HAS ANTHRAX VACCINE'S EFFECT BECOME A MILITARY SECRET?

BioPort in Lansing is the only U.S. laboratory to make the anthrax vaccine. Until the facility meets Food and Drug Administration guidelines, it is barred from releasing the vaccine.

Before he was transferred to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Maj. Sonnie Bates casually requested his immunization schedule, which included the anthrax vaccine, be put up-to-date.

Shortly after arriving at Dover in May 1999, Bates found out that was a good thing.

The 38-year-old career military man was told 14 base personnel had developed debilitating side effects after taking the vaccine. The former base commander responded to their reports by discontinuing the vaccine program -- and was promptly transferred to a desk job inside the Pentagon.

A new commander was assigned and the anthrax vaccine program at Dover, intended to protect troops from exposure to the bacteria, was reinstated. That didn't stop Bates from calling each of the 14 affected personnel and listening to their stories. Additional research through military and medical channels convinced him the vaccine was not an acceptable risk.

In December 1999, Bates, of Dover, Del., became the highest ranking military officer to refuse the anthrax vaccine.

As a result, he was forced to resign after 14 years in the Air Force, $5,000 in bonuses and paychecks were withheld and Bates was fined $4,200. In addition to losing his medical benefits and retirement package, he was threatened with a court martial. In February 2000, Bates, who now works as a pilot for a private corporation, shared his story with TV's "60 Minutes."

"My military career was not more important than my integrity," Bates said. "I couldn't look these people in the face, people who thought they had finally found somebody to give them a voice, and turn my back on them.

"I did it for my own health as well," Bates continued. "I have three children and my youngest son is autistic. If I lose my health, there's no one to care for him or the rest of my family."

Air Force Surgeon General spokesperson Betty Ann Mauger said Bates knew the consequences and still refused to follow orders.

On Nov. 11, Bates' wife Roxane will further detail her family's experience at the Rolling Resistance Rally from noon to 3 p.m. in Lansing, home to BioPort, the nation's only anthrax vaccine manufacturer. The rally, which will be held on the steps of the state capitol, was organized by opponents of the anthrax immunization program including Roxanne Bates and Battle Creek resident Robin Hawes, a former member of the Air National Guard, who became sick after taking the vaccine.

The rally's goal is to gain government recognition for those who have become ill, educate military personnel about possible adverse reactions and provide those scheduled for the vaccine with information that may reduce side effects. Organizers also hope to raise public awareness and build support for a vaccine program that would give military personnel a choice. One study indicates that between 30 and 40 percent of those immunized experienced varying degrees of side effects.

So far the federal government denies any link between the vaccine and adverse effects ranging from chronic fatigue, to migraine headache, severe diarrhea, blood blisters, muscle tremors, reduced concentration, memory loss, lesions in the coronary arteries, loss of consciousness, coma, and in a handful of cases, death.

"The vaccine we use is FDA-released, and is safe and effective," said James Turner, Department of Defense spokesman. "There are no known long-term side effects to anthrax vaccine."

In its last Food and Drug Administration inspection in October 2000, BioPort received 17 pages of violations, many of which dealt with cleanliness and sterility issues, as well as failure to bring past violations up to code.

According to FDA spokeswoman Lenore Gelb, the facility is barred from releasing any vaccine until it can meet FDA guidelines. Gelb would not say when that inspection would take place. However, Bates said the inspection was scheduled for this fall, and new vaccine is expected to be released in January.

Although the plant is licensed to produce the vaccine, the vaccine itself does not meet current FDA standards, in large part because it cannot be tested on humans.

To date, 511,000 servicemen and women have received at least one unit in the six-shot schedule since March 1998, Turner said.

In June, the DoD announced that it would begin limiting the vaccine to special mission units, researchers and congressionally mandated study participants because of a shortage of FDA-released vaccine, Turner said.

But Dr. Meryl Nass, an internist from Freeport, Maine, and national expert on anthrax, Gulf War and Chronic Fatigue syndromes, said the DoD's June announcement did not reflect a change in policy; researchers, study participants and special mission units were always the target of the vaccine program.

In fact, the DoD stepped up administration of the vaccine following the Sept. 11 attack -- without making a formal announcement -- said Nass, who will speak at the Rolling Resistance Rally in Lansing.

"When I first heard about this, I didn't think it was possible the vaccine was responsible," Nass admitted. "But after talking to over 1,000 people who became ill, all of whom said the same thing, you know something has to be going on."

So far, the government has not allowed any independent testing of the vaccine, Nass said.

"It might just be we don't know how to make a vaccine that isn't virulent," Nass said.

For one thing, current manufacturing procedures are unable to produce a consistent version. It is not uncommon for one lot to contain 40 times the active ingredient as the last. Distribution of expired lots and contamination of the vaccine itself further complicate the problem, Nass said.

Interestingly, symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome are identical to the adverse reactions associated with the anthrax vaccine. This is especially relevant given that many of those suffering from GWS never made it to the Gulf, but were in fact immunized against anthrax in preparation for potential deployment, Nass said.

