Anthrax Vaccine Scandals Won’t Go Away
by Phyllis Schlafly, March 1, 2000
It wasn’t just idle words when Bill Clinton said he
“loathed” the military. He has damaged U.S. Armed Services in so many ways
that it’s no wonder morale, recruitment and retention levels are at
all-time lows.
Clinton has used the military to indulge in social
experimentation to appease the feminists and gays, and in interventionist
experimentation to please his globalist friends. He has also ordered
medical experimentation through compulsory anthrax vaccination.
It adds up to a shocking betrayal of the men and women
in the U.S. Armed Services. Since the Pentagon is in denial and cover-up,
we can thank CBS 60 Minutes for its February 6th expose of the case of
Major Sonnie Bates and thank Rep. Christopher Shays’ (R-CT) Subcommittee
on National Security of the House Government Reform Committee for its
scathing report on the vaccine released February 17th.
Clinton responded to Congressional hearings by issuing
Executive Order 13139 on September 30, 1999. It
denies servicemen the right to refuse experimental vaccines that are “not
yet approved by the FDA for its intended use,” language that obviously
covers the anthrax vaccine.
The 60 Minutes segment was a sympathetic portrayal of
Major Bates, a 14-year decorated pilot and the highest ranking of some 300
servicemen who have been punished for refusing the vaccine, with penalties
from prison to bad-conduct discharge to “correctional custody.” The
Pentagon responded by reducing the threat to court- martial Bates to a
lesser punishment.
More than 1,000 servicemen with exemplary records are
awaiting trial on a felony charge of refusing to take the anthrax shot and
hundreds more, described as “the cream of the crop,” have left the
services. Congressional testimony indicated that, for every one who
reported vaccine reactions, three others did not report them because they
feared that would be a career killer.
The lengthy report of the Shays Subcommittee concludes
that the anthrax policy “lacks an essential element in a medical program:
trust.” The Pentagon’s “absolutist declarations, heavy-handed propaganda,
and ad hominem attacks” against those who question the policy are
seen as another chapter in a long history of “military medical
malfeasance” that includes lies about nuclear testing, Agent Orange, and
Gulf War drugs and vaccines.
The long-term effects of the anthrax vaccine have never
been studied, but the immediate reactions include autoimmune disorders,
lesions, rashes, memory lapses, thyroid problems, blurred vision,
inability to drive or read, crippling bone-joint pain, loss of
concentration and chronic fatigue. The military has reacted by calling
those affected liars, whiners, hypochondriacs, malingerers, hysterical,
depressed, or in need of counseling.
The Shays report states that the anthrax vaccine is
based on old (1950s-era) medical technology, a “dangerously narrow
scientific and medical foundation.” A newly built anthrax vaccine plant
failed its FDA safety inspection on December 13, 1999.
According to the Shays report, even the “efficacy of
the vaccine against biological warfare is uncertain. The vaccine was
approved for protection against cutaneous (under the skin) infection in an
occupational setting, not for use as mass protection against weaponized,
aerosolized anthrax,” which is how any enemy would use anthrax.
The sole and exclusive manufacturer of the anthrax
vaccine, BioPort of Lansing, Michigan, has been cited repeatedly by the
FDA for quality deficiencies. It not only has a checkered safety record,
but also a checkered financial history.
The anthrax vaccine was originally produced by Michigan
Biologics Products Institute. It was taken over in September 1998 by
BioPort Corporation, a new company created by Intervac L.L.C. in which
former Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral William J. Crowe owned 22.5 percent
of the stock even though he hadn’t invested a penny.
The very next month, BioPort was awarded a Department
of Defense (DOD) contract valued at $25.7 million to produce anthrax
vaccine. Crowe will be remembered as the Republican Joint Chiefs Chairman
who endorsed Bill Clinton for President in 1992 and gave Clinton “cover”
when his draft record was under attack.
On August 5, 1999, DOD agreed to pay BioPort nearly
double the price specified in the contract: $49.8 million instead of $25.7
million, including advance payments of $18.7 million. DOD also indemnified
MBPI/BioPort against all liability from adverse reactions because,
according to Army Secretary Louis Caldera, the vaccine involves “unusually
hazardous risks associated with the potential for adverse reactions in
some recipients and the possibility that the desired immunological effect
will not be obtained by all recipients.”
It is particularly dangerous to require all service
women to receive the anthrax shots since the Centers for Disease Control
has warned that they should not be given to pregnant women. Most military
women are of childbearing age and 10 percent are pregnant at any one time.
The mandatory anthrax vaccination of 2.4 million
members of the Armed Services should be terminated immediately. And all
those who have had the courage to speak out against this policy, which
doesn’t pass the common-sense test, should be restored to duty and their
convictions and punishment expunged from their records.
For more information please go here:
http://www.house.gov/reform/.
Search on Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program.
Please read Ms. Schlafly’s entire article at
eagleforum.org/column/2000/mar00/00-03-01.html.
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