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April 12, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Pentagon's Missteps Stalled New Vaccines"

Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) (04/12/02) P. A13; Gugliotta, Guy

The Pentagon is currently scrambling to develop a new generation of vaccines that would protect military personnel--and possibly other U.S. citizens as well--from a bioterrorist attack. Nevertheless, it is expected to be years before any of the new vaccines can actually be used.  Many experts, both inside and outside the military, say that the armed forces could have avoided this situation if they had paid attention when experts issued repeated warnings that the vaccine program was seriously inadequate.  Moreover, experts say, the program the Pentagon did have was underfunded.  The Pentagon also made a number of mistakes in the few attempts it made to create, test, and obtain approval for vaccines.  Last year's anthrax attacks stimulated the military into exploring ways to manufacture vaccines reliably and in large quantities, obtain approval for vaccines that have been lying around for years as experimental medications, and creating and testing new vaccines.

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