Army Panel’s Vaccine Decision Rejected

An Army review board ruled in 1990 that it would be unethical to give soldiers heading to the Persian Gulf War an experimental vaccine without warning them the effects were unknown, the Plain Dealer reported Sunday.

However, that ruling was overturned after the Department of Defense cited national security concerns, the newspaper said.

The botulinum toxoid vaccine was given to 8,000 troops as protection against chemical and biological weapons. The soldiers were not told the vaccine, now being studied as a possible source for the variety of health problems known as Gulf War Syndrome, was unlicensed.

The mysterious ailment afflicts 80,000 veterans and civilians who were involved in the conflict.

Some think the syndrome stems from an undetermined chemical or biological attack. Others link the illness to diseases in the Middle East or smoke from oil fires.

A transcript of the ethics committee’s meeting at the Army’s biological defense research station in Maryland on Oct. 4, 1990, showed that Army physicians weren’t confident the unlicensed vaccine would protect troops.

The transcript obtained by the newspaper revealed that the committee learned that while limited testing in laboratory animals showed promise against the deadly botulism toxin, believed to be in Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s arsenal, researchers were uncertain whether it would work.