http://www.healthmall.com/newsletter.cfm?type=article&id=1188&a=

 

State Attorney General to Challenge Anthrax Vaccine License

Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal plans to challenge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's licensing of the anthrax vaccine for use in the military.

Blumenthal said he will use evidence supplied by two former Connecticut Air National Guard pilots that suggests the vaccine has not been proven safe or effective. The two former pilots, Russ Dingle and Thomas Rempfer, resigned from the Guard in January 1999 because the Guard would not accept their findings about the vaccine.

Dingle and Rempfer, now majors in the Air Force Reserve, are leaders in a national protest against the vaccine.

The two pilots have given Blumenthal federal documents indicating the vaccine is inappropriate for mass inoculations.

''These documents raise profoundly serious and significant questions as to the legality of the FDA licenses, and hence the use of the vaccine,'' Blumenthal said. ''There seems to be important flaws in licenses relating to both the product and the equipment, and these issues have never been directly addressed by the Department of Defense or the FDA.''

Blumenthal said Connecticut could be held liable by people who get sick from the vaccine.

The anthrax vaccine was originally licensed federally in 1970 for use by veterinarians and wool workers who touched diseased animals.

The U.S. Department of Defense plans to inoculate 2.4 million armed services personnel with the vaccine to protect them from potential airborne anthrax spores used by enemy states or terrorists.

The inoculations began in 1998. But in July, vaccine supplies dwindled so drastically that only those assigned to Southeast Asia are still being vaccinated.

The Defense Department maintains that it has proven the vaccine to be safe and effective and that it is abiding by FDA regulations, agency spokesman James C. Turner said.

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.