Fwd: Anthrax Vax Letter Campaign - kick it up a notch!

[Guest guest]

Let's kick the letter writing campaign up a notch!

I've taken Kathy's letter, changed all the " I's " / " Me's " , to " We's/Us " ,

signed it: (See attached), and have made a sheet for people to sign,

address, phone, etc...

(email Randice for that attachment of the Petition

Randice " <randice@m...>)

I'm off to take a generic letter, and a couple signature forms to our

VFW,

American Legion and Eagles here in Lansing and Charlotte. I dated the

letter for 1-8-04, and will go back to these places to pick up at that

time....

I also have my grandma/mother taking one to church with them on

Sunday to

get signatures. They will bring back to me, then, I'll mail out to

our

Senator. This is another awesome way of getting people involved and

getting

support.

I've also gotten ahold of the Nationals' for the American Legion and

am

getting them the information on the judge's order to get their

support. If

you're a member of a Legion/VFW, you may want to consider doing the

same.

In addition, the only enclosure I'm including is the product leaflet

for the

" bulk petitions " . I've mailed out already the judge's order with my

personal letter to my Senator. I've attached the letter(generic),

sign up

sheet, and product label (beneath letter) in case anyone else wants

to do

the same.

Randi

SAMPLE..........

Page 1 of 3

January 8, 2004

Senator Debbie Stabenow

280 E. Saginaw Hwy.

East Lansing, MI 48823

Subject: Supporting Judge Sullivan's position on the Illegal Mandate

of the

AVIP and help to Overturn the Feres Doctrine for our Military if you

want

my Vote!

Dear Senator Stabenow:

They're on the cover of Time Magazine as " Person of the

Year. " They put

their lives on the line for the rest of us on a daily basis; they face

conditions around the world that sometimes we can only imagine. In a

way

unknown since World War II, our country has rallied around our troops

in

the armed services with massive support and caring.

We're asking you to take this support and caring one step

further, a step

which only our members of Congress can take. As you know, Judge

Emmet G.

Sullivan, from the United States District Court for the District of

Columbia, has ordered a preliminary injunction regarding the

military's

mandatory anthrax vaccine. He wrote, " In the absence of a

presidential

waiver, defendants are enjoined from inoculating service members

without

their consent. "

At the end of his Opinion preceding this Order, the judge

wrote, " Absent

an informed consent or presidential waiver, the United States cannot

demand

that members of the armed forces serve as guinea pigs for

experimental drugs. "

We have waited and hoped these many long years for one judge,

either

military or civilian, to show the integrity, the courage to tell the

truth

about the anthrax vaccine, and the concern for our troops displayed by

Judge Sullivan. We now ask you to display the same integrity by

supporting

legislation to stop the mandatory anthrax vaccine program

completely. The

anthrax vaccine is a highly reactive, dangerous drug, produced under

questionable conditions, and used without regard for its consequences

on

our troops. Consider just a few relevant points:

· Where the vaccine's original label claimed a low systemic adverse

reaction rate of just 0.2% that has jumped to over 35% on the new

label;

and a 2003 GAO report says the total adverse reaction rate may be as

high

as 85%.

· Adverse reactions include not just dizziness, severe bone and joint

pain,

and migraine headaches, but also brain lesions, tumors and cysts,

autoimmune illnesses, severe skin lesions and infections, memory loss,

disorientation - and death. When we need the men and women of our

armed

services so greatly, do we really want to risk losing a percentage of

our

fighting forces to the effects of an unproven, unsafe vaccine?

· A 2001 GAO report found that out of the Air Reserve Component units

required to take the vaccine, a full 25% of the pilots either left the

service or transferred out of their units in order to avoid taking the

shots. They did not want the side effects of dizziness, for example,

while

in the cockpit; nor did they want to jeopardize their civilian flying

careers. Where are those pilots now? Certainly not able to help us

in our

war against terrorism.

Page 2 of 3

· Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed is, indeed, licensed - but it is not

licensed

for inhalation anthrax, resulting in a 1996 Investigational New Drug

application with the FDA. Had the FDA followed its own rules, it

would

have told the Dept. of Defense that its use of the vaccine was

illegal.

· The United States claims to have lost less than 500 troops to

casualties

during this second Gulf War. Yet nearly 11,000 troops have been sent

home

and/or released from duty due to non-combat reasons such as illness.

The

cocktail of vaccines our troops our required to take - which are often

administered contrary to normal vaccine protocol, sometimes all at

once, in

the absence of any data that this practice is safe - is at least as

threatening to them as enemy gunfire. Why must our troops fear the

actions

of their own government as much as they fear an enemy attack?

We're not normally persons who vote for our Congressional delegation

or our

President based on a single issue. We'd like to think that we

consider a

person's overall track record and his or her stand on a number of

different

issues before we make our choice in the voting booth. However, this

election year, this one issue is so critically important, we can see

it is

going to affect every vote we cast. It is unconscionable to us that

we

would treat our troops and veterans as medical guinea pigs, no matter

how

severe the threat is made out to be. To add insult to injury, we

then give

them no recourse - the Feres Doctrine, a body of law initiated by a

1950

Supreme Court decision, prevents our troops from seeking any redress

due to

medical malpractice or malfeasance despite the fact, as Congress

itself

wrote in 1996, that the Dept. of Defense has long been known to

conduct

medical experiments on the troops.

