Stars and Stripes: Anthrax Vaccine Recipients
Report Ailments
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Anthrax Vaccine Recipients Report Ailments
Oct 6, 2000
Emily Kelley
Stars and Stripes Pentagon Correspondent
Witnesses at an Oct. 3 House Government Reform Committee hearing
testified that they suffered fatigue, nausea, cysts, tunnel vision,
seizures and testicular atrophy after receiving the anthrax vaccine
being used to inoculate members of the armed services.
One former service member reportedly required a tracheotomy hours
after being injected with the vaccine, and two witnesses attributed
the deaths of relatives to the anthrax vaccine.
Also testifying was retiring Rep. John Metcalf, R-Wash., who issued a report Sept. 27 concluding that trace amounts of squalene have been found in the vaccine, The report also documents “stonewalling” by the Pentagon in what General Accounting Office investigators have characterized as “a pattern of deception.”
Squalene, a naturally occurring substance found in plants and animals, has been used as an adjuvant—a substance used to improve the body’s response to some investigational vaccines manufactured in the U.S., including those to protect against the HIV virus—but its use has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Some researchers have looked into the possibility that squalene
could be a cause of Gulf War illnesses, according to the Metcalf
report, which was compiled over a three-year period.
“Dick died on July 7, 2000, and that has changed my life
and the lives of my children forever,” testified Barbara
Dunn, the widow of an employee of the BioPort Corp., the sole
manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine. “This is fact, not fiction.
Dick believed in this program, but also wanted it to be a safe
program.”
Richard Dunn, whose job at the Lansing Mich., plant required
him to take the vaccine, died partly from an “inflammatory
response” to it, according to autopsy results.
Dunn, 61, took 11 doses of the vaccine over the eight years he
worked at BioPort and died about two months after his last vaccination.
He was involved in handling animals used to test the vaccine.
The Pentagon has launched its own investigation into the autopsy
report through the Armed Forces Institute for Pathology and the
FDA also is investigating Dunn’s death.
The latest BioPort mishap occurred in August when the company
had to recall some lots of the anthrax vaccine because labels
had been given incorrect expiration dates. BioPort has not received
FDA approval to continue manufacturing the vaccine, and currently
is distributing vaccine made by a previous manufacturer that was
owned and operated by the state of Michigan.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon was forced to scale back the Anthrax
Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP) because BioPort could not
provide sufficient vaccine to inoculate all military personnel.
The Government Reform Committee then rebuked the DoD for its treatment
of service members who have refused to take the vaccine.
“Because DoD placed more faith in BioPort’s faulty production
estimates than in the intelligence and integrity of those with
legitimate questions about the program, hundreds of dedicated,
loyal Americans have had their health damaged or their military
careers ruined,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. “Don’t
they deserve the same deference, even forgiveness, DoD seems so
willing to extend to BioPort?”
An epidemiologist warned the committee not to be swayed by
emotion.
“Let me implore you to look for risks in a quantitative fashion,”
said Alexander M. Walker, A professor of epidemiology at the Harvard
School of Public Health. “When it comes to making decisions
about what will best protect the most people with the most efficient
use of resources, the 6 million are more important than the one.”
The Defense Department now is administering 17,500 vaccine doses
monthly to active duty troops deploying for more than 30 days
to the Persian Gulf or Korea. There are enough “usable doses”
to carry the scaled-down program to March, according to Pentagon
officials.
In the 30 years the anthrax vaccine has been used, few side effects
and adverse reactions have been reported, according to Pentagon
spokesman Kenneth Bacon. Nearly half a million military personnel
have been vaccinated, and more than 2.5 million doses have been
administered, he said.
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