Judge Forces Pentagon to Suspend anthrax shots for troops

For the second time in less than a year, a federal judge in Washington blocked the Pentagon from forcing troops to take the anthrax vaccine, saying the vaccine was not properly approved by the Food and Drug Administration. As a result of Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, the Defense Department will suspend vaccinations until the legal situation is clarified, Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said. Government officials insist that the vaccine is safe and essential to protect troops against biological warfare. Sullivan's ruling means the military must obtain consent from soldiers before giving the shots, or get a presidential waiver that will require them to undergo the regime of six injections over several months. The shots have been mandatory for military personnel. More than 1 million U.S. troops, including those serving in the Middle East, have taken the anthrax vaccine since 1998. But hundreds of personnel have refused to take the shots out of concern for their safety, and some complained of harmful side effects. "The men and women of our armed forces deserve the assurance that the vaccines our government compels them to take into their bodies have been tested by the greatest scrutiny of all--public scrutiny," Sullivan wrote in his 41-page opinion. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed last year by six anonymous members of the military who said the vaccine posed health risks that had not been sufficiently studied. [more]