Anthrax military vaccination program

Note Dr. Sue Bailey, Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs, released a statement on June 29, 1999 that almost one million shots given, the anthrax immunization is proving to be one of the safest vaccination programs on record. The above reports occurred for 50 service members at one installation alone. Note that no number of military personnel was mentioned at this installation, nor did it give any percentages of the above reaction patterns... 

The U.S. military s Web site for information related to the anthrax vaccination program. Includes information about anthrax and its use as a biological weapon, Q and A about the vaccine, a newsletter, and a section on related links. 

Critics of the DOD s vaccination program have also posited the argument that AVA administration should be made voluntary. But so long as the US military considers anthrax a real threat, by allowing some to refuse what is deemed medically necessary for all would detract from the military s ability to conduct operations, not to mention harming discipline and morale. 

In December 1997, Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced a departmentwide anthrax immunization program for high-risk military personnel. Implementation began in March 1998. On May 18, 1998, the Secretary authorized the vaccination of all military forces (Cohen, 1998). Almost 2.5 million troop-equivalent doses of vaccine were required to implement the Secretary s decision, much more than had ever been produced by the licensed manufacturer in its entire history. Prior to Desert Storm, the primary vaccine users had been veterinary, laboratory, and industrial workers at risk of infection, for whom an estimated 60,000 doses of Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed (AVA) were distributed between 1974 and 1989, an average of 4,533 doses per year (foellenbeck et al., 2002). During Desert Storm, approximately 150,000 troops received 300,000 doses of AVA, without accurate recording of recipients or adverse reactions. 

This is not the first time in history that military personnel have been ordered to be immunized against a possible BW agent, nor is the current policy debate over anthrax vaccinations for the US military unprecedented. Immunization programs to protect soldiers from infectious diseases— whether they be naturally present or in the form of a BW threat—go back at least four centuries, and some of these have also been quite controversial. For example, whether or not to continue vaccination of US troops against smallpox had been hotly debated, especially throughout the 1980s. 

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