Colo. mother waging war on military's anthrax shot

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DARocksMom

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 07:57:42 EST

Subject:Colo. mother waging war on military's anthrax shot

 

 

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2535720,00.html

 

Article Published: Monday, November 15, 2004

Colo. mother waging war on military's anthrax shot

 

By Elizabeth Aguilera

Denver Post Staff Writer

 

When the news she had waited years to hear finally arrived, Lori

Greenleaf was strangely unmoved.

 

A federal judge had ordered the military to stop forcing

soldiers to be injected with an anthrax vaccine. But while the court

had essentially said last month that Greenleaf was right about the

vaccine's problems, she didn't feel like a winner.

 

" It's bittersweet because I don't think it'll hold, " said the

woman described in a recent book as the " Dear Abby of Anthrax

Vaccine. " " And all the people they hurt already don't get any

restitution. I surely do hope the judge's order stands, but we've had

so many disappointments you hate to get your hopes up. "

 

Greenleaf, 46, of Morrison first took issue with the anthrax

vaccination program five years ago when her son became one of the

first sailors to receive it.

 

She started asking questions. Before long, Greenleaf had become

a clearinghouse on the anthrax vaccine for service members around the

world.

 

At one point she was in contact with more than 7,000 service

members via e- mail and telephone.

 

She served as their counselor and confidante. She fretted for

them when they were punished or court-martialed for refusing the

vaccine. She visited them in hospitals when they accepted the

injection and became ill.

 

Although the Pentagon insists the vaccine is safe and it has

been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, doctors have

documented cases of vaccine- related autoimmune diseases, such as

lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

 

Since March 1998, the military has injected more than 5 million

doses into 1.3 million people. The vaccine is given in a six-shot

series over 18 months. More than 3,000 adverse reactions to the

vaccine have been reported, and at least half a dozen deaths have been

linked to the vaccine, according to anti-vaccine advocates and their

attorneys.

 

Nearly 600 people have refused the vaccine, according to

estimates. The Defense Department reports that before Aug. 15, 2000,

441 refusers were given nonjudiciary discipline such as being docked

in pay, reduced in rank or given restriction. Others were given a

less-than-honorable discharge. Since then 51 have been court-martialed

for refusing.

 

Many of them have been in touch with Greenleaf. From a single

desktop computer in her Morrison home, she has done years of research,

eventually connecting with independent doctors who she learned were

doing their own research on the vaccine.

 

Doctors at Tulane Medical School had been testing the blood of

service members since 1994 and finding antibodies to fight an oil

called squalene in many of those they tested. They had also tested

service members' blood before and after the vaccination and found they

developed the antibodies after injection.

 

In 2000, Dr. Pam Asa found squalene antibodies in veterans who

were given certain lots of the vaccine, including Greenleaf's son. The

FDA backed up her findings with its own tests of five of the six lots.

 

Scientists say squalene has been known to cause problems for

decades in animals. Squalene is a natural oil in and on humans, but

when injected, it triggers an autoimmune reaction that then looks to

expel all squalene from the body, Asa said.

 

Just how the squalene could have gotten into the anthrax vaccine

is the source of contention between the scientists and the Pentagon.

 

Several researchers, including Asa, suspect the Department of

Defense added squalene in an experiment to see whether more anthrax

vaccine could be given in a shorter period of time - protecting

soldiers sooner for battlefield duty.

 

The Department of Defense denies adding squalene to anthrax

vaccines or conducting any experiments on members of the armed forces.

They suspect squalene might have gotten into certain batches of the

vaccine because of fingerprints left on lab equipment.

 

Asa doesn't buy it.

 

" If you know the dangers and hazards of this stuff in people and

how it causes strokes and cardiac anomalies and how it affects memory

and causes seizure disorders, you don't do this to people going into

combat, " said Asa, an immunlogist and visiting professor at Tulane

Medical School.

