Department of Defense to Resume Mandatory Anthrax Vaccinations

The policy also allows personnel previously immunized against anthrax, who are no longer deployed to higher threat areas, to receive follow-up vaccine doses and booster shots on a voluntary basis.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - The Department of Defense announced late Tuesday a resumption of the mandatory Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP) for military personnel, emergency-essential DoD civilians and contractors, based on defined geographic areas or roles.

The under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness will issue implementing instructions to the military services for resuming the mandatory vaccination program within 30 to 60 days.

For the most part, mandatory vaccinations are limited to military units designated for homeland bioterrorism defense and to U.S. forces assigned to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and Korea.

"The anthrax vaccine will protect our troops from another threat -- a disease that will kill, caused by a bacteria that already has been used as a weapon in America, and that terrorists openly discuss,” said Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Under the voluntary vaccination policy, implemented during the period of a court injunction throughout 2005, the voluntary acceptance rate was about 50 percent. “This rate of vaccination not only put the service members at risk, but also jeopardized unit effectiveness and degraded medical readiness. The threat environment and the unpredictable nature of terrorism make it necessary to include biological warfare defense as part of our force protection measures,” Winkenwerder said. Anthrax is a deadly infection, and the anthrax vaccine is an important force protection measure to combat it. In the fall of 2001, 22 cases of anthrax resulted from attacks with anthrax spores through the U.S. postal system. Five people died in these attacks. The Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly found, and independent medical experts have confirmed, that anthrax vaccine is safe and effective. For more information on the anthrax vaccination program visit vaccines.mil or vaccines.mil/anthrax .

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Adam B. November 9, 2006 11:24 pm (Pacific time)

I recommend reading www.drcarley.com about vaccinations as the REAL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. Anthrax.west nile...all depopulation agenda programs....somebody pass me a drink. I don't mean to complain, just get with the program. as far as conspiracies go...they're all real. history is not accidental, it is in fact conspiritorial...has been all through the ages. what now all of a sudden nothing is done in secrecy. Talk about naivity.

Matt Johnson October 21, 2006 8:09 pm (Pacific time)

You're full of it dude and everyone from God on down knows it; big money controls all national media and that is those gutless wonders knows as the GOP.

Bill October 21, 2006 7:05 pm (Pacific time)

Norquist and Abramoff? Old news. Many politicians on both sides have been corrupt, or have operated in gray areas. If look back over the past 50 years you will find that it is the Democrats who have a 2-1 majority of felonies while in public office!!! It is the Republicans who gain the headlines because the DNC controls the media.

Henry Ruark October 21, 2006 1:07 pm (Pacific time)

Bill Oct.: Yr last sentence right-on...good reason, too. Send ID and emailer to Tim and I'll send detailed PDFs re Norquist cabal, with friend Abramoff and his 400 WH contacts and check-slicing actions, too. Started in Reagan era and still underway...where do you think those over-the-fence dollars come flying from for initiatives and others ??

Albert Marnell October 20, 2006 6:59 pm (Pacific time)

Bill, Just do me one favor and read about the Federal Reserve which is a privately owned banking corporation. It is not Federal and there is not Reserve. The president is told who to pick by the top of the twelve member banks. Every single share of stock of the Fed is privately owned by a bank. Which ultimately means an individual. It is not a branch of the treasury. Sorry but in a rush.

Bill October 20, 2006 7:55 am (Pacific time)

Dialog does help us to learn. More often than not I do engage in dialog with persons who seeem to have an 8th grade education, or lower. This leads me to "dumb it down." My only point is that there is no government conspiracy. I am an avid reader of history, and I do understand that history is often rewritten. I also understand that people with liberal tendancy seek to vilify our goverment and its actions both past and present. In order to gain a true understanding of past and present events, one must explore all avenues of information...not just a spattering of liberal news sources. Everytime the Republicans lead our country, the conspiracy theories arise.

Henry Ruark October 19, 2006 2:23 pm (Pacific time)

Al: Good writing rule is figure your stuff is for 8th grade level...then it will surprise some, amaze others, amuse a few, and hit some good targets, too. Most people do NOT concentrate on stuff they read, which is one psychological reason for 8th grade level when average daily reader is over 50...which leaves some hope for sudden-maturity striking, at least intermittently.

Albert Marnell October 19, 2006 1:51 pm (Pacific time)

Hank, I too am tired of pointless banter. I will try to eliminate it. I thought I had the ability to raise consciousness. I have been wasting my time. Too many pearls to swine...not you. I respect you as you know.

Albert Marnell October 19, 2006 1:28 pm (Pacific time)

Hank, The point is "trust no government" (it is an abstract, who and what is this government?). Do not trust common historical information because it is pulp. Do not trust the government. Anthrax my ass, just another $$$$$ scheme. All is vanity all is money.

Henry Ruark October 19, 2006 11:54 am (Pacific time)

Dialog helps us all to learn. Here point is lost in amorphous ramblings while portent of action intended to safeguard federals from toxic impacts is lost. If you wish to pursue such persiflage, exchange emails and spare others.

