Re: Congress Nears OK of Weapons Vaccine Bill

[Guest guest]

Over the last year you wouldnt believe how many congressmen and senators I

have written to AND called. nothing.And I have a high profile government case.

Janet

[Guest guest]

Over the last year you wouldnt believe how many congressmen and senators I

have written to AND called. nothing.And I have a high profile government case.

Janet

[Guest guest]

Group --

The more I thought about this, the greater the implications have appeared.

If Project Bioshield research could include mycotic antitoxins for WMD's that

have been acknowledged to exist, then the entire issue of toxic mold as

a domestic public health concern would be almost moot. The suspected exsistence

of Aflatoxin and Tricothecene based unconventional weaponry was

one of the driving rationales for our involvement in Iraq. These same toxins

are responsible for the majority of organic mycotixicity, and to have

effective treatment would have the dual benefit of proteciton from terror, and a

treatment for the rapidly expanding issue of toxic mold.

I feel it needs to be communicated as strongly as possible to our legislators

that Mycotic Toxin research needs to be included in this bill. I urge

everyone on this list to contact your congressman as soon as possible.

Lee

> Lets hope this includes research into mycotic antitoxins.

>

>

> Wed Jul 14, 2:22

PM ET

>

> By JIM ABRAMS,

Associated Press Writer

>

> WASHINGTON -

Lawmakers who experienced the dangers of anthrax firsthand

> are sending

President Bush (news - web sites) legislation to give private companies

> $5.6 billion in

incentives to develop antidotes to biological and chemical weapons.

>

>

Over the next 10 years, the Project Bioshield Act

>

would give the pharmaceutical industry the financial

>

guarantees it says it needs to research and produce

>

vaccines and antidotes for bioterror agents that

>

otherwise would have little marketable value.

>

>

With a House vote Wednesday, Congress was

>

completing work on the legislation Bush requested in a

>

State of the Union speech 18 months ago. Agreement

>

between the House and Senate was delayed by a

>

dispute over how to guarantee a steady stream of

>

funding to drug makers without taking away Congress'

>

authority to make annual decisions on spending levels.

>

>

Protection against the weapons is of personal interest

>

to many lawmakers who have seen their offices

> closed and their

lives disrupted twice by biological threats since the Sept. 11 attacks.

>

> It took three

months and $23 million to clean up Senate office buildings after deadly

> anthrax bacteria

was discovered in October 2001 in the mailroom of then-Senate

> Majority Leader

Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Hundreds of people who work in those buildings

> were given

antibiotics such as Cipro.

>

> Three Senate

office buildings were also closed for up to a week this February after

> the biological

toxin ricin was found in the office of Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

>

> The legislation

guarantees that any company that develops countermeasures to treat

> diseases and

conditions caused by bioterrorism would have a buyer in the federal

> government. Also

included would be antidotes for chemical, radiological and nuclear

> agents.

>

> Among the first

candidates for purchase are next-generation anthrax vaccines. The

> government

eventually hopes to stockpile enough doses to inoculate 25 million people.

>

> California-based

VaxGen Inc. and Britain's Avecia have the leading candidates. Safety

> testing is under

way, but the hope is that the newer type of vaccine could cut in half

> the number of

shots now required for anthrax inoculation, with few side effects.

>

> The bill also

would accelerate the approval process for vaccines and, in an

> emergency, let

the government distribute certain treatments before the Food and Drug

> Administration

(news - web sites) approves them.

>

> In cases where

the private sector does not respond to the federal incentives, the bill

> allows the

government to operate emergency programs to research and produce

> vaccines.

>

> The House passed

a bioshield bill in July last year, but Senate appropriators balked at

> language that

would have made spending automatic, saying that would undermine their

> authority to

oversee and determine annual spending and create an entitlement for the

> drug industry.

>

> In the

compromise unanimously approved by the Senate in May and endorsed by the

> House Wednesday,

Congress agreed to spend $5.6 billion over the next decade while

> retaining

control over how the money is appropriated.

>

> Among the agents

to be included in Project Bioshield are smallpox, anthrax, botulism

> toxin, plague

and Ebola (news - web sites).

[Guest guest]

Group --

The more I thought about this, the greater the implications have appeared.

