Subject: [Anthrax-no] Could this be the driving force behind the AVIP?
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 08:48:10 -0400
From: Meryl Nass <mnass@igc.apc.org>
Reply-To: Anthrax-no@onelist.com
To: "Anthrax-no@onelist.com" <Anthrax-no@onelist.com>
From: Meryl Nass <mnass@igc.apc.org>
When anthrax vaccinations were announced in December 1997, I thought the
program would be stopped as soon as authorities like Secretary Cohen
understood the dearth of supportive safety and efficacy data. I wrote
to him and Dr. Gerard Burrow in January 1998 to point out the unresolved
issues re anthrax vaccine and GWI, as well as what was known and unknown
of safety and efficacy. Neither replied.
During the subsequent year and a half, I have been amazed at the amount
of effort that has been expended by DOD to maintain the vaccination
program in spite of its serious shortcomings and probable lack of
efficacy.
Why?
Some have pointed to the $60 million contract with Bioport for vaccine
production. But that money goes only to the owners. Why have so many
at DOD risked so much in support of this program?
It has been estimated that it takes $200 - $300 million dollars to
develop, test and license a new vaccine. If the JVAP brings 12 vaccines
on board, development costs should exceed $2 billion. Manufacturing
costs will increase this considerably. A large vaccine infrastructure
will be created, with jobs for retiring military physicians and
scientists.
But it may not end there. Private industry is working on dozens of new
vaccines, with the goal of vaccinating the population for everything
from earaches to cancer. These vaccines will require new technologies
to be effective, and new adjuvants. None of the needed adjuvants are
currently licensed in the US.
Many vaccines in trial recently and currently have been tested by US
miilitary physicians, both on US servicemembers and on populations
overseas. These include vaccines for HIV, Hepatitis A (Hoke et al
[WRAIR], Vaccine, 1992 and J Infect Dis 1995), malaria, adenovirus,
cholera (Taylor et al, Infect Immun 1999 [USNMRID, Lima] etc.
It is possible that the US military population, with its history of
'volunteerism' for vaccine trials documented in the preceding paragraph,
will be used to test these new vaccines and the adjuvants that may be
included with them. (I mention adjuvants because evidence of their role
in autoimmunity already exists.) Pharmaceutical vaccines comprise a
multibillion dollar, rapidly growing industry.
Is it possible that the JVAP was developed to serve, in part, to test
vaccine constituents on a healthy young military population that will
subsequently be used for civilian vaccines? Is it possible that the
JVAP is an essential component of a burgeoning industry that will
provide very comfortable positions for scores of military medical
officers? Colonel David Franz, formerly a commander at Fort Detrick,
has already left to work for a contractor (Southern Research) who built
a new office in Frederick MD, the home of Fort Detrick.
These are suppositions. I welcome the comments and opinions of others.
Meryl Nass
--
Meryl Nass, M.D.
Parkview Hospital, Brunswick, Maine 04011
email mnass@igc.apc.org
phone (207) 865-0875
fax (207) 865-6975
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