It AIN'T OVER til it's over!

[Guest guest]

> Chicago Tribune

> June 23, 2000

>

> House Panel Probes Anthrax Program

>

> Possible Errors By Military Targeted Amid Fears That Vaccine Will Soon Run

> Out

>

> By Kilian, Washington Bureau

>

> WASHINGTON -- Congress on Thursday launched an investigation into possible

> mismanagement of the Pentagon's controversial anthrax immunization program

amid warnings

> that the military will exhaust all usable supplies of the vaccine next month.

>

> It could be months before new, safe and reliable supplies of the vaccine can

be obtained and as

> long as two years before a total immunization of U.S. armed forces can get

under way,

> according to a Defense Department spokesman.

>

> Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Armed Services military

personnel

> subcommittee, said he will call Defense Undersecretary Rudy DeLeon and other

Pentagon

> officials to testify on the growing crisis at a hearing July 13.

>

> " Our concerns are the threat posed by weaponized anthrax, the safety of our

servicemen and

> service women, and the potency of the vaccine, " Buyer said.

>

> The Pentagon's only source of the anthrax vaccine, Bioport Corp. of Lansing,

Mich., has failed

> to pass recent government tests of its product for effectiveness and

reliability, and the federal

> Food and Drug Administration has withheld approval of new batches of the

vaccine.

>

> Though Defense Secretary Cohen ordered all 2.4 million active-duty and

reserve

> uniformed personnel to begin inoculations two years ago, supply and

reliability problems have

> compelled the Pentagon to restrict the shots to personnel assigned to Korea,

Saudi Arabia and

> the Persian Gulf states--areas where U.S. troops might face the highest

presumed threat of

> biological warfare attacks.

>

> Pilots and air crews who could be ordered to fly into these areas have also

been required to

> undergo the six-shot, 18-month series of immunizations.

>

> Only about 570,000 armed service members have received even one of the shots

since the

> program began.

>

> " This is indeed a life-and-death issue, " said Rep. Neil Abercrombie

(D-Hawaii), ranking

> Democrat on the military personnel panel.

>

> According to Rep. Walter (R-N.C.), another subcommittee member, the

government has

> already paid Bioport some $100 million to produce the vaccine.

>

> Buyer, who received two anthrax shots as an Army officer serving in the

Persian Gulf war, said

> he was not siding with another group of 25 congressmen who have called for a

halt to the

> immunization program because of concern over adverse health effects from the

shots.

>

> Though he suffered for three years from what is called gulf war syndrome

following his Middle

> Eastern tour, Buyer said he believes there was no link between his ailments

and the anthrax

> inoculations he received.

>

> " The threat of weaponized anthrax is real, " he said.

>

> But the failure of the Pentagon to obtain reliable new supplies of the vaccine

after present stocks

> run out leaves the military in a precarious situation, he said.

>

> " If it can't get it from Bioport, where is the Pentagon to go for anthrax

vaccine? " Buyer said.

> " This is a single-source item. "

>

> Anthrax, which is believed to be in the military arsenals of North Korea, Iraq

and several other

> nations, is a biological agent so toxic that a single inhalation is usually

fatal. There is little or no

> effective treatment for victims who have not undergone immunization, according

to Cohen.

>

> In testing for reliability, the FDA requires the vaccine to be administered

full strength to one set

> of laboratory guinea pigs, one-third strength to another set and one-27th

strength to a third. The

> guinea pigs are then exposed to anthrax spores. To meet FDA standards, all the

guinea pigs in

> the first set and nearly all those in the second set are supposed to survive,

though all those in the

> last set die.

>

> In the recent tests of Bioport vaccine, all the guinea pigs in the second set

died as well.

>

> More than 300 military personnel, including some veteran pilots, have refused

to undergo the

> inoculations because of fears of permanent damage from side effects.