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Stars and Stripes: Opposition Growing in
Congress Against Pentagon Anthrax Vaccine
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Opposition Growing in Congress Against Pentagon Anthrax Vaccine
May 22, 2000
Ed Offley
Stars and Stripes Washington Bureau Chief
After months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, an intense and angry debate has erupted between the Defense Department and congressional opponents over the Pentagon’s ongoing plan to immunize all military personnel with a controversial anthrax vaccine.
Thirty-five members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen on Tuesday (5/16) calling for “an immediate halt” to the Department of Defense Anthrax Vaccination Immunization Program until an improved vaccine can be developed. The signers included three powerful senior congressmen: Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
The letter was organized by Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., who has challenged the Pentagon anthrax vaccine program for the past two years.
The Pentagon wants to immunize all active-duty and reserve military personnel with the six-shot vaccination regime by 2004, and has already treated 570,000 personnel since the program began in 1998.
The letter cited reports by the House Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations; the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Effects Associated With Exposures During the Gulf War, and the General Accounting Office that call into question the overall safety and health effects of the current anthrax vaccine being administered to the troops.
“The following developments in recent months confirm our concerns regarding this program and its impact on the health and morale of our military service members,” the congressional letter stated, referring to a Feb. 17 subcommittee report that recommended a suspension of the plan. “It is clear the AVIP program, while well-intentioned, is a flawed policy that should immediately be stopped and re-examined in light of the growing preponderance of evidence challenging the DoD’s position.”
Complaints from service personnel reporting adverse reactions have included fevers, muscle pain and dizziness. Several dozen service members have been discharged from the military for refusing orders to take the vaccine.
The Defense Department struck back the same day(5/16) with a letter from Acting Undersecretary of Defense Charles L. Cragin, who argued that detailed studies since 1970 have confirmed the overall safety of the anthrax vaccine. The controversy over the vaccine, Cragin said, has been fueled by “a lot of erroneous data?presented by individuals and groups opposed to the Department’s inoculation program.”
“I know that sensational stories have been told about anthrax reactions, the overwhelming majority of which are not true,” Cragin added.
“To suspend the program would place thousands of these fine men and women in a vulnerable position where they would go to work every day in areas of the world where potential adversaries have the ability to deliver deadly weaponized aerosolized anthrax at any moment,” Cragin said. “By the time an attack occurred it would most likely be too late.”
The congressional foes do not challenge the threat but insist that military personnel are being put in an impossible situation by having to take a vaccine that has not received the comprehensive safety review required for similar drugs.
Anthrax is a disease that typically afflicts animals, especially cattle and sheep. When inhaled, dry anthrax spores, which can be put into weapons, can cause death in humans. The Pentagon’s strongest argument for continuing with the current program is that the vaccination must be taken before exposure to be effective.
Cohen himself addressed the issue on Wednesday when asked by
reporters about the growing congressional opposition.
“Well, the vaccine that we currently have is safe. That is
the only reason, one of the major reasons, certainly, that I advocated
that we begin the program upon the recommendation of all the commanders-in-chief
of our combatant commands, upon the recommendation of the chairman
and all the members of the Joint Chiefs, that we vaccinate our
troops against this potential very deadly threat,” Cohen
said. “And so the vaccine that currently is being used in
fact is safe. And that is the reason why the chairman and myself
were the first two in line to receive our six shots.”
But the congressional opponents refused to give ground this
week.
“In their nasty response, they do a point-by-point commentary
that ignores massive amounts of information provided in our letter,”
said Norma Smith, a special assistant to Metcalf who is working
the anthrax vaccine issue. “They [military personnel] need
protection but DoD says that anyone who disagrees with the current
vaccine is dealing with misinformation.”
The Metcalf letter cited several recent DoD surveys of military personnel who were vaccinated that showed female personnel suffering from post-vaccination symptoms at a rate nearly twice that of the male personnel surveyed. In one survey, between 2-4 percent of males said they had had adverse reactions while 4-7 percent of females reported the symptoms.
“They proved our point for us,” said Smith of the DoD surveys.
The Pentagon insists that the reactions were for the most part minor and in many cases have been due to other causes.
“No one questions the threat [from anthrax],” Smith retorted. The recommendations were clear: We need an improved vaccine, and until we make those steps and have that vaccine we need to ensure that the vaccine is treated under the rules for an investigational new drug.”
The opponents say they will continue to press for legislation suspending or banning the program, although two efforts to date have failed.
Metcalf was a co-sponsor of House Resolution 2548, sponsored last year by Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., which calls for a moratorium on the Department of Defense anthrax vaccination program. That measure remains bottled up in the House. And members sought to attach an amendment to the 2001 Defense Authorization Act halting the program but it failed to clear the House Rules Committee on Wednesday (5-17).
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