 

On Oct. 27, a lawsuit filed by six service members and civilians

against the Department of Defense ended when U.S. District Judge Emmet

Sullivan declared that the government had failed to properly license

the vaccine and ordered the military to discontinue the forced

injection into soldiers without informed consent or a presidential

waiver. The Pentagon is expected to appeal.

 

Also last month, one of the first books about the controversy

was published. " Vaccine A, " by former NBC and Fox News correspondent

Gary Matsumoto, outlines the fight over the vaccine, explains the

medical concerns and conveys the difficulty of stopping the program.

He calls Greenleaf the " Dear Abby of Anthrax. "

 

" Lori is an unsung hero; she did an extraordinary service for a

lot of people, " Matsumoto said. " She showed a lot courage and

toughness; she would not back off. Don't make Mom mad, that is the

message. "

 

The activism displayed by Greenleaf brought her much unwanted

attention from the Department of Defense. She was kicked out of Fort

Carson for passing out fliers and criticized by Army officials after

she testified before Congress.

 

She didn't care, as long as people were getting the message.

 

And they were. Everywhere, soldiers, sailors and pilots were

passing her e-mail address to one another. They shared packets of

information she sent, all paid for out of her own pocket.

 

" I don't have a problem with the vaccine; it's the experimenting

that I have an issue with, " Greenleaf said. " When it comes to

jeopardizing anybody's health, I think they should have a choice. They

shouldn't be experimenting without informed consent. "

 

Retired Army Chaplain Dave Hodge of Carlsbad, N.M., came down

with rash, fatigue, joint aches and other symptoms of lupus after he

was injected with anthrax vaccine in the late 1990s. His blood tested

positive for squalene antibodies, and he had colorectal cancer.

 

" Knowing that they are still doing it makes me angry because

they know what it's doing, " he said. " Lori has been a tireless

proponent for us; there have been times she's taken the brunt of

people telling her she was going up the wrong tree, and she's taken

the abuse and hung in there. "

 

Collect calls from as far away as Japan and at all times of the

day from concerned service members and their families kept her house

hopping. She had to hire two helpers to run her day care so she could

focus full-time on the fight against the vaccine.

 

She even hosted a sailor who went AWOL over the vaccine and

talked him

into going back and dealing with the military.

 

" It's unfortunate what they do to our sons and daughters when

they sign on the dotted line, " Greenleaf said. " They are owned; they

have no say. "

 

Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director of the Army's Military

Vaccine Agency, calls Matsumoto's book a lie and the debate

exaggerated concern.

 

" We don't conduct illegal experiments on the troops; we use only

licensed vaccines, " he said from Breckenridge while on vacation.

 

He dismisses Asa's and the FDA's findings of squalene in the

lots as traces left by fingerprints. Squalene, also found in the

liver, is a precursor to cholesterol.

 

" We believe the most likely explanation for those very small

amounts that were found was incomplete washing of the lab glassware, "

Grabenstein said. " We don't believe there was squalene in the lots; we

believe the tester left a little bit of his own fingerprints behind. "

 

Asa counters that the fingerprint had 13 other fatty acids

besides squalene and none showed up in the vaccine. Naked hands do not

touch any of the vials, vaccine or tubes during manufacturing or

chemical analysis, she said.

 

" The judge's order will save lives, " Asa said. " This whole thing

needs to be investigated. This is awful; we don't know how many people

have received this adjuvant. "

 

The Pentagon will do what it can to resume the vaccinations,

Grabenstein said about the judge's order.

 

" With a licensed drug, DOD has the prerogative to require

vaccinations of the troops, and we do that because our people fight as

teams and an individual does not have the right to jeopardize his

teammates, " he said.

 

For now, members of the armed forces are not required to get the

vaccine. Still, it's a hollow - and, Greenleaf fears, temporary -

victory for soldiers who already have been waylaid by the vaccine.

 

" The government will never admit to any of it. I don't think

they'll take care of the people who are sick, " Greenleaf said. " I hope

I'm wrong, but I'm basing this on how they've dealt with Vietnam vets

and Agent Orange guys and the Gulf War vets who are sick. "