http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,95088,00.html
The Buck Stops (the
Anthrax Shots) Here
An Air Force doctor may face court-martial for refusing a
controversial vaccine, TIME Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson reports
|
|
Friday, Jan. 12, 2001
An Air Force officer has become the first military doctor to stand up to the
Pentagon and refuse to take its controversial anthrax vaccine. Captain John
Buck, an emergency physician at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., on
Thursday faced an Article 32 hearing — the military equivalent of a grand jury
hearing — for refusing to obey the order, and is now waiting to hear whether he
will face a court-martial that could send him to military prison for up to five
years.
"It's a real pickle of a situation," Buck told TIME on Friday,
saying the program would make sense only if it were voluntary. "This is
the first time the military has incorporated medicine into our plan of national
defense," Buck said. "But there are three foundations in medicine
—science, trust and patient rights — and the mandatory nature of this program
violates all three of them."
Last fall, Buck declined to take the first in a series of six anthrax shots
after being ordered to undergo vaccination before deploying to the Gulf state
of Bahrain. "If I was in an area that was being attacked with anthrax, I
would take the risk of taking it," Buck said. "But no place has ever
been attacked."
The Air Force doctor was concerned by reports that troops taking the vaccine
had complained of autoimmune disorder symptoms, including fatigue and joint
pain, that they blamed on the mandatory medicine. "I told my commander I
would sign a waiver, go without the vaccine — I was not trying to get out of my
duty," Buck said. "I asked them not to put me in this position
because I didn't want something like this to affect my ability to practice
medicine for the rest of my life." He was charged with "willfully
disobeying a lawful command of a senior commissioned officer."
The anthrax shots are the Pentagon's effort to protect troops against a
biological warfare threat, especially in the Persian Gulf region where Saddam
Hussein's military has previously used nerve agents against its own people, and
has conducted research into anthrax and other biological-warfare toxins. Both
the Defense Department and the Food and Drug Administration claim the
military's vaccine is safe and effective. Although the overwhelming majority of
troops ordered to take the shots have submitted to the order, nearly 500 have
refused, earning courts-martial and dismissals from the military.
During Thursday's hearing at Keesler, Col. Richard Griffith, the Air Force
doctor who ordered Buck to take the shots, said Buck was earnest as he
disobeyed his direct order. "I believe he is very sincere, that he
believes what he is doing is right," the senior doctor testified. "I
do not believe he is trying to subvert the mission." A military hearing
officer is expected to rule in the next week whether or not Buck will face a
court-martial.
Buck, 32, attended the University of Texas Health Science Center at San
Antonio medical school on a military scholarship, and is obligated to serve for
four years, through June 2002. In addition to jail time, if convicted, Buck
also faces dismissal from the military and the loss of all pay and benefits.
"The military medical community has a responsibility to look out after the
interests of their troops," he said, but he doesn't go so far as to
advocate that his fellow officers and troops do what he has done. "My
colleagues are in complete support of me," Buck said. "But everybody
has to make their own decision and I'm not encouraging anybody to follow the
same steps I've taken."
That, of course, is something the Pentagon may fear even more than anthrax.