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Perot Urges Halt To Vaccine
 New
Anthrax Shot Can Be Developed
January 25, 2002
By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, Courant Staff Writer
H. Ross Perot, the
Texas multimillionaire who has donated millions to assist research into
Persian Gulf War veterans' illnesses, testified Thursday that the
Pentagon should end mandatory use of the controversial anthrax vaccine.
The vaccine is supposed to protect service members from a biological
warfare agent. It is being proposed for eventual voluntary use to protect
the U.S. population from terrorist attacks. Most recently federal postal
and congressional workers, who may have been exposed to anthrax spores sent
through the mails, have been offered the vaccine on an experimental
basis, but relatively few have opted to take it.
Testifying at a congressional hearing chaired by Rep. Christopher Shays,
R-4th District, Perot said the vaccine hasn't been proved safe or
effective. He added that the Pentagon should stop purchasing it from the
manufacturer, BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich.
Shays and other members of his committee have already called for a halt
in the vaccine's use until it can be proved safe and effective.
The Pentagon stopped the six-shot series with annual boosters because of
a vaccine shortage. It has not announced plans for continued use of the
vaccine.
"BioPort is a mess, they should not be able to keep that
contract," said Perot. "They have never accomplished any of
their goals. The damage this [vaccine] has done to the military is
unbelieveable."
Hundreds of military pilots, trained at a cost of at least $6 million
each, have left military service rather than be forced to take the
vaccine, he said.
Kim Brennan-Root, a BioPort spokeswoman, did not comment Thursday, but
she has previously defended the vaccine and scientific testing showing it
to be safe and effective.
At the hearing, Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense
for health affairs, said: "The [U.S. Food and Drug Administration]
believes the vaccine is safe and effective. They are satisfied with the
quality of the vaccine. ... Is it a perfect vaccine? I would say, 'No.'
It is not the same technology we would use today."
This month, BioPort passed an FDA inspection that could, with further
approvals, allow the manufacturer to start selling its own vaccine for
the first time. BioPort has been using old vaccine lots it obtained from
the previous manufacturer, Michigan Biologic Products Institute, a part
of Michigan's health department. Federal health officials allowed a good
deal of that vaccine to be used after the normal three-year shelf life
had expired. Some lots were permitted for use after six years or longer.
At Thursday's hearing, Shays asked officials of the General Accounting
Office, the federal watchdog agency, to obtain results of the latest
inspection reports on BioPort and its vaccine for the committee to
examine.
"I've talked to all the Tigers [pilots] who have been damaged [by
the vaccine]," said Perot. "The medical evidence is
overwhelming, you just cannot give them this shot," Perot said. He
pledged his own money in funding research to develop a new safe and
effective vaccine, a task that he said should take no longer than a year.
Nancy R. Kingsbury, the GAO's director of applied research and methods,
said it is apparent that "someone has to accept the responsibility
of better monitoring of adverse reactions to the vaccine." The FDA,
with help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the
Pentagon, is responsible for monitoring adverse reactions.
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