Why is this important information - here is info on squalene from Meryl Nass, MD
From: Meryl Nass
I wanted to make a few comments on the following story. Squalene is one of several components used to produce several different vaccine adjuvants. Adjuvants strongly boost the effectiveness of vaccines in which they are used; without them, the vaccine in question would provide poor immunity. With them, there is sufficient non-specific stimulation of the immune system that a good immune response is generated to the antigen. They are required more for "killed" than attenuated live vaccines.
Adjuvants containing squalene have been used routinely in animal experiments over the past 10+ years with anthrax vaccine. They have also been used in several human experimental trials of vaccines: for HIV, herpes genitalis, etc. These adjuvants have been shown to cause severe autoimmune reactions in animals, and despite several clinical trials, the vaccines which have contained them have not been approved for routine human use. It is my belief that they have caused severe autoimmune disease in some humans who were enrolled in experimental trials, based on anecdotal reports.
The work of Pam Asa and Bob Garry looked for autoantibodies to squalene in humans. They did not look for evidence of other adjuvant components; and their work has not yet been published or duplicated by another group. Thus, there is no proof yet which, if any, experimental adjuvants may have been given to Gulf vets and/or other servicemembers. But the circumstantial evidence is very troubling.
Servicemembers who may have received such adjuvants had to have signed informed consent documents for their administration to have been legal, since there existed no waiver of informed consent for these products. If anyone thinks they may have received these products and is aware of agreeing to take them, please contact me.
Meryl Nass
Information From 1997 & 1998
International Gulf War Illness Coalition - Article
Mycoplasma Fermentans (Incognitus) and Aids, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, & Gulf
War Syndrome - More Questions Remain
Pentagon - A Promise to Do Better is Not Enough Washington Post, 1/12/98
Pentagon slammed for testing Drugs on Troops
By: Deborah Funk, 10-23-1997
Navy Times Published: 10-27-97
FDA Warns Michigan Biologic Products Institute of Intention to Revoke Licenses, Wed, 10 Dec 1997 Producers of Anthrax & other Vaccines
Anthrax Vaccine Production Continues Michigan Biologics Remains Open
Michigan Biologics Shuts Down (Anthrax Plant)
GERM WARFARE AGAINST AMERICA: PART IIc - FORCED INOCULATIONS OF U.S. TROOPS
Letter 1 to Secretary of Defense regarding Anthrax Vaccine"
Letter 2 to Secretary of Defense regarding Anthrax Vaccine"
Veterans' Group Wages Net Campaign Against Anthrax Vaccine" by John Motavalli January 5, 1998
A recent announcement by the department of defense that it would be starting vaccinations "against the biological warfare agent anthrax" has rekindled concerns among Gulf War veterans on the Net about how much the government is doing to protect them from such weapons. The Gulf War Veterans Association has started an e-mail campaign expressing concern over the efficacy of such vaccines. Captain Joyce Riley (USAF Inactive Reserve), a registered nurse and director of the Texas-based American Gulf War Veterans Association, said that "Gulf War veterans are outraged knowing that these immunizations have not been proven effective against the use of aerosolized anthrax." Anthrax is a biological weapon that some fear Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein might deploy. Riley's group claims that evidence supports the contention that the immunizations aren't effective. Among the sources cited is Senate Report 103-97, page 15, December 8, 1994, which states: "Unfortunately, when anthrax is used as a biological weapon, it is likely to be aerosolized and thus inhaled. Therefore, the efficacy of the vaccine against biological warfare is unknown." The veterans group also quotes Lt. General Ronald Blanck, commanding officer of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, from the same report as saying on page 35: "Anthrax vaccine should continue to be considered as a potential cause for undiagnosed illnesses in Persian Gulf personnel..." Riley also cites an August 6, 1997 (Vol 278 No 5 p 402) report by The Journal of the American Medical Association, which addressed the vaccine: "There are insufficient data regarding efficacy against inhalational anthrax in humans..." According to Riley, "The credibility of the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, and the Veterans Administration has recently been attacked and a recommendation for an independent investigation into Gulf War illness has been made." The Department of Defense insists that this vaccine is not experimental or possibly ineffective or unsafe. The DOD announced the anthrax vaccine policy December 15, stating that the vaccinations would start next summer and adding, "After a three year study, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen concluded that the vaccination is the safest way to protect highly mobile U.S. military forces against a potential threat that is 99 percent lethal to unprotected individuals. The anthrax vaccine will initially be administered to approximately 100,000 military personnel assigned or deployed to the high-threat areas of Southwest Asia and Northeast Asia. Within the next several years it will be given to all active duty and reserve personnel." The DOD news release said, "The anthrax vaccine is FDA-licensed and exhibits fewer side effects than flu or typhoid vaccines. It has been widely used in the United States since the early 1970s by livestock workers and veterinarians." When asked about the Gulf War veterans concerns, Defense Department spokesperson Jim Turner said, "Stuff coming off the Internet is often suspect." He subsequently added, "But I am not saying the veterans' concerns are suspect. I am not questioning the veterans concerns. I respect that. It's idiotic to say they don't have concerns -- their concerns are their concerns." He said the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the vaccine for "about 20 years," and the worst thing that has happened to anyone taking it is a little redness around the vaccination area, mild discomfort at the inoculation site, or low-grade fever.