With all of this in mind, Nass believes the vaccine should be administered with informed consent. In other words, those who choose not to be vaccinated after learning of potential side effects can do so without being forced to leave the military.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of those who became so sick they could not continue working must now face life with a chronic illness -- born of their military service -- without medical benefits or disability compensation.

"There are no cures," Nass said. "In a few cases, there are some Band-Aids, but the vast majority of those affected are still sick."

In addition to providing background on the issue, Nass' Web site, www.anthraxvaccine.org, includes vitamin regiments that have in some cases reduced side effects.

Rolling Resistance organizers Robin Hawes and Tom Starkweather, both former members of the Air National Guard's 110th Fighter Wing in Battle Creek, are among those who lost their health, their medical benefits and their civilian and military jobs at the air base.

"I'm not going to tell people not to take the shot," Starkweather said. "In the military, you don't have a choice. I just want to give people information so they can go to their doctor, get on a schedule and hopefully minimize their symptoms."

The Air National Guard alone has lost 25 percent of its membership over the issue, according to rally organizers -- an allegation Air Force representatives deny.

"Women have an 80-percent higher reaction rate than men," said Hawes, whose story was featured in the October issue of Self magazine. "I don't want to see anyone else hurt by this vaccine. There are so many people who are sick, so many still working and afraid to come forward and say they are sick."

Edna Frazier of Harrison Township is among those who does not want to see anyone else hurt. Her son, Air Force Spc. John Carroll, 22, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., did not want to take the vaccine -- but wanted even less to give up his career in the military.

"He's happy, he's living his dream and I just have to be thankful that he wasn't one of the unlucky ones that got sick," said Frazier, who opposes mandatory immunization. "Every day I just keep saying those extra little prayers that everything will be OK."

There's sometimes a tendency, among veterans especially, to close ranks and see men like Maj. Bates as a 'troublemaker'.

Risk, after all, is by definition a part of the military life, and there can be an understandable temptation for veterans to be dismissive of someone they see as attempting to evade it, or assist others in evading it.

But the assumption of clearly unnecessary risk isn't being brave, or strong, or loyal...

In fact, there are times when it's stupid, and even cowardly, such as in those cases when the risk is assumed 'on the behalf' of others who have no choice in the matter.

There's been enough 'smoke' here, and for some time now, to justify looking for a 'fire'. And we need for those doing that looking to be impartial observers, without any concerns about damage to careers or profits being a potentially 'distracting' issue for them.

At this point, with so many heels dug in so deeply, this may very well rule out using either military investigators as well as representatives from the company manufacturing these vaccines.

It's well past the time to know the truth about this, one way or the other.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the Russian vaccine is superior--the Russian's have had-and continue to have the best bio-warfare programs for decades.

I wonder--are any of these folks aware of collodial silver? It kills the anthrax bacillus in under six minutes flat-also over 650 other nasties-including GWS. I know--the point of a vaccine is to introduce the nasty germs in small amounts to provoke the body into developing anti-bodies against future infection-but I say the heck with that !

In fact-if I was still in the military-and I was forced to take this vaccine-I would immediately drink a big glass of collodial silver water as soon as I got off duty !

Collodial silver kills over 650 different types of nasties in under six minutes usually-but the drug companies don't want the general public to know this-for obvious reasons-instead of taking cipro or any other anti-biotic to fight anthrax-I would reccomend taking collodial silver instead-it has never been found to be toxic at any level.

These factors are the most troubling to me:

Dramatic fluctuation in potency between lots
No human studies
Primate studies indicating inadequate protection against inhalation anthrax (some have shown otherwise)
Failure of the manufacturer to pass ANY FDA inspection
Ownership of Bio-Port

Very good summary here

Excerpt:

In February 2000, a comprehensive review of the program published by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee concluded that the program should be suspended until questions about side effects and effectiveness of the vaccine are fully answered.... The report noted that, due to impurities and other problems, only 13 of the 31 existing vaccine lots were rated as safe for use and neither the record keeping nor information systems created by the military passed muster.
/snip
General Accounting Office investigators testified that unpublished Pentagon studies found a systemic reaction rate, ranging from at least five percent to 35 percent or more. These studies also revealed that women were twice as likely as men to experience a reaction. The rates were much higher than those claimed by vaccine advocates within the military. More recently, a 300-page Pentagon report on biochemical warfare defense planning included a passage revealing that the armed forces hope to amend their Biologic License Application to cover use of the vaccine against aerosolized anthrax. Though buried deep within the report, this statement constitutes an admission that their current license provides FDA approval only for the use of the vaccine against cutaneous (skin) exposure.

Among the largest stockholders and members of the BioPort board is Admiral William Crowe, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Flag officer to publicly endorse Bill Clinton.

A most interesting individual is Fuad el-Hibri, CEO of BioPort

FYI

The military loves to claim that the anthrax shot series does not have as many side effects or presents as much health problems as people have been claiming. They try to back this up with the fact that the reported adverse reactions are minimal to low. BUT they forget to tell you that their system isn't set up to handle any complaints from soldiers etc.

