Subject: [Anthrax-no] Rep. Gilman's remarks with Anthrax Legislation

Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 01:46:42 EDT

From: TRempfer@aol.com

Reply-To: Anthrax-no@onelist.com

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

From: TRempfer@aol.com

Rep Gilman appeared during the hearing yesterday and made remarks. Very

encouraging he showed up since he wasn't even on the committee. Also, the

full text of his official remarks as he introduced the bill on Monday on the

floor of the House is here:

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HREF="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r106:1:./temp/~r106AVjTgA:e0:">~r1

06AVjTgA:e0: at thomas.loc.gov

</A> and the text is also below for posting, if desired:

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

------------------------------------------------------------------------

HALTING THE ANTHRAX VACCINATION PROGRAM, H.R. 2548 -- HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

(Extension of Remarks - July 19, 1999)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

in the House of Representatives

MONDAY, JULY 19, 1999

•Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce H.R. 2548 , a bill to

halt the implementation of the Department of Defenses' Anthrax Vaccination

Program. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this worthy

legislation.

•This legislation would halt the continued implementation of the force-wide

Anthrax Vaccination Program within the Department of Defense. As my

colleagues may know, this program was the result of a decision reached by the

Secretary of Defense early last year that mandatory vaccination of all

personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces was necessary.

•Concerns about the program began shortly after its implementation earlier

this year and have increased as the number of troops receiving the vaccine

has increased. These problems attracted the attention of the Government

Reform Subcommittee on National Security, which initiated a series of

hearings in March. To date, the subcommittee has had three hearings, with a

fourth scheduled for this week.

•The congressional hearings held in March, April, and June have raised a

number of concerns about the vaccination program including its purpose, its

value, the manner in which it is being carried out, and its effects on those

who serve in uniform. These concerns have been heightened by recent media

reports and information circulating among those affected by the vaccine.

Subsequently, my office, and those of many of my colleagues, has received an

increasing number of contacts from concerned constituents, both members of

the Armed Forces, as well as their distraught parents or relatives.

•The Secretary of Defense set out four specific conditions that had to be met

before the vaccination program could start: First, supplemental testing to

assure sterility, safety, potency, and purity of the vaccine stockpile;

second, implementation of a system for fully tracking anthrax immunizations;

third, approval of operational plans to administer the vaccine and

communications plans to inform military personnel; and fourth,

•review of medical aspects of the program by an independent expert.

•According to the hearing testimony before the subcommittee, none of these

conditions was satisfactorily addressed before the vaccine program was

implemented.

•The most prominent concern raised relates to the overall effectiveness of

the vaccine. The FDA approval cited by the Defense Department was for a

vaccine that was designed to protect workers in the woolen industry from

cutaneous contact with anthrax spores. Conversely, the primary anthrax threat

facing military personnel is not from cutaneous, but weaponized versions of

the bacteria, which are inhaled by their victims. There has been little or no

testing of the vaccine's effectiveness in humans against this form of

anthrax. Some testing has been done on animals with mixed results, the most

promising returns coming from laboratory monkeys. However, to assume a drug

that has achieved moderately successful results in primates will have a

similar response with humans is only the start of basic research, not a

definitive conclusion based on solid scientific evidence.

•Moreover, Mr. Speaker, there is no evidence from the Defense Department that

this vaccine would be effective against altered or multiple anthrax strains.

Given that the Soviet Union placed a high priority on the development of the

deliverable multiple anthrax strains, this is a legitimate concern. Analysis

of tissue samples from Russians killed in an accidental anthrax release from

a production facility in the 1970's have indicated infection from a

combination of individual strains.

•A second major concern relates to the overall safety of the vaccine. As with

any drug, there are concerns about harmful side effects. Since 1970, the

primary recipients of the vaccine have been several thousand mill workers and

mostly DOD researchers. This limited civilian usage of the drug has resulted

in limited evidence of adverse reactions. The one exception to this was the

inoculation of approximately 150,000 gulf war troops. However, the Defense

Department's poor recordkeeping after the gulf war has made gleaning any

useful information about the vaccine's effectiveness or harmful side effects

impossible. In fact, a Senate committee studying gulf war illness in the

103rd Congress did not rule out the use of the vaccine as a cause of gulf war

syndrome.

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