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INTERNATIONAL GULF WAR ILLNESS COALITION, 68 Dearmin Terrance Ln #11 Franklin, NC 28734, http://www.dnet.net/~pkawaja/
During the last 50 years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel have been involved in human experimentation and other intentional exposures conducted by the Department of Defense (DOD), often without a service member's knowledge or consent.
The military has released chemicals and biological agents through outdoor "open air" tests for over four decades. Some of these supposedly safe chemicals and biological agents, referred to as simulants, were also released over populated areas and cities.
Anthrax vaccine was given to approximately 150,000 military personnel in the Persian Gulf. Anthrax vaccine is considered effective for protecting against anthrax exposure of the skin; however it is unclear whether it provides protection against inhaling aerosolized anthrax. According to the Department of Defense, in biological warfare the anthrax would be sprayed, so the efficacy of the vaccine against aerosolized anthrax would have been the relevant test. As stated earlier in this report, the DOD has only one study indicating that the vaccine might be useful against aerosolized anthrax, but there are no data on humans.
Excerpts from "Is Military Research Hazardous to Veteran's Health? Lessons Spanning Half A Century" Committee on Veterans Affairs United States Senate December 8, 1994
Incline Village Nevada--CFS OUTBREAK
Drs. Cheney and Peterson read and reread the Annals papers describing a syndrome of illnesses that appeared to be associated with the ubiquitous herpesvirus, but they were disturbed by the nascent theory being advanced by Jones and Straus that Epstein-Barr virus might play a causative role. The Nevada clinicians found another idea, which Stephen Straus had floated with featherweight emphasis, to be far more credible; that Epstein-Barr virus reactivation might merely be an epiphenomenon, or a hallmark, of the syndrome. What if something else, some other virus-call it agent X-was undermining the immune systems of these patients, allowing rampant Epstein-Barr virus replication and other subtle biological disturbances?
HHV6
An August 15 letter in the Lancet from British scientists proposed in print for the first time what a number of other thoughtful researchers were beginning to suspect: "One wonders whether the isolation of this (virus) from immunosuppressed patients could represent reactivation of a latent infection."
Lyndonville, NY--CFS OUTBREAK--Drs. Karen & David Bell
Karen began a mental inventory of milk-borne infections. Brucellosis, or undulant fever, was at the top of her long list; in the absence of antibiotics, the disease can persist for years. Brucellosis tests were uniformly negative, however. Two other diseases they investigated were Q fever and yersinia, the latter characterized by-as Karen Bell described it-"the runs." The Q fever postulate was dashed when tests yielded uniformly negative results. The Duncanson patriach, David, although symptomless, was positive for yersinia, however. For the next month both doctors assumed the outbreak was yersinia. On December 14, the three sickest children were hospitalized. The admitting diagnosis was yersinia.
For two weeks doctors infused the children with a powerful antibiotic, gentamicin; a second antibiotic, doxycycline was to be swallowed. On day five all three children began to respond. They were released on Christmas Eve, their ordeal seeming to be over.
Incline Village, Nevada--CFS OUTBREAK
It was unlikely, of course that in a town of just under 6,000 a federal investigation of an epidemic should go unnoticed. What was remarkable was how long the Centers for Disease Control's presence on Alder Street had remained submerged. Gary Holmes was instinctively wary of publicity and had identified himself in telephone conversations with patients as an official from the Washoe County health department. "I did not want to make it known that we were doing a CDC investigation," he explained later.
