It's time for your medication Mr.Brown.....
Posted on 12/16/2004 8:37:29 AM PST by joesnuffy
DoD May Restart Anthrax Shots United Press International December 16, 2004
WASHINGTON - Several months after a federal court ruled against the Department of Defense's mandatory anthrax vaccination program, the DOD has requested an emergency ruling so it can continue to give the controversial vaccine to soldiers.
The authorization request was made in a letter from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
"I have determined there is a significant potential for a military emergency involving a heightened risk to the United States military forces of an attack with anthrax," said Wolfowitz in the letter, which was written Dec. 10.
"In making this determination, I have considered a classified November 2004 Intelligence Community assessment of the anthrax threat. This heightened risk has been and continues to be the basis for the DOD program of vaccinating personnel serving in the areas of Central Command and Korea," Wolfowitz wrote.
Powdered anthrax, a dried substance specifically intended to be inhaled, killed two postal workers and three other people in the fall of 2001. Weaponized anthrax frequently is cited as a potential bioterror weapon.
"It is certainly a concern within the Department of Defense that our troops might be exposed to anthrax," Col. Joseph Palma, medical director in the Chemical and Biological Defense Program with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told United Press International.
"We are concerned for the health and safety of our service members, particularly in worldwide operations involving the war on terrorism. Intelligence indicates an ongoing threat of anthrax against our military forces," said Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
Under the Project Bioshield Act of 2004, signed into law last summer by President Bush, Thompson can allow the use of a vaccine for an otherwise-unapproved application if there is an emergency or potential emergency. The law gives Thompson that power in both domestic and military situations.
Whether there is a military emergency, however, is left by law for the secretary of defense to decide. It is unclear if Wolfowitz also has the authority to make the determination as indicated in the letter.
The letter is seen by critics as an attempt to circumvent a U.S. District Court ruling last October that the vaccine, originally approved many years ago to prevent anthrax-caused skin infections, not be used on soldiers to prevent illness from inhaled anthrax without their informed consent.
"They are using the statute to try to end-run the court ruling," said John Michels, an attorney with the firm McGuire Woods in Chicago and one of the lawyers who won the injunction.
Critics also claim the vaccine, manufactured by Bioport of Lansing, Mich., has sickened hundreds. Three lawsuits have been filed to stop the mandatory military vaccinations and Congress held hearings on the controversy in 2000.
DOD steadfastly has stood by the vaccine, however, working through manufacturing issues with Bioport and resuming the program at the end of last year, after an initial injunction on the same issue.
"America's best scientists say the Anthrax vaccine is safe and effective," Winkenwerder asserted.
The controversy, however, has had an impact on the fine workings of the military machine -- now overheating under the strain of the war in Iraq. As of October 2000, according to Department of Defense testimony before the House committee on Government Reform, some 442 service members had refused to be vaccinated. As of October of this year more than 100 service personnel had been court-martialed as a result of those refusals,according to Mark Zaid, managing partner at Krieger and Zaid. Zaid also was an attorney in the injunction case.
A lot is at stake. Even so, should the emergency authorization be granted, it is not clear what, if any, practical difference it will make. Though Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld halted the vaccinations after the October ruling by District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, the vaccine still is considered an investigatory drug and can be administered with consent.
That requirement for consent remains unless Bush takes it away. Michels told UPI that language in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2004 requires the president personally to rule to make the program mandatory.
"Once they have the authorization to use it, the secretary still has to ensure that those getting the vaccine have the option to accept or refuse," Michels said. "Our position is that you can't administer the vaccine (mandatorily) without the president."
Whatever the answer is, it should be known soon.
The process will require a separate assessment by the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Food and Drug Administration, said a DOD spokesman.
"This process is deliberate and will require additional discussion between DOD and HHS over the next few weeks," he said.
It's time for your medication Mr.Brown.....
Time to follow the money to see where the kickbacks are occuring. We've lost the health of more soldiers to the vaccine than to the real disease.
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