Veteran Battles Pentagon's Vaccine, Seeks Justice for All

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Veteran Battles Pentagon's Vaccine

Thursday, 10 April 2008, 10:25 am

Column: D.

Veteran Battles Pentagon's Vaccine, Seeks " Justice for All "

By D.

t r u t h o u t | Report

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040908A.shtml

US Air Force Reserve Maj. " Buzz " Rempfer, a 43-year-old Connecticut

native, is hoping he is nearing the end of nearly a decade's perpetual and

unprecedented battle with the Pentagon over the legality, safety and

effectiveness of mandatory anthrax vaccinations.

His and others' efforts have already netted favorable federal court rulings.

They invalidated the original Department of Defense mandate and the vaccine's

initial licensing.

Now Rempfer, formerly of West Suffield, Connecticut, and now of Tucson,

Arizona, awaits a ruling from the Air Force Board for Correction of Military

Records. The board could award him back pay for lost time and promotions in the

Air National Guard. If the board does not, he is likely to appeal back to the

federal court. It was that court which decided in his favor by forcing another

ruling from the Air Force panel.

However, much more significant to Rempfer is a broader public service goal.

Rempfer and his deceased close friend, US Air Force Reserve Maj. " Russ "

E. Dingle, both pilots, fought their battle for others adversely affected by the

vaccine. It was their belief that any victory, legally, must become a crucial

military servicewide precedent, clearing all other vaccine-resisting veterans

from punishment. Rempfer is acting as executor of Dingle's East Hartford,

Connecticut, estate.

In more than five years of research, Dingle and Rempfer concluded the anthrax

vaccine was improperly licensed and ineffective. They found it created thousands

of adverse reactions and was unnecessary. The threat of a foreign anthrax attack

is extremely remote, they discovered. And, if there ever is such an attack,

those exposed can take antibiotics afterward, they confirmed. That would avoid

six anthrax vaccinations over 18 months as well as annual booster shots.

Significantly, the infamous 2001 anthrax powder attacks, killing five people

and sickening 17 others after 9/11, were domestic and not foreign in nature.

They were allegedly inspired by laboratory insiders who mailed the powder to the

offices of two US senators, a number of national news offices in New York City,

and elsewhere. The incidents are still under active FBI investigation.

That probe, says Fox News, recently identified three or four new suspects at

an Army bioweapons lab intricately involved in helping to support the need for

the mandated vaccine. They include a deputy commander, an anthrax scientist and

a microbiologist. Curiously, at that point in time, the vaccine's continued use

was being threatened by closer scrutiny from the US Department of Defense and

other Bush administration officials. That review withered away after the

attacks. However, the DOD then used the domestic incidents to claim the foreign

threat was " real. " and

In the years before and after those episodes, Dingle's and Rempfer's findings

that the vaccine was improperly licensed and thus unnecessarily mandated were

eventually vindicated by a combination of a federal judge's rulings and

subsequent events. After the two officers' initial investigations, the US

Government Accounting Office (GAO) reported that the vaccine's systemic adverse

reaction rate was 100 times higher than the 0.2 percent rate reported on the

product's label.

Adverse vaccine reactions include immune disorders, muscle and joint pains,

headaches, rashes, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, chills and fever. At least half a

dozen deaths and a warning against birth defects were listed on the vaccine's

January 31, 2002, package insert, but they have never been proven to be

vaccine-related. The vaccine is not recommended for use by pregnant women or for

those who have experienced a history of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. And, last

October, the GAO identified a potential $100 million in government waste

annually. The anthrax vaccine stockpile for civilian emergencies had been

improperly administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, the GAO

report said.

Rempfer said he does not want to comment about the prospective Air Force

panel's ruling. He said full attention now must be on restoring the honor and

the health of all the dedicated servicemen and women who were either punished

for refusing to comply with the illegal order to take the vaccine, or who became

sick from it. If the Air Force panel rules in Rempfer's favor, the simple,

overwhelming legal question will be: how can two military officers win damage

awards and nullify their punishments for refusing the vaccine without all others

similarly disciplined being cleared as well?

