oh how they haunt me so…
Darn, so much for that
“As I recall, a vaccine at the fundamental level is simply a small dosage of the microorganism“
A vaccine can also be inactivated (killed) cells, or segments of the outer proteins or polysaccharides found on the pathogen. As long as it signals the creation of antibodies in the host organism (us).
In the case of the anthrax vaccine, it consists of a ‘cell-free filtrate’ of Bacillus anthracis (or at least it’s supposed to be cell free, but the process is not 100%). However, the primary problem with the vaccine lies in the inability to remove the subunits of the two exotoxins produced by B. anthracis. This has been shown to lead to “ local necrosis and extensive edema.”
Mmm…. necrosis. Thanks, U.S. Army, yer the best!
btw zephid, if you need to, you can edit a post in the forum (follow the ‘view full thread’ link, bottom and modify your post). If you want to fix the above markup, put the double quotations right after the word ‘slot’ and leave a space before the ?”
e.g., ...slot?? ?”
This article from rense is a helpful piece that explains an important motive for this move…ownership and profits. Could be a good launchpad for a more thorough investigation.
http://www.rense.com/general15/3wwho.htm
“Anthony, why don’t you leave stories about the welfare of our heroes to people who care about our troops. You should stick to your favorite issues.
What writing about these issues do is it creates the false impression that you are just trying to villifiy the Administration for its own sake.”
Oh, just noticed that. Hey nubbin, I have to take this shot, you don’t. Shut the fuck up.
Pull up the sleeves of the JCS first.