National Advocacy Group Condemns Pentagon's Illegal Use of Vaccine Adjuvant

NGWRC Calls for Appointment of Independent Counsel to Investigate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 27, 2000

CONTACT: PATRICK G. EDDINGTON (800) 882-1316, ext. 162

(Washington) - The nation's leading Gulf War veterans organization today called upon Attorney General Janet Reno to immediately appoint an independent counsel to investigate the Pentagon's Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP). The National Gulf War Resource Center made the request after Congressman Jack Metcalf (R- WA) released the results of a General Accounting Office report that provides irrefutable scientific evidence that the Pentagon illegally modified the anthrax vaccine to boost its immunological potency.

"Yet another generation of American servicemembers have been used as involuntary guinea pigs," said NGWRC Executive Director Patrick Eddington. "This GAO report on the Pentagon's anthrax vaccine program provides clear evidence that the original FDA approved vaccine has been illegally modified in contravention of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The attorney general has an affirmative obligation to end this flagrant violation of the law and the civil rights of America's military personnel."

According to the GAO report, senior Pentagon officials engaged in "a pattern of deception" regarding the use of squalene, an experimental vaccine adjuvant that has been linked to arthritis and auto-immune diseases in laboratory animals. Independent tests of the anthrax vaccine by the FDA revealed "trace amounts" of squalene sufficient to trigger an immune response in humans, according to Baylor University professor of immunology Dr. Dorothy Lewis.

A 1994 Senate Veterans Affairs committee report suggested that the anthrax vaccine should be investigated as a possible causative agent in the illnesses plaguing Gulf War veterans. More recently, the Pentagon has immunized tens of thousands of military personnel with the anthrax vaccine. A number of servicemembers have reported serious medical problems after taking one or more injections of the anthrax vaccine under the Pentagon's AVIP.

In his letter to Attorney General Reno, Eddington emphasized the need for immediate action by the Justice Department.

"Allowing this misguided and willfully deceptive program to continue will not only compromise the health of thousands of servicemembers but also delay the day of judgment for those responsible for violating the law," Eddington wrote. "I urge you to act immediately."

As of October 1999, more than 186,000 Gulf War veterans had filed claims with the Veterans Administration for health-related problems stemming from their service in Desert Storm.

POSTED TO NGWRC WEB Wed Sep 27 23:02:14 2000