So.. you have to ask yourself, if they aren't asking, or keeping track of soldiers side effects and complaints, how would they know? And if this Vaccine is so great, why didn't the senate or congress take the vaccine to protect themselves, when challanged by military service members 3 years ago? (& that if we were most likely to be exposed to anthrax first in a wartime situation, so why also wouldn't the heads of our government also be targeted?, which I might add, certainly seems to be the case recently.)

A service member proudly gives his life for his country, most are just a tab bit shocked that the military thinks it's an acceptable risk to cripple some of them for the rest of their lives, hence creating a hardship on families, while exposing them to untested, and possibly a very unsafe vaccine.

I have to say, I am not to awfully shocked here, but I do keep getting flashbacks to the Agent Orange, and Gulf War syndrome arguements that were directed at the military. But were only to be deflected as nonsense, until of course, un-refutable proof was given.< /sarcasm>

Here's what I have:

There are reasons to be concerned about the military version of anthrax vaccines:

An incredible source paper on US Military policy [Free ...
... study calling for a DOD-funded study on the presence of antibodies to squalene (an
experimental, non-approved vaccine booster) in the blood of Gulf War Illness ...

Gee! I guess those Gulf War Vets weren't faking it after ...
... To: all. GAO Calls for Squalene Tests. By Paul M. Rodriguez. Although the Defense
Department denied having a role in the presence of the adjuvant squalene in the ...

Squalene found in military anthrax vaccine after numerous ...
... Squalene found in military anthrax vaccine after numerous denials Government News
Source: Militarycorruption.com Published: 7-13-01 Posted on 07/13/2001 08:09 ...

FEMALE SERGEANT DEAD FROM ANTHRAX SHOT - WHEN WILL PENTAGON ...
... Related Stories. MEDICAL EXAMINER LINKS DEATH TO ANTHRAX VACCINE. SQUALENE
CONFIRMED IN ANTHRAX VACCINE AFTER NUMEROUS PENTAGON DENIALS. ...

And:

Who's Pushing Vaccines?
... Hibri's father-in-law, Ibrahim El-Hibri, a Venezuelan citizen, and her husband, Fuad
El-Hibri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent.Fuad El-Hibri appears to be ...

Online NewsHour Forum: Anthrax and the Vaccine -- October ...
... Congressional testimony on Sep 30 revealed that the CEO of Bioport, Fuad El Hibri,
obtained US citizenship during the process of purchasing the anthrax vaccine ...

ANTHRAX VACCINE -- PRODUCTION ISSUES
... companies that make up BioPort are Intervac, headed by William Crowe and Fuad El-Hibri,
and Michigan Biologic Products Inc., which is made up of seven managers ...

Gotta run! Try google!

Man, this bird gets around- here's more:

The Anthrax Vaccine Sanfu
... In September of 1998 a group of unidentified investors, organized by Fuad El-Hibri,
acquired the assets of the Michigan Biologic Products Institute (a state ...

GSMBOX - Ericsson provides GSM to Digicel in El Salvador
... services and handsets. The network will when completed provide nationwide coverage.
Fuad El-Hibri, Chairman of the Board of Digicel, said that in line with ...

ANOTHER LEFTOVER SCANDAL FROM CLINTON (BACKGROUND OF ANTHRAX ...
... PREPARED TESTIMONY OF MR. FUAD EL-HIBRI PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, BIOPORT
CORPORATION BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM SUBCOMMITTEE ...

Why Anthrax Vaccine Is Scarce
... million was spent on office remodeling, furniture, parking lot and road paving.
Furniture for the company's CEO, Fuad El-Hibri, cost $23,000, the audit said. ...

Build Bio-Defense System Now
... Pentagon. The company is owned by retired Adm. William Crowe, former chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lebanese-American businessman Fuad El-Hibri. ...

Yahoo! Groups : VeteranIssues Messages :Message 848 of 1676
... father-in-law, Ibrahim El-Hibri, a Venezuelan citizen, and her husband, Fuad El-Hibri,
a German citizen of Lebanese descent. Fuad El-Hibri appears to be the ...

I'm not sure if collodial silver can be classified as an antiseptic and anti-diarheal-but I do know that it's absorption into the bloodstream would carry it into the lungs where it could destroy the infection. I say "destroy" because thats what silver does--it destroys-it doesn't "fight" infections.

When doctors want to be absolutely sure no infection arises from a burn-they use silvadine-a paste with silver. I once was burned by caustic soda on my legs--this silvadine was prescribed for me--it healed me up in 3 days-without using any anti-biotics.

I see that you have "Doc" in your handle--are you a doctor? If so-then you must be a member of the AMA-an organization founded in the 1900's to -among other things-ensure that no medical school allow any alternative to pharmaceuticals-can't make big bucks that way. Did you know that folks used to put a silver dollar in their milk-to keep it fresh for days at room temperature? Silver is used in water purification systems as well--to ensure absolutely safe water supplies on airlines or for the military.

I'm may be wrong-but I don't think so-please feel free to set me "straight"--I appreciate constructive critisism- I hope I have not offended you in any way..have a good one....

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