Despite scores of protests against the vaccine nationwide, hundreds of

military service members have been punished to varying degrees for failing to

obey orders to be vaccinated. Some have been court-martialed, others fined or

demoted and still others removed from the service. Most prolonged attempts to

resist or overturn the penalties have met with failure. And yet, a federal

survey in 2002 indicated that " two-thirds of the Guard and reserve pilots and

air crew members did not support DOD's mandatory (anthrax vaccinations) or any

future immunization programs planned for other biological warfare agents. "

Meanwhile, thousands of service members have developed sicknesses, some

extremely debilitating, that have been linked by them or others to one or more

of the six-shot vaccine series or the annual boosters.

Rempfer's and Dingle's efforts marked one of the most prolonged, persistent

high-level bureaucratic military policy fights waged in modern times. Three

other former military service members, A. Sullivan of Cedar Park, Texas;

Doug Rokke of Rantoul, Illinois, and Nichols, a North Carolina resident,

all veterans of the first Iraq war, are known likewise for incredible

persistence in the face of the powerful and intractable federal bureaucracy.

They, as well, continue, after more than a decade of work, to lobby the Pentagon

and the US Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to recognize veterans'

hazardous exposures to deadly chemicals as well as the dust from explosions of

US depleted uranium munitions.

In their own struggle, Rempfer and Dingle pressed and complained their way

through almost every branch of state and federal government during two

presidential administrations. They were supported by others, including retired

Air Force Lt. Col. , of Pittsboro, North Carolina, Maine's Dr.

Doctor Meryl Nass and Washington, DC, attorneys J. " Lou " s and Mark

S. Zaid. As their mission progressed, they picked up the continuing support of

Connecticut's Democratic attorney general, Blumenthal, and US Rep.

Shays, a Stamford, Connecticut, Republican. Both Blumenthal and

Shays attempted unsuccessfully to block use of the controversial vaccine.

" Two federal judges have now confirmed the Pentagon broke the law by forcing

service members to take anthrax vaccine from 1998 to late 2005, " said

, a 1991 Gulf War F-16 pilot. " The military could have lawfully used

the vaccine all along simply by asking the president to waive service members'

right to informed consent about the risks of this dangerous vaccine, " he said.

" Instead, military and civilian leaders willfully misled the troops to protect

Presidents Clinton and Bush - not the troops. "

" Since 2005, " said, " mandating the vaccine is now lawful only

because of the FDA's willingness to ignore clear evidence in military medical

records of the deaths and disabilities associated with the anthrax vaccine. Just

as the government misled the American people about the threat from Iraqi anthrax

and the source of the anthrax letter attacks, it continues to mislead the troops

about the safety and efficacy of the anthrax vaccine. "

Blumenthal jumped into the vaccine fray again three years ago by filing a

friend of the court brief in a federal lawsuit brought by six anonymous service

members challenging the drug. At that time, he said: " Major Rempfer has

performed an extraordinary public service, a very noble and significant service

in alerting the nation to the dangers of the anthrax vaccine at a time of

tremendous stress on our military. He has selflessly stepped forward and

volunteered to serve his country.... He has unquestioned expertise and skill as

well as impressive dedication and patriotism. "

But Rempfer, who is writing a book on the vaccine dispute, has always credited

Dingle with the critical research, ultimately leading to federal court rulings

temporarily blocking mandatory vaccine use. " Lt. Col. Dingle's career, " Rempfer

wrote in an obituary, " was uniquely distinguished by his noble advocacy for

soldier's health rights, testifying as an expert witness for the US Congress in

1999, as well as serving as an expert for the Government Accountability Office

and the Connecticut Attorney General's Office. He is missed dearly, but we will

eternally benefit from his life's accomplishments, courage, service, leadership,

and most importantly, his honor. "

Dingle considered the vaccine program and its punishments incredibly unjust.

