Military Admits Giving Gis Untested Vaccine

The Pentagon acknowledged Monday that a vaccine with unknown health effects was given to 8,000 soldiers in the Persian Gulf War but said the injections were optional in at least some cases.

The comments came in response to a story in The Plain Dealer about injections of botulinum toxoid vaccine, which was meant to protect against chemical and biological warfare. The vaccine is now being studied as a possible source of the health problems associated with “Gulf War syndrome.”

While the military had permission from the Food and Drug Administration to give the vaccine without consent of the soldiers, the U.S. Central Command decided to make the program optional, Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said.

However, Turner said he wasn’t sure what soldiers had been told about the injection. He said it is possible not all the troops were given a choice to reject it.

Just before the war with Iraq, an Army review board warned that it would be unethical to give the drug to troops without warning that the effects were unknown, the newspaper reported Sunday.

That warning was overridden after the Pentagon cited national security concerns, the newspaper said.

A transcript of an Army ethics committee’s meeting in Maryland on Oct. 4, 1990, showed that Army physicians weren’t confident the unlicensed vaccine would protect troops from illness.

The Defense Department has used similar unlicensed vaccines for years, but only after notifying individuals about their nature, the newspaper said.