The Virginian-Pilot;

[HARDCORE]

Forwarded:

FYI:
Since last week the following newspapers have published editorials
supporting
Judge Sullivan's Dec 22nd anthrax vaccine ruling: Baltimore Sun, LA Times,
NY
Daily News, Fayetteville (NC) Observer, Columbus Dispatch, Greensboro (NC)
Record, Salt Lake City Tribune, and the The Virginian-Pilot; as well as the
USA
Today on Dec 10th.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...067&ran=131181

Opinion

A dose of restraint ordered for Pentagon
The Virginian-Pilot
? December 29, 2003

A federal judge, not the Pentagon, has struck the latest blow for the safety
of our troops.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the Pentagon to stop giving a
controversial anthrax vaccine to service members without their consent.

The judge found for six unnamed plaintiffs who claimed the shot was being ?
used for an unapproved purpose? as protection against inhaled anthrax as
well as
for its conventional use against anthrax exposure through the skin.

?The United States cannot demand that members of the armed forces also serve
as guinea pigs for experimental drugs,? the judge admonished the Pentagon.

Hundreds of servicemen have refused to take the shots and some left the
service in protest.

According to USA Today, at least 37 have been court-martialed for their
refusal, and several have been imprisoned.

Predictably, the Pentagon insists on the vaccine?s safety, comparing its
adverse reaction rate of 35 percent to that of flu shots.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said of the vaccine, ?It?s not experimental. It
has been approved by the FDA.?

Yes, but only for cutaneous anthrax. After hearing evidence, Sullivan ruled
that the FDA had never licensed the shot for use against the airborne form
of
the disease.

And one attorney who worked on the case told The Washington Post that the
only thing Pentagon officials received from the FDA to bolster their claim
was
the personal opinion of a political appointee, not full agency sanction that
the
shot can be used against both types of anthrax.

The anthrax vaccine may well be safe. But it has still been used for five
years on our soldiers for an unapproved purpose.

Under federal law, scientists are supposed to obtain consent before giving
drugs for unapproved purposes. That common sense should prevail for the
Pentagon, too.

If this puts national security at risk, President Bush has authority to
waive
FDA consent rules. If that?s the case, the president should waste no time
issuing the order.