He wrote: " When the US military no longer allows for professional dissent within

its ranks; when the US military mandates that any and all orders be obeyed

regardless of their moral or legal basis; when the US military allows its

members to defend themselves with 'I was just following orders,' then the US

military will cease to attract men and women of principal and honor.... It will

end up resembling the military organizations that we have fought for the last 60

years. "

In October 1998, Dingle and Rempfer first became " Tiger Team Alpha. " Col.

Walter Burns, a former commander of the 103rd Fighter Wing of the Connecticut

Air National Guard, created the two-man team to investigate the history, safety

and legality of the anthrax vaccine. The antigens stimulating immunity had been

mandated for all 2.4 million military service members only weeks earlier. After

a couple of months' of intensive research, Dingle and Rempfer concluded the

vaccine was improperly licensed, and potentially a health danger to the troops.

Those findings are still supported by many today. (Original Tiger Team Alpha

Research)

However, BioPort Corporation, now Emergent BioSolutions, the vaccine's

manufacturer, insists the drug is safe and effective. That position is fully

endorsed by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Pentagon. Nonetheless,

the manufacturer's health warnings and precautions are intricate, including what

are characterized as rare, unproven serious reactions.

The vaccine has a long history of controversy over its safety and licensing

dating back to before the 1991 Gulf War, and especially in the years after the

conflict, when scores of service members taking it complained of adverse

reactions. BioPort purchased the vaccine and its plant in 1998 from the former

Michigan Biologics Products Institute, created in 1996 by the State of Michigan.

That purchase inspired its own public flak.

Two of the purchasers were formerly part of the state operations. A third was

former US Adm. Crowe, first head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under

former President H.W. Bush, then ambassador to Great Britain in the

presidential administration of Bill Clinton. Crowe was said by ABC News to have

acquired his interest without investing a penny of his own money.

His influential ownership interest was useful politically and security-wise,

since Fuad El-Hibri, a Lebanese Arab with German and US citizenship with lengthy

business experience became the company's CEO.

Despite the Tiger Team's thumbs down on injections, Colonel Burns decided it

was unwise to oppose the across-the-board mandate announced by then-Secretary of

Defense Cohen. Ironically, it was US Senator Cohen who ten years earlier

had participated in a Congressional investigation deeming that the very same

vaccine had classically created too many adverse reactions and was ineffective

for inhalation exposures.

As a result of Burns's decision, half a dozen pilots, rejecting the vaccine in

light of Dingle's and Rempfer's probe, were forced out of the National Guard in

January 1999. Rempfer and Dingle were then pressured to resign. Despite their

loss of National Guard status, Rempfer and Dingle switched to the Air Force

Reserve where their superiors promoted them. Rempfer continues to fly today.

Dingle, 49, died of cancer in September 2005 after retiring from the Reserve.

His double career included more than 16 years of service as a pilot and captain

for American Airlines in the Boeing 767 and 737 and the McDonnell- S-80,

and 21 years as an instructor pilot and flight commander in the Air Force.

Eleven months after Burns banished them, Blumenthal tried to force

reinstatements for all of the pilots. But then State Adjutant Gen. Cugno

denied the request, and Republican Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell refused to back up

Blumenthal's opinion.

Rempfer and Dingle began their complaint to clear their names in the US Court

of Claims three years ago. It ultimately moved into the federal court and

finally to Air Force adjudicators. The two men insisted they were " coerced " out

of the Guard in the spring of 1999 by Colonel Burns, their former commander,

after their vaccine inquiry. Yet, it was an investigation Burns himself had

requested, and it showed the vaccine was improperly licensed. At the time, Burns

insisted Rempfer, Dingle and six other pilots resigned on their own with " no bad

blood. " But Rempfer has produced a transcript of Burns's comments saying the

word " traitor " came to mind when Burns thought about their resistance to taking

the vaccine. Burns nonetheless simultaneously admitted the vaccine had its

problems.

On March 14, Washington, DC, US District Judge on remanded

Rempfer's and Dingle's complaint back to the Air Force panel, which had rejected

Rempfer's appeal to rescind his and Dingle's punishment. The panel failed to

properly consider the evidence before it, on ruled. on's decision

followed an April 2005 finding from US District Judge Emmet Sullivan, inspired

in part by Rempfer's, Dingle's and their colleagues' extensive research.

