Subject: [Anthrax-no] list of reasons vaccine may be unsafe
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 17:57:06 -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>

Here is a list of reasons the vaccine may not be safe.

a) There are no published studies looking at long-term safety.

b) Kathryn Zoon, head of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and
Research of FDA, has said that "data for clinical studies conducted on
the long-term health effects of taking the anthrax vaccine have not been
submitted to the FDA." (Letter from Zoon to Eddington, April 28, 1998).
c) Less than 10,000 persons received the vaccine prior to the Gulf War.
Post-vaccination surveillance for long-term effects was not performed
systematically on this group.

d) The 150,000 plus Gulf vets who received the vaccine from the US
cannot be studied because of irregularities in their records: DOD did
not record the vaccinations in their immunization cards, and the master
lists which recorded the vaccinations have all been "lost".

e) The 1994 Rockefeller Committee Senate report suggested that use
against inhaled anthrax was experimental, as no data in humans exists
regarding its use for this indication. The report also suggested that
support troops, preferentially vaccinated compared to combat troops,
suffered a higher incidence of Gulf War illness.

f) Troops that were vaccinated but never deployed to the Gulf theater
have become ill.

g) French troops, who were neither vaccinated, nor received
pyridostigmine, were exposed to other toxic materials in the Gulf, and
reportedly, there is no Gulf War illness in the French troops (per
French defense dept. and the British newsletter Trust and Verify.)

What this means is that DOD is experimenting on 2.4 million Americans
and possibly others. (I believe the Canadians used US vaccine in their
program this year.) Either DOD never bothered to collect information
about long-term safety, or it has suppressed that data. Although
anthrax vaccine is FDA-approved, it was approved in 1970, when the
approval process was less rigorous than it is today, and FDA used
efficacy data collected FOR AN EARLIER VACCINE, and accepted the absence
of long-term safety data.

Since DOD has shown little interest in demonstrating that anthrax
vaccine is safe in the standard ways, I believe it has forfeited its
right to use this vaccine.

--
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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