If Project Bioshield research could include mycotic antitoxins for WMD's that

have been acknowledged to exist, then the entire issue of toxic mold as

a domestic public health concern would be almost moot. The suspected exsistence

of Aflatoxin and Tricothecene based unconventional weaponry was

one of the driving rationales for our involvement in Iraq. These same toxins

are responsible for the majority of organic mycotixicity, and to have

effective treatment would have the dual benefit of proteciton from terror, and a

treatment for the rapidly expanding issue of toxic mold.

I feel it needs to be communicated as strongly as possible to our legislators

that Mycotic Toxin research needs to be included in this bill. I urge

everyone on this list to contact your congressman as soon as possible.

Lee

> Lets hope this includes research into mycotic antitoxins.

>

>

> Wed Jul 14, 2:22

PM ET

>

> By JIM ABRAMS,

Associated Press Writer

>

> WASHINGTON -

Lawmakers who experienced the dangers of anthrax firsthand

> are sending

President Bush (news - web sites) legislation to give private companies

> $5.6 billion in

incentives to develop antidotes to biological and chemical weapons.

>

>

Over the next 10 years, the Project Bioshield Act

>

would give the pharmaceutical industry the financial

>

guarantees it says it needs to research and produce

>

vaccines and antidotes for bioterror agents that

>

otherwise would have little marketable value.

>

>

With a House vote Wednesday, Congress was

>

completing work on the legislation Bush requested in a

>

State of the Union speech 18 months ago. Agreement

>

between the House and Senate was delayed by a

>

dispute over how to guarantee a steady stream of

>

funding to drug makers without taking away Congress'

>

authority to make annual decisions on spending levels.

>

>

Protection against the weapons is of personal interest

>

to many lawmakers who have seen their offices

> closed and their

lives disrupted twice by biological threats since the Sept. 11 attacks.

>

> It took three

months and $23 million to clean up Senate office buildings after deadly

> anthrax bacteria

was discovered in October 2001 in the mailroom of then-Senate

> Majority Leader

Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Hundreds of people who work in those buildings

> were given

antibiotics such as Cipro.

>

> Three Senate

office buildings were also closed for up to a week this February after

> the biological

toxin ricin was found in the office of Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

>

> The legislation

guarantees that any company that develops countermeasures to treat

> diseases and

conditions caused by bioterrorism would have a buyer in the federal

> government. Also

included would be antidotes for chemical, radiological and nuclear

> agents.

>

> Among the first

candidates for purchase are next-generation anthrax vaccines. The

> government

eventually hopes to stockpile enough doses to inoculate 25 million people.

>

> California-based

VaxGen Inc. and Britain's Avecia have the leading candidates. Safety

> testing is under

way, but the hope is that the newer type of vaccine could cut in half

> the number of

shots now required for anthrax inoculation, with few side effects.

>

> The bill also

would accelerate the approval process for vaccines and, in an

> emergency, let

the government distribute certain treatments before the Food and Drug

> Administration

(news - web sites) approves them.

>

> In cases where

the private sector does not respond to the federal incentives, the bill

> allows the

government to operate emergency programs to research and produce

> vaccines.

>

> The House passed

a bioshield bill in July last year, but Senate appropriators balked at

> language that

would have made spending automatic, saying that would undermine their

> authority to

oversee and determine annual spending and create an entitlement for the

> drug industry.

>

> In the

compromise unanimously approved by the Senate in May and endorsed by the

> House Wednesday,

Congress agreed to spend $5.6 billion over the next decade while

> retaining

control over how the money is appropriated.

>

> Among the agents

to be included in Project Bioshield are smallpox, anthrax, botulism

> toxin, plague

and Ebola (news - web sites).

[Guest guest]

I understand, Janet, I hit brick walls on this every day. It is ridiculously

frustrating on every level. And to have to fight this fight when

you are chronically ill is unbelievably unjust.

However, I am beginning to recognize that this is a numbers game. Public

awareness of mold is low

because of the relatively small numbers of cases that have been reported. This

is no doubt due to the

lack of diagnosis, and that is owing to the claimed dearth of research on the

subject. Don't get me started on that....

