Vaccine Combined With Short-term Postexposure Antibiotics Protects Monkeys From Inhalational Anthrax
As noted by the authors, following the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, approximately 10,000 people were offered 60 days of antibiotic therapy to prevent inhalational anthrax. Adverse events associated with this regimen--including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness--were commonly reported. More importantly, only about 44 percent of people completed the whole 60-day course. Thus, minimizing the duration of postexposure antibiotic treatment could be crucial to a successful defense against a large-scale anthrax attack.
If I lived in a city with a major league sports team, or I went back in the service, I would take this vaccine in a New York minute. BTW, I was born and grew up in Manhattan. I live a few miles north in the Bronx now.
I'm fine with that, you be the guinea pig; let the real soldiers have a choice (as they do now under the federal judge's orders).
That is the reason the government gets away with providing huge sums of money based on scare tactics. As long as it can scare the general public most of time it has created the idea that something must be done. To show that something is being done, they will allocate huge sums of money in wasteful programs.
Lets consider some facts here.
First, the anthrax vaccine they parade around...developed in the mid-1960s. They haven't improved it since then. Oh, they may tell you about ongoing research...but nothing really gets FDA approval or goes to market. So will it work against a modified anthrax virus? Probably not. Course, they wouldn't tell you if it wouldn't. Oh, and ask those nice DOD folks if they ever tested it in conjunction with 20-odd other shots and pills they hand out for deployment...like those nerve gas pills we all had to take during Gulf War 1. They will smile at you and say tests are always ongoing...then ask them what tests? They have no idea. The technology and the guys behind the vaccine door beyond the comprehension of 90 percent of the pentagon leadership.
Second, this company who got the contract to make the stuff. You do realize that out of 500-odd drug companies in the US...this was the ONLY one to bid on it and get the contract? You do realize that approximately five years after they won this contract...in full scale production for the mighty pentagon...that FDA inspectors came in...and found serious problems. They actually shut down the plant. If Bayer or one of the well-known names had a plant shut down...it'd be serious news. The pentagon actually wanted to waiver the issues. But the company was smart...they went to the pentagon and demanded between $10 and 20 million in cash...just as a favor...cash, you know. Yep, the fools gave it to them. So what did they do with the money? Oh, they did fix most of the issues...paved the parking lot...and even bought brand-new modular furniture.
Third, the vaccine itself? After DOD came out and said it was widely used throughout the animal doctor world...a reporter went to a vet meeting in west Texas. Most of these gentlemen handled sheep on a daily basis...so you'd expect them to use the stuff. Not a single vet at this meeting...had ever used it or knew of another person that used it. In fact...other than research labs run by the government...there just aren't any civilians in the US who are raising their hands and admitting they used the stuff...in 20 years.
Common sense here tells you that there is a quality control issue with Bioport. Common sense tells you that alot of the leadership in DOD haven't asked questions about this and just accepted this as a general order. Common sense tells you that if you haven't improved the vaccine since 1966...maybe the enemy has improved anthrax enough to readily defeat it. Common sense tells you that congress and DOD are very capable of just throwing money at a problem and never really improving anything.