E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL
VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER
Vienna, Virginia http://www.909shot.com
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"Protecting the health
and informed consent rights of children since 1982."
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NVIC Note: This information
will be discussed at the Third International
Public Conference on
Vaccination in Arlington, Virginia, Nov 7-9, 2002.
Major Sonnie Bates will tell
about his refusal and his activism and Dr.
Walter Schumm will discuss
anthrax and chronic illness. Register at
San Antonio Express-News
August 17, 2002
Ex-AF Officer Says Anthrax
Vaccine Ended His Career
By Sig Christenson,
Express-News Military Writer
As an Air Force weapons
controller, Capt. Gregory Armand served his nation
In such far-flung parts of
the world as Alaska and the Persian Gulf.
But Armand, a 36-year-old
San Antonian, said his decadelong career ended
after he took a shot not from a bullet, but from a syringe filled
with
anthrax vaccine. Once a
ground and airborne weapons control officer who
tracked up to 80 planes at a
time, Armand's ability to concentrate is so bad
now he can't even fill out a
check.
"It makes me sound very
stupid," he said. "I am not, really."
Armand was joined at a news
conference Friday by a former F-16 squadron
commander and the mother of
an Austin-area soldier who claimed the vaccine
is dangerous.
The issue has been
controversial since the Defense Department began
vaccinating large numbers of
troops in 1998. Scores of officers and
enlistees defied the
Pentagon order to begin taking the vaccine
a series of six
shots over 18 months thinking the drug might be lethal.
At least 450 troops have
been court-martialed, given nonjudicial punishment,
or discharged for refusing
to be vaccinated, the Defense Department reported
Friday. Just three left the
military over the matter in 2001.
Pentagon spokesman Jim
Turner described the drug as safe, noting that the
Food and Drug Administration
has approved it for use. He said reactions to
the drug have been
"very much in line with any other kind of vaccine."
The vaccine also has caused
no deaths among the 525,000 who have received
One or more shots in the
series, he said.
But retired Air Force Lt.
Col. Thomas S. Heemstra and Teresa Jones echoed
Armand's claims.
"Please do not leave
today without a full sense of the injustice that's been
done to these victims who
only wanted to serve their country and be the best
soldiers, Marines and airmen
they could be," Heemstra, 43, said at the news
conference.
A commercial airline pilot
who once commanded an F-16 squadron with the
Indian Air National Guard,
Heemstra led a skirmish against Pentagon plans to
inoculate his pilots. The battle
began after he and others began researching
the vaccine. After one
briefing, Heemstra said, all those who attended vowed
to quit before taking the
vaccine.
"All of them were
volunteers to die for their country at the hands of the
enemy, but they weren't
going to die because of our country's incompetence,"
said Heemstra, who has
written a book on the issue, "Anthrax: A Deadly Shot
in the Dark."
Armand said he and a partner
in a ground weapons team suffered flu-like
symptoms after taking an
anthrax shot with six or seven other inoculations
in 1990. Deployed to the
Persian Gulf, he said they never got over the fever,
body aches and bloody
diarrhea they suffered. The other man later died.
"His wife said (the
cause of death) was unknown. They had just divorced; he
was acting bizarre,"
Armand said.
Then-Spc. Joseph Jones, 26,
of Cedar Park, just north of Austin, fell ill
with what seemed like a bad
case of the flu after taking his first anthrax
shot in Kuwait in 1999. It
was on the fourth shot, however, that Teresa
Jones said her son suffered
the first of more than 250 seizures.
Jones, who was working
Friday, still suffers from muscular aches, severe
headaches and bloody
diarrhea. When he blacks out, he see stars and spots
and remembers nothing
afterward, his mother said.
Discharged in 1999 with no
benefits, he's divorced, lives with his mother,
and works as a part-time
computer salesman.
"It's almost like
dealing with Alzheimer's," said Teresa Jones, a
47-year-old secretary in
Austin. "And he's only 26."
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ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
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OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
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