Sullivan temporarily halted the Defense Department mandatory anthrax vaccine

inoculations for all 2.4 million service members. They had been initially

ordered in 1998 by former US Secretary of Defense Cohen.

Sullivan declared that the anthrax vaccine is being used for an unapproved

purpose and thus is " an investigational drug. " It was initially approved for

combating anthrax obtained through human skin contact with animals, yet it is

instead being used for manufactured anthrax spores inhaled through the nose, he

said. It thus requires consent from those vaccinated, he wrote. However, the

judge left untouched an emergency authorization from federal health officials

which allowed voluntary vaccinations. Sullivan's edict required that service

members be told about the unlicensed drug's possible side effects, and ordered

the consent of those soldiers, sailors and airmen if they were to be vaccinated.

He decided the vaccine was not licensed property for its intended military use

and remanded the complaint back to the FDA for remedial action. His final order

was issued April 6, 2005.

Later, the FDA made vaccine licensing adjustments to comply with Sullivan's

orders, and after a mandatory vaccine hiatus, allowed mandatory vaccinations to

be restarted. The forced inoculations continue today, even though Rempfer and

seven other servicemen brought still another federal court lawsuit challenging

the FDA's remedial license changes. Their challenge was rejected February 29 by

Washington, DC, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, who ruled the FDA had not acted

" arbitrarily or capriciously. "

Four decades ago, the vaccine was largely used by agricultural workers,

veterinarians and some in the wool industry. It had been scientifically tested

and manufactured to protect veterinarians and those in the leather industry

against skin-to-skin wound contact with infected farm animals. An initial

scientific study in 1962 included an insufficient number of inhalation exposures

of those working in goat hair mills to reach any conclusions of the vaccine's

effectiveness.

Yet, once the military began to use it, the vaccine was aimed at protecting

service members against inhalation of manufactured anthrax spores spread by

enemy explosions or devices. Defense Secretary Cohen and other federal officials

supporting the vaccine pointed to its successful scientific tests with animals.

But the laboratory animals' health, ultimately, was not closely observed for as

long a time as armed service veterans claiming sicknesses from inoculations

were. Also, some of animal tests were inconclusive.

Despite the forced vaccinations, history reveals no successful enemy attacks

worldwide - only an unsuccessful Tokyo spore release from a building laboratory

by the terrorist group known as the Aum Shinrikyo cult in June 1993. Again,

according to the FBI, the US mail and other anthrax spore attacks soon after the

9/11 terror attacks were reported by the FBI to be inspired by a domestic lab

operation. Anthrax powder is very expensive and dangerous to manufacture, while

some other unrelated biological agents are more easily created in the lab. Those

exposed to the US spores in 2001 were successfully treated with ciprofloxacin or

doxycycline antibacterial drugs. Yet, government officials still insisted some

exposed to the deadly anthrax powder should be vaccinated, even though the

vaccine is not said to be effective after spore exposure.

The attacks came at a time when the vaccine's effectiveness was being

questioned on a number of fronts. For instance, at the time, the GAO's inquiry

found: " Diplomatic security officials in the State Department and Central

Intelligence Agency analysts agree that they have no clear evidence that US

missions or interests overseas are threatened by foreign state or terrorist

attacks using biological or chemical agents at this time. "

While the vaccine is the only one to be mandated by the Pentagon and other US

agencies to protect against such attacks, there are twenty to thirty known

similar potentially deadly, infective biological agents available in many

countries. And, the anthrax vaccine is inappropriate for all of them. Some 18 of

them are listed by the Federation of American Scientists.

" Dennie " is a former state and federal court reporter,

specializing in investigations, for the Hartford Courant. Since the 1970s, he

has written extensively about irregularities in the Connecticut Superior Court,

Probate Court systems for disciplining both judges and lawyers for misconduct,

and failures of the Pentagon and the VA to assist sick veterans returning from

war. (He can be reached at denniew@optonline).

Randi J. Airola, © 517-819-5926