1999 Report on GWS Research

[Guest guest]

http://www.va.gov/resdev/pgulf98/gwrpt98.htm#top

I just skimmed this comprehensive 1999 report on all the research in

progress on GW illness. (Haven't been able to find a later report.)

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the research seems related to stress and

PTSD.

The Unwin (British) study is discussed--it was DOD-funded and is still

in progress, so must be included. The authors of this Report do mention

that multiple vaccinations are associated with GWS symptoms in Unwin's

study. Yet I found no other mention of any research into the role of

vaccines, nor any discussion about following up Unwin's study to

determine whether or not there is an association between vaccines and

this syndrome, in US Gulf War veterans. A promising lead is

uncovered--and quickly recovered by the Persian Gulf War Coordinating

Board.

I have to repeat myself: It appears we are up to about $150 million in

taxpayers' dollars, spent on about 150 studies, designed to head

everywhere but to the answers. Heck, even if DOD's " shotgun approach "

to research took aim arbitrarily, it would probably have achieved more

" hits " than this sorry program, masterminded by economist Dr. Bernard

Rostker. I continue to wait for someone to provide a satisfying answer

as to how an economist was selected to make the decisions on selection

and funding of biomedical research.

If anyone out there knows of any other studies on the role of vaccines

in GWS (outside of Unwin and the Kansas study published last month:

http://aje.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/152/10/992

--both of which suggest vaccines contribute to GWS) please let me know.

Meryl Nass, MD