LETTERS: SAFETY OF ANTHRAX VACCINE IS QUESTIONED

To the editor:

Members of the 110th Fighter Squadron, Missouri Air National Guard (the F-15 squadron at Lambert Field) must begin taking the anthrax vaccine in February as required under a Department of Defense mandatory inoculation program. This is an unnecessary health risk to the Missouri Air National Guard members.

There is ample evidence that the vaccine has not been sufficiently tested, that it is not being administered correctly and that numerous people have gotten sick after receiving the vaccine. I do not know if the vaccine is causing the illnesses. Neither does the Department of Defense. Just this past week there was evidence that pyridostigmine bromide, or PB, which was administered to troops during the Gulf War may be a cause of Gulf War Syndrome. This military insisted this was safe. Further research may discover a similar link with the anthrax vaccine. How can the Department of Defense be allowed to continue the anthrax vaccination program when its effects are simply not known? Proper testing must be done. Military members are not research animals. I hope this policy is simply misguided, but past actions by the Department of Defense mean an ignoble motive for the vaccination program cannot be ruled out.

This mandatory inoculation program is burgeoning into a national-defense crisis: lack of experienced pilots. As the active-duty Air Force has drawn down, it relies increasingly on Guard units such as the Missouri Air National Guard. Now the Guard is beginning to suffer as pilots resign rather than take this risky series of shots. For once, though, a problem can be easily solved. Stop the mandatory anthrax vaccination, and the resignations will stop immediately.

This issue must be addressed at once. As each unit's turn comes to receive the vaccine, numerous pilots resign. Missouri's turn is in February. The mandatory anthrax vaccination program must be stopped.

JANE FRANCIS St. Peters