Excerpts from "Osler's Web" Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic" by Hillary Johnson, Crown Books, Copyright 1996
Mycoplasmas In the Aids Spotlight
Luc Montagner now thinks that these microbes may have a role in AIDS-bringing a measure of delayed vindication to Shyh-Ching Lo a tenacious young virologist. For Lo, the fact that a co-discoverer of HIV would mention mycoplasmas in the same breath as the AIDS virus is in itself a sort of triumph.
He then marshaled the strengths of gene amplification, electron microscopy, in situ hybridization, and immuno-histochemistry to identify the putative gene in tissues. And he found it-in the spleen, liver, brain, lymph nodes, and blood of AIDS patients as well as in the sarcoma tissues.
Even more dramatic was his discovery that the agent could cause death on its own. Lo injected four silverleaf monkeys with the isolate; they all died within 9 months. And Lo found the agent in damaged tissues from six HIV negative patients who had died from unspecified causes 1 to 7 weeks after presenting symptoms suspiciously like those of AIDS.
Excerpts from SCIENCE, Vol. 248, 11 May 1990
The French scientist who isolated the original AIDS virus is hotly pursuing yet another microscopic culprit An accountant's son who excelled in Greek and Latin in college during the German occupation, Montagnier is no stranger to adversity. He faced it again in 1990, when he supported a controversial theory that Mycoplasma, a bacterium-like organism, is the trigger that turns a slow-growing population of AIDS viruses into mass killers. According to Montagnier, the explosion of sexual activity in the U.S. during the 1970's, fostered the spread of a hardy drug-resistant strain of Mycoplasma. HIV meanwhile, lay dormant in Africa. The AIDS epidemic began, Montagnier speculates, when the two microbes got together, perhaps in Haiti.
Excerpts from Time Magazine, August 3,1992
Lo and associates demonstrated M. fermentans infection in the tissues of 70% of AIDS patients with clinical manifestations of functional organ deficits. No other microorganisms were present in these lesions of these AIDS patients. M. fermentans occurred in tissues with only mild histopathological changes and in areas with degenerating cells with patchy necrosis. Tetracycline and related compounds (e.g. minocycline and doxycycline) are among the few antibiotics that are effective against virtually all species of mollicutes. These compounds are effective against M. fermentans.
Excerpt from Uniformed Services of The Health Sciences, (USUHS) Dept. of Pathology, Syllabus VI, 1993-1994 edition ( Military Medical College)
HIV and Mycoplasma
Dr. John Beldekas-whose research demonstrated that "AIDS" patients have antibodies to African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV), the virus Beldekas believes causes the deterioration of the immune system seen in "AIDS" was interviewed by the Native in August 1991.
During the interview he remarked that a few years earlier, he'd noticed that treating HIV infected cell cultures with antibiotics stopped the cell killing effect. When Beldekas remarked upon that fact he remembered his colleagues laughed at him: When I worked for the State of Massachusetts in the virus labs, and I used a drug to kill the Mycoplasma in cultures, the HIV died.
And people used to laugh at me: "Oh you cured HIV with gentamycin", which kills Mycoplasma. And the gentamycin always used to kill HIV in my H9 cells. And people used to laugh at me. And I would say, "But wait a minute, maybe there's something to this Mycoplasma." And people would say "Oh John, for God's sake."
Excerpts from The New York Native, Neenyah Ostrom, October 11,1993
Gulf War Syndrome--Dr. Garth and Dr. Nancy Nicolson--and Mycoplasmas To demonstrate that microorganisms such as mycoplasmas are associated with GWS we initiated two lines of investigation. First we examined the blood of GWS patients for the presence of mycoplasmas by the technique of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Although we could not detect Mycoplasma infections in whole blood, we could detect specific Mycoplasma DNA sequences in the blood leukocyte fraction of symptomatic patients, but ONLY if we adapted PCR techniques to our DNA preparation. This approach required the use of Celex to safely extract the samples. Using forensic PCR techniques and Southern hybridization confirmation of the PCR products we could easily detect the presence of Mycoplasma-specific DNA in the leukocytes of symptomatic GWS patients.
