ANTHRAX Vax -:Let's counter DOD's bogus claims and publicitybarrage!

[Guest guest]

Meryl is exactly right with this advice. Just before leaving on a trip

last week, one of our local TV stations in Missoula, Montana, interviewed

me simply because they know I work on this issue. This morning, a call

came through from our local newspaper, and I'll be interviewed again this

evening or in the morning - which all goes to show you don't have to be a

troop or a veteran to take advantage of the current publicity. You simply

need to have some knowledge of the issue - well provided for you in Meryl's

remarks below - and be willing to speak out.

Also - we have a generic letter finished which you can send to your

Congressional delegation, simply inserting the name of your own Senator or

Representative in the return address, or better yet to their specific staff

members; and inserting own name at the bottom. We encourage you to use

this all you can, and to forward this sample letter to every relative and

friend you have, asking them to sign their own names and send them to

Congress.

http://www.milvacs.org Click on big red box...........[i have enclosed

text below also.....Sheri]

For those of you who need names of people in Congress and their staff

members, please let me know directly, I'll reply by return e-mail with the

information for your state.

Kathy Hubbell,

Military Vaccine Education Center

http://www.milvacs.org

e-mail: contact@...

Also at the website is the PDF of memo opinion that you can print and enclose

<insert your name here>

<insert your street or P.O. address here>

<insert your city, state, zip code here>

<Insert Senator or Rep. or Staff name here>

<Insert 1st line of address here>

<Insert 2nd line of address here>

<Insert city, state, zip code here>

<insert date here>

Dear <Senator or Rep., or Mr. or Ms. if a Congressional Staff member>

They're on the cover of Time Magazine as " Person of the Year. " They put

their lives on the line for the rest of us on a daily basis; they face

conditions around the world that sometimes we can only imagine. In a way

unknown since World War II, our country has rallied around our troops in

the armed services with massive support and caring.

I'm asking you to take this support and caring one step further, a step

which only our members of Congress can take. As you know, Judge Emmet G.

Sullivan, from the United States District Court for the District of

Columbia, has ordered a preliminary injunction regarding the military's

mandatory anthrax vaccine. He wrote, " In the absence of a presidential

waiver, defendants are enjoined from inoculating service members without

their consent. "

At the end of his Opinion preceding this Order, the judge wrote, " Absent

an informed consent or presidential waiver, the United States cannot demand

that members of the armed forces serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs. "

We have worked, waited and hoped these many long years for one judge,

either military or civilian, to show the integrity, the courage to tell the

truth about the anthrax vaccine, and the concern for our troops displayed

by Judge Sullivan. We now ask you to display the same integrity by

supporting legislation to stop the mandatory anthrax vaccine program

completely. The anthrax vaccine is a highly reactive, dangerous drug,

produced under questionable conditions, and used without regard for its

consequences on our troops. Consider just a few relevant points:

· Where the vaccine's original label claimed a low systemic adverse

reaction rate of just 0.2%, that has jumped to over 35% on the new label;

and a 2003 GAO report says the total adverse reaction rate may be as high

as 85%.

· Adverse reactions include not just dizziness, severe bone and joint pain,

and migraine headaches, but also brain lesions, tumors and cysts,

autoimmune illnesses, severe skin lesions and infections, memory loss,

disorientation - and death. When we need the men and women of our armed

services so greatly, do we really want to risk losing a percentage of our

fighting forces to the effects of an unproven, unsafe vaccine?

· A 2001 GAO report found that out of the Air Reserve Component units

required to take the vaccine, a full 25% of the pilots either left the

service or transferred out of their units in order to avoid taking the

shots. They did not want the side effects of dizziness, for example, while

in the cockpit; nor did they want to jeopardize their civilian flying

careers. Where are those pilots now? Certainly not able to help us in our

war against terrorism.

· Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed is, indeed, licensed - but it is not licensed

for inhalation anthrax, resulting in a 1996 Investigational New Drug

application with the FDA. Had the FDA followed its own rules, it would

have told the Dept. of Defense that its use of the vaccine was illegal.

· The United States claims to have lost less than 500 troops to casualties

during this second Gulf War. Yet nearly 11,000 troops have been sent home

and/or released from duty due to non-combat reasons such as illness. The

cocktail of vaccines our troops our required to take - which are often

administered contrary to normal vaccine protocol, sometimes all at once, in

the absence of any data that this practice is safe - is at least as

threatening to them as enemy gunfire. Why must our troops fear the actions

of their own government as much as they fear an enemy attack?

I'm not normally a person who votes for our Congressional delegation or our

President based on a single issue. I like to think that I consider a

person's overall track record and his or her stand on a number of different

issues before I make my choice in the voting booth. However, this election

year, this one issue is so critically important, I can see it is going to

affect every vote I cast. It is unconscionable to me that we would treat

our troops and veterans as medical guinea pigs, no matter how severe the

threat is made out to be. To add insult to injury, we then give them no

recourse - the Feres Doctrine, a body of law initiated by a 1950 Supreme

Court decision, prevents our troops from seeking any redress due to medical

malpractice or malfeasance despite the fact, as Congress itself wrote in

1996, that the Dept. of Defense has long been known to conduct medical

experiments on the troops.

Yet our troops are the people who are on the front lines of our nation,

both militarily and diplomatically; these are the people who should receive

our best efforts. They should never face an attitude of callous

indifference; should never be subjected to vaccines or any other

experimental substances against their will; should be the first to receive

top-notch medical care when they are ill or wounded, and should be allowed

a legal remedy to redress injuries due to experimental drugs and vaccines.

How we came to such a sorry state in our treatment of the troops remains a

mystery to me. But I do know that you can help to rectify it before anyone

else comes down with life-long illnesses that cannot be cured; and before

anyone else is forced to abandon a loved military career. I ask - no, I

demand - that you support legislation to stop the Anthrax Vaccine

Immunization Program completely, and that you do your job in taking back

civilian control over our military. I demand that you resist any attempt

at a presidential waiver, and that you work consistently, to the utmost of

your ability, to provide adequate and immediate medical care for those who

are ill and to clear the names of those who have refused the vaccine in the

past. I also demand that you help overturn the Feres Doctrine, which was

clearly never meant to provide the Dept. of Defense with an excuse to

conduct medical experiments without accountability.

You will be in good company. Senator Bingaman from NM has also

voiced his concerns about the anthrax vaccine, submitting a Sense of the

Senate Resolution calling for the correction of military records and making

the vaccine program voluntary. Additionally, Senator Dodd from CT has

also inquired of the FBI as to their ongoing investigation of the illegal

status of the anthrax vaccine, to include illegal manufacturing alterations

confirmed by the GAO and false statements allegedly made to Congress by DoD

officials concerning the vaccine's investigational status.

This is as much a life-and-death issue as the war itself. This is as much

a constitutional issue as free speech. This is as much about character,

integrity, and the courage to tell the truth as any issue you will ever

face in your lifetime. Help us regain our legally guaranteed freedoms;

help our troops. Stop the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program - and in so

doing, make us proud to support you with our votes.

Sincerely,

<Insert your name here>

Insert your phone # or e-mail address if

you want so you can be reached more easily>

Enc: Judge Emmet Sullivan's Opinion and Order