Subject: [Anthrax-no] Alibek on anthrax vaccine
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 09:10:34 -0400
From: Meryl Nass <mnass@igc.apc.org>
Reply-To: Anthrax-no@onelist.com
To: "Anthrax-no@onelist.com" <Anthrax-no@onelist.com>,
     "Halloran, Larry" <Larry.Halloran@mail.house.gov>

From: Meryl Nass <mnass@igc.apc.org>

I'm just repeating a passage from an article posted earlier, for
emphasis. Ken Alibek, with a doctorate in "Anthrax", former head of the
Soviet anthrax biowarfare program, creator of highly virulent anthrax
strains (one of which bears his name), explains why anthrax vaccine,
even were it safe, would not work:

But even if the anthrax vaccine is safe and has nothing to do with Gulf
War
or other illnesses, is mandatory vaccination a smart policy? Alibek, for
one, thinks not. Any errant Russian biowarfare expert with a briefcase
full
of germs could help any of a dozen states weaponize any of a dozen
killers
besides anthrax -- plague, Marburg, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, you
name
it. "If an enemy of the United States knows that our army is vaccinated
against anthrax, they'll try to develop some other weapon -- they have
many
to choose from," Alibek said in an interview. What's more, the licensed
anthrax vaccine "probably wouldn't work," he believes, against at least
one
strain of anthrax genetically altered by Soviet scientists.

--
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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