Excerpt from Mycoplasma Infections in Gulf War Illnesses, Presented to the Presidents Panel on Gulf War Syndrome, Washington DC August 14-16, 1995
Drs. Nicolson's Findings
They concluded that many Desert Storm veterans with GWS, particularly a subset with family members that are presenting with similar symptoms, are infected with invasive microorganisms, such as mycoplasmas and possibly other infectious agents as well. Since the mycoplasmas detected appeared to contain unusual gene sequences (such as the HIV-1 envelope gene), the Nicolsons concluded that the mycoplasmas were probably modified and may have been used as biological weapons during Desert Storm.
Excerpt from "Progress on Persian Gulf War Illnesses", Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, 1995
Dr. Garth Nicolson presented his findings to the Department of Veterans Affairs on 4 August, 1995, present were top researchers and scientists from DOD, HHS, etc. During the question and answer period Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo stated that he had been unable to detect the mycoplasmas in the Gulf Veterans and he had used Classic PCR technology and had checked the red blood cells. Dr. Garth Nicolson responded that by the time the Mycoplasma was detected in the red blood cells, the patient was nearly dead and that adapted Forensic PCR and Gene Tracking should be used to check the leukocytes or white blood cells in order to detect the Mycoplasma.
Interview with Army Captain Charles E. Hamden present at the meeting.
Dr. Stephen C. Joseph :
In a letter to Delaware Senator William V. Roth, dated August 28, 1995, Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, Assistant Secretary of Defense, presented his Information Paper: Mycoplasma Incognitus and Persian Gulf Veterans which stated that ONLY Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Ureaplasma urealyticum, and Mycoplasma hominis have clearly shown to cause disease in man. This information paper was presented to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and other members of Congress.
AIDS VACCINE TRIALS--Dr. Anthony Fauci
A blitz of newspaper stories publicizing a government blueprint for a collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry that would result in the rapid development of an "AIDS vaccine" on February 13 was followed the next day by a report calling an HIV vaccine now in clinical trials a "flop." In fact Fauci is determined to forge ahead with clinical trials of "AIDS vaccines" using the same part of the HIV-gp120- as was used in the vaccines already known to have failed. Since Fauci knows that the vaccine he hopes to rush into clinical trials use the same portion of HIV to "vaccinate" as the vaccines that didn't work, how can he possibly proceed with the proposed trials?
And if some of the experimental vaccines under consideration do turn out to be more than "flops", how big a disaster could actually result?
Excerpts from The New York Native, Neenyah Ostrom, February 26,1996
Some questions for study :
Were CFS outbreaks associated with any covert biological testing, (spraying) perhaps of anthrax or maybe a substance thought to be a harmless simulant?
Some Gulf Veterans were told that their "Anthrax" vaccines contained Recombinant DNA is this the approved FDA vaccine?
How is it that a Veteran given a vaccine in 1974, tests positive for both the Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus) and anthrax?
What were the results of the Mycoplasmas vaccine program conducted at the University of Maryland?
Could the Mycoplasma be activating HIV and other viruses such as Epstein-Barr, HHV6, etc.?
Was the Yersinia culture in the Lyndonville outbreak gained from a stool culture? Were the children's stools cultured? Why were gentamycin IV and doxycycline (oral) selected as the treatment? Has this protocol been used to treat other CFS patients?
What would have been the effect on CFS had the children not survived the outbreak?
Why was the CDC undercover in Incline, Nevada?
Why is Mycoplasma Incognitus listed under Sexually Transmitted Diseases, in the USUHS medical book?
Since vaccine trials on Mycoplasma were conducted prior to Shyh-Ching Lo's pronouncement that they could cause death on their own, were they thought to be safe before that?
How does the Mycoplasma containing 40% of the HIV envelope fit together with the whole HIV virus?
Since Shyh-Ching Lo was looking in the red blood cells using Classic PCR instead of the leukocytes (white blood cells) using adapted Forensic PCR and Gene Tracking could his findings of 70% infections in AIDS patients be low?
How is it possible that Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, is not aware that Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus) causes disease in man?
Why was the HIV gp120 used unsuccessfully by Dr. Fauci over 20 times in AIDS vaccine trials and who received these unsuccessful vaccines? He claimed that people showed some immunity unless they engaged in risk behaviors, wouldn't a condom have been at least as effective?
Send your e-mail questions or suggestions to Peter Kawaja: pkawaja@dnet.net -or-FAX / Voice Call to > (704) 349-4285.
