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Archives | (July 2001)
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The Anthrax Vaccine: Making Our Soldiers Guinea Pigs Conclusion (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 6 of 8 In addition to the human trials, DOD also conducted a number of animal experiments on vaccines that contained a squalene adjuvant covering a wide range of diseases including toxic shock, malaria and, most importantly, anthrax! The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) has also sponsored human trials for vaccines using squalene as an adjuvant. In fact, such research began as early as 1987. Through 1999, the NIAID had conducted at least 23 trials of vaccines with a squalene adjuvant involving almost 1,200 human subjects! Still, DOD officials have consistently insisted that they did not administer vaccines containing squalene to troops deployed to the Persian Gulf. Yet, GAO investigators found that this assertion, too, did not exactly square with the facts. Their 1999 report to Congress states: “We cannot say definitively whether or not Gulf War-era veterans were given vaccines with adjuvant formulations containing squalene for a number of reasons. Although DOD officials told us they did not administer such vaccines, they stated they did not have documentation on the process and results of decision-making related to the administration of the vaccines at the time of the Gulf War. Also, some officials involved in the decisions were no longer employed with DOD at the time of our review, and we were either unable to locate them or they declined to be interviewed.” In other words, at best, DOD simply doesn’t know, at worst they are covering up the truth! But why all the fuss? The reason is that while small amounts of squalene can boost the immune system, its effect is multiplied as much as 20,000 times with each successive dose. So, while a little bit might be helpful, too much can overcharge the immune system and actually trigger immune diseases – like Gulf War Syndrome! Still, if there were no squalene in the vaccine, as DOD claimed, it wouldn’t matter. The only trouble is, there was. THE TRUTH COMES OUTAfter years of denials by DOD, on September 28, 2000, the Food and Drug Administration announced that that it had discovered squalene in five lots of the anthrax vaccine. DOD officials were quick to assert that the amount of squalene discovered was so small that it could not be detected until a new and more sensitive test had been developed – this despite the fact that the test employed by the FDA had been in common use for two decades. They also claimed that the squalene that had been detected was probably from contamination that occurred during the testing. They then went on to claim that there was no assurance that the vaccine actually administered contained squalene in the first place, and that even if it did, the small amounts detected could not possibly have any health consequences. |
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