Are anthrax vaccines killing American military personnel?

Factual Questions
41

cynobyte: A question, please, if you are willing to share - do you also have hepatitis B?

Airman Doors: you seem to be saying that psoriasis, even in predisposed individuals, occurs only following stress on the immune system. In your case, you believe that the anthrax vaccine was the prerequisite ‘stress’. But, do you really think that was the only ‘immune stress’ you were exposed to? What about all the colds and flus that you may have had? Or other vaccines (e.g. tetanus)? Or the insect bites you must have surely had before the psoriasis showed up? Or any of the huge numbers of other environmental exposures that you (and everybody else) have on an ongoing basis? To focus on the anthrax vaccine is backwards logic. Besides, there were probably about a gazillion other people (including me, actually!) who, despite never getting the anthrax vaccine, still developed psoriasis in the last couple of years. Whatever the nature of the immune stress that led to our psoriasis, do you not think you could have had the same or a similar one? Why do you insist on singling out the anthrax vaccine as the causal exposure when there are so many non-anthrax-vaccine-exposed people who have also developed psoriasis?

42

Immunizations are a method to TEACH the immune system how to fight off specific “bad guys.” I don’t doubt that some people have flawed immune systems that will react badly to immunizations.

The benefits to society as a whole, though, speak for the greater good in immunizing.

I might feel differently if I or any loved one, had reacted badly to immunizations.

The fact is, though, I believe with all my heart in vaccines. I got all my shots. I made damned sure my kids got all their shots. My husband is retired military, so he got more shots than the rest of us combined. He did retire prior to the Gulf War, so he received no Anthrax, to my knowledge.

Military members get immunized against a plethora of diseases. While most people just worry about Tetanus, Whooping Cough, Diphtheria, and Polio, servicemembers get shots for Typhoid, Typhus, Yellow Fever, and God-know-what-else. Before transferring to an overseas duty station, they gotta roll up their sleeves and receive a bunch more. Assignment to tropical areas will qualify them for even MORE vaccines.

For the military, it’s all in the numbers. History shows armies decimated by plague, dysentery, and other water-borne diseases. You give the troops training, weapons, and armor, it makes sense to protect them from microscopic enemies as well.

In wartime, a certain percentage of casualties is to be expected. Well, in the war against microbiological enemies, there are most likely casualties anticipated, also. It’s the cost of waging war. And soldiers ARE expendable. That’s one of the disgusting realities, and what makes war so horrendous and stupid.

When vaccinating a population, NOT a military one, the casualties from the vaccine must be balanced against the casualties of the disease itself. The biggest problem today is that young parents have no reference. They’ve never known a world with the diseases the vaccines are preventing. I personally know people with Post-Polio-Syndrome. Their lives are forever limited because of the damage inflicted from poliomyelitis infection when they were young. A friend’s mother told stories about being put to bed with a younger sister, and waking up to find her sister next to her in bed, dead from Diphtheria.

Vaccines are a necessary evil.
~VOW

43

No. By those criteria nothing can ever be attributed to anything based on a single data point. If one person develops psoriasis within two weeks of getting an anthrax shot, that doesn’t prove anything. If, say, 20% of the people diagnosed with psoriasis developed it within weeks of an anthrax shot, that would mean something.

44

Serious illness can certainly occur in those who have been vaccinated against anthrax. It’s just that there’s no evidence this happens more frequently in vaccinated than in unvaccinated people.

The only serious reaction to anthrax vaccine cited by the CDC is a marked allergic reaction (seen in less than 1 in 100,000 doses).

Anthrax vaccine safety and efficacy have been studied extensively, and more work is ongoing. Links to chronic illness remain unproven.

I pretty much concur with VOW’s post, except
[QUOTE=VOW]
Vaccines are a necessary evil.
[/quote]
I think he misspelled “good”. :slight_smile:

45

Pssst Jackmannii:

I’m a “she.”

I’ll stick with “evil.” When your baby is six weeks old and gets his or her first DPT shot, the poor kid is miserable afterwards. While I have always waved the banner high for vaccines (I can even tell you who Edward Jenner is!), feeling the pain of your sickly baby hits home the lesson hard that the illnesses you are avoiding are BAD NEWS.

A much, much lesser evil to avoid a supreme evil.
~VOW

46

I have been vaccinated within an inch of my life against many diseases, on multiple occasions(some of which I’d never heard of) by the British armed forces.

One time we were given everything needed to protect us in the M.E. by navy medics, and then a few hours later, the same jabs by the army in spite of our objections, as they weren’t sure which if any, jabs the fishheads had forgotten to give us.

Neither I, or any of my colleagues suffered any ill effects, either then or since.

Personally I think that there might be a case for GWS being as a result of people breathing in dust from the aftermath of Depleted Uranium Rounds, but I’m not totally convinced.

Also we can never rule out psychosomatic illnesses, which IME are far from uncommon amongst the general population, including members of the armed forces .

47

I don’t think this point has been addressed so far, but has “the anthrax vaccine” been the same vaccine over this entire period of time (I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been) and are the rates of side effects supposed to be the same?

48

Just some peripheral questions; IANAD, and have no particular opinion on the subject, but am curious :

Does any one have any statistics on the prevalence of anthrax in our various war zones?

What is the infection rate amongst the general population in those zones; and what is the likelihood of any individual soldier contracting the disease?

Under what circumstances would he/she be exposed to, or contract anthrax?

What is the risk of our sending un-immunized soldiers into these zones; ie: how many soldiers could we expect to contract anthrax, as opposed to becoming sick from the immunization shot?

Is anthrax treatable? If so, would it not be better to wait for an infection to set in, and treat that, rather that risk any the side effects from the shots? (Assuming that there are side effects.)

49

The prevalence is variable, but much higher in Afghanistan than in the US. That said, the concern is that weaponized anthrax would be used as a biological weapon against our forces.
Hence, our forces are vaccinated against all manner of common potential biological weapons, to include smallpox (a vaccine that DOES have a high of ill effects, to include a handful of fatal progressive vaccinia infections).
That also said, the military have spearheaded a highly successful treatment protocol for progressive vaccinia. Indeed, the past three cases of it were completely arrested and the service member returned to duty.

The military don’t only have to worry about dodging bullets, but also potential use of biological weapons, dirty bombs, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons. They’re all components of modern warfare and all have been used in modern warfare, hence could potentially be used again.
One up side to the smallpox vaccination is cross immunity to a far more common camel pox and monkey pox in the war regions.

50

Oops, I missed your last question. It depends on the route of exposure.
Cutaneous (skin) anthrax is trivially treated with antibiotics.
If the spores are inhaled though, by the time symptoms are recognized, the fatality rate approaches 100%.
If ingested, about 50-50 to be diagnosed and treated in time. It’s a pretty tough bug.

51

IMHO, Anthrax is a big risk to military forces through handling contaminated animals or animal products, or their association with people who may have contact with contaminated animals or animal products. The anthrax spores are everywhere on earth, so contamination is easy. In the US, farm animals are vaccinated against anthrax, but it is still a problem in under-developed countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sheep and goats are prevalent throughout that area, and it is their meat and hide and wool which can harbor the spores. Human to human transmission is rare.

Then you throw in the possibility of biological warfare with anthrax and the potential of losing a significant number of troops to anthrax makes inoculations a smart move.
~VOW