Fwd: Pentagon Slow In Vaccine Death

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DARocksMom

Tue, 19 Aug 2003 20:27:01 EDT

Pentagon Slow In Vaccine Death

 

COMMENT: The term " expert " is a loose association.

 

Let me say this is the same Colonel who quoted in 2001:

 

" If people are getting sick, Colonel Grabenstein said, " it is not due to the

vaccine " '

 

December 20, 2001

As U.S. Offers Anthrax Shots, Safety Debate Begins Again

By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG,

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/20/politics/20ANTH.html?todaysheadlines

 

* * * * *

 

Pentagon Slow In Vaccine Death

United Press International

August 19, 2003

 

 

WASHINGTON - A civilian doctor who took care of an Illinois soldier

before she died in April says the Pentagon should have treated her death as

possibly due to vaccine side effects, but may be hesitating because of the

impact

on the military's controversial smallpox and anthrax vaccine programs.

 

The death of Rachael Lacy, 22, of Lynwood, Ill., has taken on added

significance because she died without ever being deployed, but had pneumonia.

The

Army is investigating pneumonia cases in Iraq and Southwest Asia that have

sickened more than 100 solders and killed two - but has excluded Lacy's case in

its search for a cause because she died before arriving there.

 

" I do think her illness should be classified as a vaccine adverse event

for smallpox vaccination, " said Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, an infectious diseases

doctor at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis., who was a member of the team

that treated Lacy. " If she had been a civilian, the case would almost

certainly have been reported as such. "

 

" Some of us on the civilian side have worried that the interpretation

of these cases would be colored by how it would reflect on the (vaccination)

program, " said Sartin.

 

The Pentagon's top vaccine expert told United Press International

Monday that the Pentagon has not determined if Lacy's death should be reported

as

vaccine related.

 

" Rachael Lacy is still in the unexplained death program " at the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, said Col. John D. Grabenstein, deputy

director for clinical operations at the Military Vaccine Agency.

 

Sartin, a former Air Force doctor, said the vaccines the Army gave her

might have caused Lacy's death.

 

" What we know of her illness suggests a very robust immune system

activation, which could have been caused by vaccinations, " said Sartin. " The

more

doctors and scientists who are aware of this case and its details, the more

likely we are to figure out what killed Rachael Lacy and to prevent it from

happening to other persons. "

 

Lacy died April 4 after what a doctor and her family said was heart and

lung trouble, including pneumonia, which started soon after her March 2

vaccinations.

 

Lacy's June 3 death certificate says the immediate cause of death was

" diffuse alveolar damage, " or lung damage. It lists " lymphocytic pericarditis

with eosinophils, post vaccination, " as an underlying cause -- that means an

inflammation of the thin layer of tissue that covers the outer surfaces of the

heart. Under " contributing conditions, " the certificate lists " lupus-like

autoimmune disease (not otherwise specified); recent smallpox and anthrax

vaccination. "

 

Some doctors think a severe reaction to vaccines could look a lot like

lupus.

 

Nearly four months after Lacy's death, top Pentagon medical officials

said they had not seen any deaths linked to smallpox vaccinations.

 

At a July 25 press conference, Assistant Secretary of Defense for

Health Affairs Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr. and Grabenstein announced a study of

soldiers who received the vaccine between Dec. 13, 2002, and May 28, 2003.

Winkenwerder said the military had detected 37 cases of inflammation of the

membrane covering the heart after smallpox vaccines, but those soldiers had

lived.

 

" All of these individuals have recovered or they are recovering and we

will continue to follow them, " he said July 25. " Our experience demonstrates

that on a large-scale the smallpox vaccination program can be conducted

safely. "

 

Grabenstein said in a telephone interview that while Lacy also had the

inflammation of the heart tissue, it might not have been the cause of her

death.

 

" She had pericarditis, but it is not at all clear that the pericarditis

was a key factor in her death, " said Grabenstein. " It is a finding on her

death certificate. Its final contribution has not been finally decided. "

 

Winkenwerder and Grabenstein published their findings in the June 25

issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. " We attribute no

deaths to smallpox vaccination to date, " that study said.

 

Grabenstein said the study does recognize Lacy's death, which he said

is listed as a fatal " neurologic event " where the " association to vaccination

is unclear, given multiple possible causes. " He cited privacy laws in declining

to specify the neurological problem.

 

The Pentagon excluded Lacy's death, which was also preceded by

pneumonia, from its investigation into possible causes of the mysterious

pneumonia

killing and sickening troops in Iraq and around southwest Asia.

 

The Pentagon announced Aug. 5 it was tracking at least 100 cases of

pneumonia among soldiers deployed throughout Southwest Asia. Seventeen have

needed respirators to breathe and at least two have died. The military says that

whatever is causing the illness does not seem contagious and has all but ruled

out chemical or biological warfare.

 

The Pentagon has not publicly mentioned vaccines as a possible culprit,

but has noted the sandy, dusty conditions in Iraq.

 

Rachael Lacy suffered from pneumonia before she died, according to her

father, Moses Lacy, and a doctor.

 

" My daughter's first symptoms were pneumonia, " Lacy said in a telephone

interview from his home in Lynwood, Ill.

 

Moses Lacy blames vaccines for his daughter's death. " When you're

autoimmune system shuts down, it can manifest itself in a number of different

ways.

Pneumonia seems to be a more common manifestation, " Lacy said.

 

" My life was centered around my daughter, " Moses said. " She was mine.

She was like me. "

 

Army Surgeon General spokeswoman Virginia Stephanakis said Lacy's death

was not included in the pneumonia investigation because she got her shots

prior to being deployed to the region, but never got there.

 

" She was never deployed to Iraq. It is a whole different issue, "

Stephanakis said.

 

Medical journals and some military medical officials have also cited po

ssible cases of pneumonia linked to the anthrax vaccine, which Rachael Lacy

also received.

 

Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. John Hamre told the House Military

Personnel Subcommittee on Sept. 30, 1999, that there had been three reports of

" serious illness " linked to the anthrax vaccine that had included

" hypersensitivity pneumonia. "

 

In an August 2002 article in the Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care

Journal CHEST, three military doctors described the case of a 39-year-old

" previously healthy man on active duty " who was diagnosed with " bronchiolitis

obliterans with organizing pneumonia " that occurred " following anthrax

vaccination. "

And a review by a government advisory committee in 2002 found one case of

pneumonia " considered probably related to [anthrax] vaccination. "

 

Last week, the parents of two soldiers wrote Defense Secretary Donald

Rumsfeld seeking an investigation into their sons' deaths after getting

pneumonia while deployed in Iraq.

 

" We as a family are concerned that we are not being told the truth, "

say the similar Aug. 12 letters to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,

facilitated by the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans' advocacy

group.

 

Grabenstein, the military vaccine expert, said vaccines are probably

not to blame for the sicknesses. " In 200 years of vaccinations, no vaccine has

ever been shown to cause pneumonia and there are multiple reasons to believe

that the vaccines have no role. "