In an interview with UPI Editor Mark Benjamin, Erickson said, "I'm real touchy here. Come a few more months, I'm in line to get another (anthrax shot). It's not like we have a choice in the matter." Refusal could result in a court martial.5
It makes one wonder just how long the Pentagon will play these insane games of "blaming smoking" while a 2 ton elephant is sitting in the barracks. Thousands of Gulf War I veterans were poisoned by depleted uranium and the same despicable BioPort vaccine over a decade ago under George Herbert Walker Bush, later continued under Bill Clinton.8 This is nothing new!9 By now I suppose you're saying, "Thank god they stopped poisoning our troops!"
Keep reading.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
Let's jump back to October, 2003, when 80.3 million of our tax dollars were spent in ordering VaxGen Inc. to develop an experimental anthrax vaccine. An additional $71.3 million was contracted to Avecia for 3 million doses of a new recombinant anthrax vaccine.10
Those are serious contracts. Obviously there are those in the military-industrial complex who weren't pleased with the court decision to stop mandatory vaccination of soldiers. Although the ruling was for a different vaccine, it set a precedent for VaxGen and other big pharmaceutical corporations.
So what happens? Within weeks of this court ruling the FDA suddenly approves BioPort's anthrax vaccine as "safe and effective" against inhalation anthrax.
PERFECT TIMING ?
In light of the FDA's sudden change of heart, the Department of Defense moved to resume mandatory vaccination of soldiers.
Judge Emmit Sullivan, who ruled that soldiers should not be "used as guinea pigs" with experimental anthrax vaccines, issued a subsequent order allowing the Pentagon to resume its mandatory vaccination program. This has been called a "temporary boost" for the Michigan-based BioPor
In his two-page order Judge Sullivan wrote, "Although the timing of the issuance of the rule is arguably highly suspicious, nevertheless, the rule has been issued and the principal reason for the issuance of the injunction has been addressed by the government".
Just days before this ruling the Pentagon ordered a $29.7 million order of anthrax vaccine from BioPort, part of a $245.6 million contract, in anticipation of the reversal.11
So let's say 5 or 10 years down the road a soldier, who has long since been administered the anthrax vaccine, has a child born with multiple birth defects. I suppose that's just too bad. It couldn't have been from the vaccine because the Pentagon and FDA said it was "safe and effective". But the FDA has admitted it is still uncertain as to what the long-term effects of the vaccine may be..
ABC Medical Reporter Nicholas Regush stated that the current anthrax vaccine from BioPort is based on "hope and apparent desperation," not good science.12 A leaflet inserted with the anthrax vaccine, which originally stated that adverse reaction occurred in 0.2 percent of cases, was recently revised to reflect a rate of 5 to 35 percent.13
This vaccine had not received FDA approval for inhalation anthrax in over 30 years, and they've held it up for 18 years since 1985, but the FDA suddenly experienced a change of heart in perfect time to reverse Judge Sullivan's historic ruling. In the FDA statement from December 30, 2003, they specifically state that their decision was based on studies from 1985, so no new supporting evidence has been presented.14 The FDA is showing its true colors here. It is notorious for conflict of interest, and much of that conflict comes from FDA ties to big pharmaceutical companies.
WHY SHOULD THEY ?
Just days later VaxGen was granted FDA fast track status to get their "next generation" anthrax vaccine to market. Talk about big contracts - they're receiving $280 million (our tax dollars) from three separate NIH contracts to develop this vaccine.15 They need to vaccinate our soldiers whether it saves them or kills them, and it doesn't matter which; there's simply too much money on the line to care. This is viral capitalism - destroying the host for profit.
Ironically, in the midst of this controversy involving BioPort's anthrax vaccine, UPI Investigations Editor Mark Benjamin was presented with a journalism award for exposing the problems of sick U.S. soldiers, including linking deaths in Iraq to the anthrax vaccine. Adding to the irony, the award was presented to him in Washington, D.C. in an event sponsored by the U.S. Senate press gallery.16
BATTLING THE PENTAGON - FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
Attorney Mark Zaid has actually cornered the Pentagon with regard to the experimental anthrax vaccine as it pertains to his clients. This is from Insight Magazine :
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