Anthrax vaccine blamed for illness

(Memphis) The Commercial Appeal ^ | November 17, 2004 | Bartholomew Sullivan

[zipper]

WASHINGTON -- Mark Ammend of Collierville can't talk about it now.

The former fire chief for the 164th Air National Guard unit based at Memphis International Airport got vaccinated against anthrax five years ago. Now, as he lies in a specially designed bed, the only thing he can move is his left eye.

Fully conscious and aware, Ammend, 55, is a quadriplegic with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

A new book suggests he and many other soldiers immunized against anthrax during the 1991 Gulf War and since are suffering auto-immune diseases after receiving an illegal chemical adjuvant -- a chemical designed to boost the immune system -- called squalene.

The Pentagon adamantly disagrees and insists that the vaccine is safe.

In his just-published "Vaccine A: The Covert Government Experiment That's Killing Our Soldiers and Why G.I.'s Are Only the First Victims," author Gary Matsumoto suggests Memphis was the key to the immunological puzzle.

"The whole idea originated in Memphis," he said in an interview.

That idea came from Pamela B. Asa, a former Memphis immunologist now living in Tupelo who collaborates with Robert F. Garry, a professor of microbiology at the Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans. Asa and Garry made the connection between squalene, which has not been authorized for use in humans in the United States, and what has been called Gulf War Syndrome in an article in Experimental and Molecular Pathology in 2002.

Auto-immune diseases such as ALS, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are chronic and increasingly debilitating. They occur when the body can't distinguish between itself and foreign substances it's supposed to attack. Thirty years of scientific literature has shown squalene and other oil adjuvants have induced auto-immune-like illnesses in four species of lab animals. Squalene has never been licensed for use in humans in this country, although it is an element of a variety of experimental drugs.....

[zipper]

This is an article under the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper "local news" column. For the record, there were 22 pilots and many other support personnel that left the Memphis Air National Guard on the same day in October '99 over the issue of the mandatory anthrax vaccine, which at the time was reeking havoc on the health of dozens of people at Dover AFB. Ironically, this same newspaper once took an editorial position against the pilots that questioned the now-suspended (again) program of mandatory anthrax vaccine without informed consent. The Memphis ANG unit commanders were all eventually promoted-- at least two were promoted to General and still serve at the Tennessee state staff level.

Other links of interest:

Ex-DAFB commander says troops used as guinea pigs

Military couple feel betrayed

Careers cut short after inoculations

Soldiers' stories: Pain and punishment

Biden, Carper and Castle can't ignore anthrax problems

Dr. Meryl Nass comments on purchase of 75 million doses for civilian population

[neverdem]

bttt

[Squantos]

HUA ........Thanks for the info !!

Stay safe !

[backhoe]

Old post, but perhaps relevant:

Gulf War Syndrome- Where there's smoke, *is* there fire?

[AQGeiger]

Here's a brief blurb from my immunology textbook:

"Although many substances and preparations are known to be adjuvants, the only adjuvants approved for use in human vaccines are alum - a form of aluminum hydroxide - and an emulsion of squalene, oil, and water called MF59."

According to this text, which is so new as to have a copyright of 2005 (I'm not kidding on this), squalene is not an "illegal" adjuvant.

For anyone who's wondering, an adjuvant is a substance that is added to a vaccine in order to enhance the immune response produced by the vaccine.

[zipper]

Can you name one vaccine in the U.S. that is not experimental that contains squalene? I think not- in the U.S. squalene is only approved for a few experimental vaccines.

Even if it were FDA-approved like the alum-based adjuvants, what's the point? It certainly wasn't approved for use in the anthrax vaccine, and therefore it's use in it would be illegal.

Currently the entire program is suspended is because a federal judge ruled the FDA did not follow their own protocol for the vaccine approval process.