Bill October 19, 2006 6:20 am (Pacific time)

Ok. You have a few issues to deal with.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 6:56 pm (Pacific time)

Many countries welcomed the Germans as Saviors and with open arms. No one welcomed the Russians.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 6:53 pm (Pacific time)

Bill, Who stopped the British from killing 750,000 German civilians from the naval blockade in the winter of 1917 during the First World War? The Treaty of Versailles created the turmoil of the thirties. The Germans were just fighting our future enemies (Bolsheviks, Communists... check one of the above). Stalin killed 20 million Ukrainians by removing the topsoil and bringing it back to Russia in 1933. Both of my great grandfathers were killed by the regime in Germany and they were Lutherans. Old people were killed before the war even started. If you have been to a hospital lately you will see that the medical neglect in the U.S. is killing thousands of people everyday. I am not happy here because Americans today are more naive than the average German of the thirties and there is no excuse for this. Would I like to be a Canadian Citizen, definitely! I already checked with the German Consulate about dual citizenship (even though I am half Italian). Because I was born 9 years after my mother became a citizen, I have no special standing with the German government. She did not want to stay here. When she found out what the allies did to the German Cities along with our Russian and British (friends?) There was only rubble and death to go back to. She did not want to stay in this country. She found out the details in 1946 of the level of the destruction. So she became a citizen and I was born 9 years later. We are responsible for over 650,000 deaths and you think we are loved over there in Iraq? No WAY!

Bill October 18, 2006 6:02 pm (Pacific time)

Sounds like you aren't too happy here. Nobody is making you stay. Maybe you should move back to Germany. Germany. We stopped them from murder and domination. We have now stopped the murderous regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Iraq actually used chemical weapons on their own populous. As you assert we have.) Those peoples do not feel we are forcing anything on them. I have a lot of friends who have actually been there. The people welcomed them with open arms as saviors.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 5:49 pm (Pacific time)

Bill, I love the sticks. I just figured that if you are in the sticks you would be watching television. I do not get television because I know that it is controlled by about 6 billionaires of the same ideology.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 5:46 pm (Pacific time)

We do not stand up for ourselves, we try to dominate and control the world like Stalin or Hitler. We try to force our ways on people that do not want our ways. We colonize under the guise of modernization.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 5:40 pm (Pacific time)

Our government follows rules, like firestorming defenseless civilians like Dresden and Hamburg? Grandpa Prescott Bush supplied the German Military with Steel. Rules in this country of well dressed public speaking phoney criminals. Just like Nixon and Oliver North. Thousands of others. We killed German civilians and military personel well after the war was over. I know, my relatives were there.

Bill October 18, 2006 5:36 pm (Pacific time)

Its okay to have an opinion other than what the DNC or the yellow journalism CNN tells you. I am glad that I have been so fortunate to move out of the large city and into the country. Sorry for moving up in the world.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 5:34 pm (Pacific time)

Thanks Matt!

Bill October 18, 2006 5:32 pm (Pacific time)

The sticks? I was fortunate enough to move out of the horrible Salem city life and into the country. Sorry I have been able to do well for myself. We are the biggest criminals in the world? Please. We are the only country that is actually willing to stand up for ourselves. As far as following the rules go, our government follows them well. You don't have to listen to everything that the Democratic Party tells you, or the yellow journalism of CNN for that matter. Look at the sources you use before you make a judgement.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 5:19 pm (Pacific time)

Bill, If you have not learned by now that in government there are no rules. We are number one in the world because we are the biggest criminals in the world. You do not get to the top being a boy scout. Where I live it is common knowledge. Maybe you are out in the sticks in the Northwest and actually watch television and movies. I do not.

Bill October 18, 2006 5:04 pm (Pacific time)

That is the dumbest thing I ever heard!! Our own government infected people with Anthrax?! Campaign for reducing civil rights thru fear? You need to get an education and a job. You have obviously watched too many movies.

Albert Marnell October 18, 2006 5:00 pm (Pacific time)

The comment below is not written by me, someone used my name, probably, eqriddler or nomad. I, Albert Marnell think that George Bush should be convicted of treason. Whoever uses my name plays with fire, and I am warning you. I have alot of tricks up my sleeve. Legal tricks and connections.
(changed name to anonymous)Matt

Anonymous October 18, 2006 10:54 am (Pacific time)

USA rules Bush is number one!

Use Your Brains October 18, 2006 10:26 am (Pacific time)

Our own govenment sent out the Anthrax. That is why no one was caught. It is part of the campaign to instill fear and have Americans surrender more of their civil rights out of fear. Reichstag again.....just like 9/11. Vaccines are a multi-billion dollar industry. If they can't sell you a can of Pepsi or a new car, they will sell you a vaccine.

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Department of Defense to Resume Mandatory Anthrax Vaccinations

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