If a large number of individuals were to make contact on this, then it gets on

the administrative radar screen, and the first

public official to address the issue becomes a white knight. I just read that

300 calls per day were coming into my senator's

office this week on the gay marriage issue. It's all about volume, despite the

intensity of your and my experiences.

You and I are just two little affected people, but our stories have power in

their truth, Janet. Like it or not, you are part of the movement -- stay with

us.

> Over the last year you wouldnt believe how many congressmen and senators I

> have written to AND called. nothing.And I have a high profile government case.

> Janet

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I understand, Janet, I hit brick walls on this every day. It is ridiculously

frustrating on every level. And to have to fight this fight when

you are chronically ill is unbelievably unjust.

However, I am beginning to recognize that this is a numbers game. Public

awareness of mold is low

because of the relatively small numbers of cases that have been reported. This

is no doubt due to the

lack of diagnosis, and that is owing to the claimed dearth of research on the

subject. Don't get me started on that....

If a large number of individuals were to make contact on this, then it gets on

the administrative radar screen, and the first

public official to address the issue becomes a white knight. I just read that

300 calls per day were coming into my senator's

office this week on the gay marriage issue. It's all about volume, despite the

intensity of your and my experiences.

You and I are just two little affected people, but our stories have power in

their truth, Janet. Like it or not, you are part of the movement -- stay with

us.

> Over the last year you wouldnt believe how many congressmen and senators I

> have written to AND called. nothing.And I have a high profile government case.

> Janet

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I recommend that as many of us mold-impacted/mold-ill people make or

contribute to websites that share our stories fully AND that we start sending a

message with these websites in emails to all we know and all they know, and so

on,

to media, etc. I like the idea very much of our voices becoming louder - we

need more advocacy, perhaps, in the media.

My question is: How are our school children supposed to learn in a frequently

toxic environment? How can our country sicken its people and expect the

country to remain strong and competitive worldwide? This is a matter of national

security. Building practices and remediation, recognition of the problem and

diagnoses, treatments, studies - all this must be very aggressively pursued to

strengthen the country itself. Most of what is mentioned on this board is about

the tragedy of individual homes and offices being moldy - so many of them, it

is just terrible - the needless suffering is so tragic. Consider that the

children of our nation are in schools with mold, too - very often - the indoor

air

quality is suspected of being poor in from 1/3 to 1/2 of schools, nationwide.

The implications of this are terrible to contemplate. We must force a change

by being very LOUD and persistent. Please, tell your stories, put them on the

web and in the media, it is imperative to tell people and the government about

this problem.

To all of you out there who have suffered from these injustices, I understand

and ache for your losses. But let's get organized and raise up our voices,

together! I agree with your statements, . " You and I are just two little

affected people, but our stories have power in their truth, Janet. Like it

or not, you are part of the movement -- stay with

us.- "

Brinchman

www.schoolmoldhelp.org

www.weikertfund.org

[Guest guest]

I recommend that as many of us mold-impacted/mold-ill people make or

contribute to websites that share our stories fully AND that we start sending a

message with these websites in emails to all we know and all they know, and so

on,

to media, etc. I like the idea very much of our voices becoming louder - we

need more advocacy, perhaps, in the media.

My question is: How are our school children supposed to learn in a frequently

toxic environment? How can our country sicken its people and expect the

country to remain strong and competitive worldwide? This is a matter of national

security. Building practices and remediation, recognition of the problem and

diagnoses, treatments, studies - all this must be very aggressively pursued to

strengthen the country itself. Most of what is mentioned on this board is about

the tragedy of individual homes and offices being moldy - so many of them, it

is just terrible - the needless suffering is so tragic. Consider that the

children of our nation are in schools with mold, too - very often - the indoor

air

quality is suspected of being poor in from 1/3 to 1/2 of schools, nationwide.

The implications of this are terrible to contemplate. We must force a change

by being very LOUD and persistent. Please, tell your stories, put them on the

web and in the media, it is imperative to tell people and the government about

this problem.

To all of you out there who have suffered from these injustices, I understand

and ache for your losses. But let's get organized and raise up our voices,

together! I agree with your statements, . " You and I are just two little

affected people, but our stories have power in their truth, Janet. Like it

or not, you are part of the movement -- stay with

us.- "

Brinchman

www.schoolmoldhelp.org

www.weikertfund.org