Yet our troops are the people who are on the front lines of our

nation,

both militarily and diplomatically; these are the people who should

receive

our best efforts. They should never face an attitude of callous

indifference; should never be subjected to vaccines or any other

experimental substances against their will; should be the first to

receive

top-notch medical care when they are ill or wounded, and should be

allowed

a legal remedy to redress injuries due to experimental drugs and

vaccines.

How we came to such a sorry state in our treatment of the troops

remains a

mystery to us. But we do know that you can help to rectify it before

anyone else comes down with life-long illnesses that cannot be cured;

and

before anyone else is forced to abandon a loved military career. We

ask -

no, we demand - that you support legislation to stop the Anthrax

Vaccine

Immunization Program completely, and that you do your job in taking

back

civilian control over our military. We demand that you resist any

attempt

at a presidential waiver, and that you work consistently, to the

utmost of

your ability, to provide adequate and immediate medical care for

those who

are ill and to clear the names of those who have refused the vaccine

in the

past. We also demand that you help overturn the Feres Doctrine,

which was

clearly never meant to provide the Dept. of Defense with an excuse to

conduct medical experiments without accountability.

You will be in good company. Senator Bingaman from

NM has also

voiced his concerns about the anthrax vaccine, submitting a Sense of

the

Senate Resolution calling for the correction of military records and

making

the vaccine program voluntary. Additionally, Senator Dodd from

CT has

also inquired of the FBI as to their ongoing investigation of the

illegal

status of the anthrax vaccine, to include illegal manufacturing

alterations

confirmed by the GAO and false statements allegedly made to Congress

by DoD

officials concerning the vaccine's investigational status.

Page 3 of 3

This is as much a life-and-death issue as the war itself. This is as

much

a constitutional issue as free speech. This is as much about

character,

integrity, and the courage to tell the truth as any issue you will

ever

face in your lifetime. Help us regain our legally guaranteed

freedoms;

help our troops. Stop the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program - and

in so

doing, make us proud to support you with our vote.

Sincerely,

See Attached

Enclosure: Product Leaflet for Biothrax (aka: Anthrax Vaccine

absorbed);

revised January 2002

Page 1 of 2

SEE: http://www.fda.gov/cber/label/biopava0131022LB.pdf

Excerpted QUOTES from FDA-approved label: January 2002

WARNINGS

Preliminary results of a recent unpublished retrospective study of

infants

born to women in the U.S. military service worldwide in 1998 and 1999

suggest that the vaccine may be linked with an increase in the number

of

birth defects when given during pregnancy (unpublished data,

Department of

Defense). Although these data are unconfirmed, pregnant women should

not be

vaccinated against anthrax unless the potential benefits of

vaccination

have been determined to outweigh the potential

risk to the fetus.

Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with BioThrax.

PRECAUTIONS

Pregnant women should not be vaccinated against anthrax unless the

potential benefits of vaccination clearly outweigh the potential

risks to

the fetus. (later...)

Post Licensure Adverse Event Surveillance

Data regarding potential adverse events following anthrax vaccination

are

available from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).8

The

report of an adverse event to VAERS is not proof that a vaccine

caused the

event. Because of the limitations of spontaneous reporting systems,

determining causality for specific types of adverse events, with the

exception of injection-site reactions, is often not possible using

VAERS

data alone. The following four paragraphs describe

spontaneous reports of adverse events, without regard to causality.

From 1990 to October 2001, over 2 million doses of BioThrax have been

administered in the United States. Through October 2001, VAERS

received

approximately 1850 spontaneous reports of adverse events. The most

frequently reported adverse events were erythema, headache,

arthralgia,

fatigue, fever, peripheral swelling, pruritus, nausea, injection site

edema, pain/tenderness and dizziness.

Approximately 6% of the reported events were listed as serious.

Serious

adverse events include those that result in death, hospitalization,

permanent disability or are life-threatening. The serious adverse

events

most frequently reported were in the following body system categories:

general disorders and administration site conditions, nervous system

disorders, skin and subcutaneous tissue

disorders, and musculoskeletal, connective tissue and bone disorders.

Anaphylaxis and/or other generalized hypersensitivity reactions, as

well as

serious local reactions, were reported to occur occasionally following

administration of BioThrax. None of these hypersensitivity reactions

have

been fatal.

Page 2 of 2

Other infrequently reported serious adverse events that have occurred

in

persons who have received BioThrax have included: cellulitis, cysts,

pemphigus vulgaris, endocarditis, sepsis, angioedema and other

hypersensitivity reactions, asthma, aplastic anemia, neutropenia,

idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, lymphoma, leukemia, collagen

vascular

disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis,

polyarteritis

nodosa, inflammatory arthritis, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barré

Syndrome, immune deficiency, seizure, mental status changes,

psychiatric

disorders, tremors, cerebrovascular accident (CVA), facial palsy,

hearing

and visual disorders, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis,

cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, syncope, glomerulonephritis,

renal

failure, spontaneous abortion and liver abscess. Infrequent reports

were

also received of multisystem disorders defined as chronic symptoms

involving at least two of the following three categories: fatigue,

mood-cognition, musculoskeletal system.

Reports of fatalities included sudden cardiac arrest (2), myocardial

infarction with polyarteritis nodosa (1), aplastic anemia (1),

suicide (1)

and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma (1).

END QUOTES

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