Posted on 06/30/2004 9:06:48 PM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON, June 30 — The Pentagon announced a major expansion of its vaccination program with a new order on Wednesday requiring that anthrax and smallpox vaccine be administered to all soldiers and essential civilians in the Middle East and, for the first time, to troops in South Korea.
Pentagon officials said the decision resulted from an increased supply of vaccine, and not from indications of an increased threat of biological or chemical attacks. Even so, these officials also said their concerns that an adversary might attack troops with such unconventional weapons were undiminished.
William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said the Pentagon had given anthrax shots to 1.1 million people since 1998. Since December 2002, more than 625,000 Pentagon and military personnel have been vaccinated against smallpox.
A significant portion of American troops in the Middle East have received the vaccines. But the expanded program will require all military personnel and essential civilian contractors to receive the shots if they serve in the Central Command area, which stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. And for the first time, American troops in South Korea will have to be vaccinated, along with some in the Pacific.
Bryan Whitman, the Pentagon's deputy spokesman, said, "Anthrax and smallpox remain two of the top biological warfare threats to our forces, and vaccinations remain a safe and reliable way to protect our service members."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If there is a threat, the terrorists could come here and spread it, just as easily.
How can there be a threat from anthrax, when the FBI is still following Hatfill 24/7?
Just wait they'll announce that Hatfill bought a map of the Middle East, and therefore any anthrax attacks on our troops by the terrorists in Iraq...err...unknown sources...must be his fault.
I had to chuckle at the last sentence.
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The following is the remainder of the excerpted text. I didn't realize it had been excerpted. Me bad.
Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez, deputy director for operations on the military's joint staff, said it was "not that relatively difficult" to employ anthrax as a weapon, and he cited C.I.A. assessments that Al Qaeda has pursued biological weapons.
Although Pentagon policy states that the anthrax vaccine is safe and effective, the inoculation program has been the subject of a court battle. In January, a federal judge lifted an injunction halting mandatory anthrax vaccination, allowing the Pentagon to resume giving shots to any troops except the six anonymous people who brought the suit.
In issuing his preliminary injunction on Dec. 22, the judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, accepted the plaintiffs' arguments that the vaccine used in the Pentagon's program had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to protect against skin exposure to anthrax, but not against anthrax that is inhaled, a far greater threat.
Thus, the judge said, the vaccine was an "investigational" drug being forced on the troops for an unapproved purpose.
The Pentagon halted the program while the Justice Department filed a motion asking the judge to withdraw the injunction, or at least limit his ruling to the six plaintiffs.
On Dec. 30, the F.D.A. announced a new "final rule and order" that officially declared the anthrax vaccine effective against the inhaled form of the bacteria. The Justice Department then filed an emergency motion asking Judge Sullivan to lift the injunction.
Although Judge Sullivan was swayed by government lawyers' arguments and stayed his injunction, he wrote that the timing of a new F.D.A. rule raised suspicions.
I had to chuckle at the last sentence, too.
As I recall the vaccine cleared the FDA awhile ago, but they decided to review their data based on the charges.
I've had personal experience with the FDA and vaccines. Their attitude seems to be nothing less than perfect will pass, (I don't know why, the nightmare of Thalidomide?) even if their demands on a vaccine or drug are borderline ridiculous.
If anything, their fault is not what they OK, it's the risks they refuse to take. Sometimes this is great, sometimes it's not. But they don't pass bad stuff.
If any thing I think the political pressure there runs the other way.
Thalidomide, could you imagine that drug is making a comeback, although not for pregnant women and hyperemesis gravidarum, IIRC?
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