The U.S. Defense Department must stop inoculating soldiers with the anthrax vaccine because it is still in an “investigational” stage and is being used without approval, according to attorneys for six U.S. military officers and Pentagon personnel said yesterday (see GSN, March 26).

The six are asking a U.S. District Court to issue a preliminary injunction preventing the Pentagon from administering the anthrax vaccine unless the recipients are informed of the potential side-effects and give consent, or if the president issued a waiver.  Such regulations are necessary for drugs still under investigation, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said.

“In some cases, they’re not even told it’s going to be an anthrax vaccination,” said John Michels Jr., an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Attorneys for the two defendants in the case — the Pentagon and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — have said the anthrax vaccine has been an accepted preventive measure for years.  The Pentagon does concede, though, that severe harmful reactions develop in approximately one in 100,000 vaccinations, the Washington Times reported.  At least 600,000 employees in the Defense Department have received the vaccination, and officials say they plan to immunize each of the 2.4 million members of the military.

“There are risks with all vaccines, your honor,” said Ronald Wiltsie, a Justice Department attorney who is representing the defendants.  “The risks here are no greater than a tetanus shot or MMR [measles, mumps, rubella],” he said (Patrick Badgley, Washington Times, May 8).

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