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A Promise to Do Better Is Not Enough
By Patrick B. Pexton
Monday, January 12, 1998; Page A17
URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-01/12/009l-011298-idx.html
From the Washington Post, Monday, January 12, 1998; Page A17
In a recent letter to the Food and Drug Administration, the Pentagon asked
for broad authority to distribute to U.S. civilians -- during or after a
domestic terrorism incident -- some of the same experimental drugs and
vaccines used on troops to unknown effect in the gulf war. In most cases
these are drugs, or uses of drugs and vaccines, that have never been tested
in a clinical trial for effectiveness or side effects and that are not at
present for sale commercially.
From the Washington Post, Monday, January 12, 1998; Page A17
In a recent letter to the Food and Drug Administration, the Pentagon asked for broad authority to distribute to U.S. civilians -- during or after a domestic terrorism incident -- some of the same experimental drugs and vaccines used on troops to unknown effect in the gulf war. In most cases these are drugs, or uses of drugs and vaccines, that have never been tested in a clinical trial for effectiveness or side effects and that are not at present for sale commercially.The Pentagon is seeking not only broad authority to give out these drugs during terrorist emergencies but also to waive FDA rules meant to ensure the safest use of experimental drugs: requirements such as keeping track of who gets what drugs, proper labeling, monitoring of side effects and fully informing patients of possible complications before they give their consent.
The FDA is concerned, because as it and the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses recently documented, the Pentagon has a terrible record in using such drugs and vaccines both in Desert Storm and more recently in Bosnia.
Just before Desert Storm, the FDA allowed the Pentagon to give troops several experimental drugs and vaccines not approved for commercial sale. Among them were pyridostigmine bromide (PB), a drug believed to be effective in fending off the effects of chemical and nerve agents; botulinum vaccine and antitoxin medicine to combat biological weapons other than anthrax; and anthrax post-exposure treatments. The FDA also allowed the Pentagon to waive informed consent, in some cases making it mandatory that the troops take the pills or vaccines without full knowledge of possible risks.
Early research suggests that the interaction of PB with wartime stress, pesticides and other hazardous materials present in Desert Storm may be a trigger for "gulf war illness." PB may have been taken by as many as 500,000 troops and botulinum vaccine by about 8,000, although some information still is classified.
After the war, the FDA, in reviewing the Pentagon's compliance with the minimal wartime conditions the agency had laid down, found that "deviations" from the rules "pointed out an underlying inability for the Defense Department to carry out its obligations" under the rules for handling experimental substances. For example, only about half of the troops surveyed by the Pentagon received required information about PB; no records were kept of troops who had adverse reactions to the PB pills; and no notation in permanent medical records was made of those who took botulinum vaccine, making it impossible to study its long-term effects.
The Pentagon, chastised, promised the FDA it would do better next time. Bosnia was that next time.
In Bosnia, the Army was authorized to dispense an experimental vaccine for tick-borne encephalitis, a disease common in the Balkans. In its recent review of that program, the FDA criticized the Pentagon for failing again to document immunizations in soldiers' permanent medical records and for touting the vaccine in handouts given to troops as "very safe and extremely effective" when the FDA never authorized such glowing language. The FDA at last is considering rescinding its permission for the Pentagon to use some experimental drugs on troops in wartime without their consent.
The President's Committee on Gulf War Illnesses was even more critical of the Pentagon's performance with unapproved drugs in the gulf war and Bosnia, saying the Pentagon "currently is incapable" of handling such drugs, and that its poor performance has hampered research into the causes of gulf war illness.
Against this background, the head of defense health affairs boldly is requesting from the FDA more authority to use some of these same substances not only on troops but on civilians in case of domestic terrorism involving chemical and biological weapons, with the same protocol waivers that the FDA already has noted the Pentagon is incapable of honoring.
The Department of Defense, understandably and correctly, wants as much flexibility as it can have during times of national emergency to protect troops and civilians at home from these weapons of mass murder.
But if Americans are in imminent danger of dying by the thousands from biological and chemical weapons at home, then the Pentagon and the White House should do a better job leveling with the people and Congress about the precise nature of the threat and how imminent it may be, and then begin a debate on how far the Pentagon should go in injecting itself into civilian emergency care.
The writer is a managing editor at Army Times Publishing Co.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company