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The Dilemma of Vaccinations

© Adelle Vancil Tilton

Although to the general public, the Anthrax threat has for the most part blown over, the threat remains very real for a number of people in Washington DC and New Jersey. They are faced with a decision about their own treatment. A treatment unfortunately that the CDC admits themselves, they can not provide all the answers about. Answers regarding safety and efficacy are just not available but at least this time the director of the CDC, Jeffrey P. Koplan, is at least being honest about that fact.

The issue revolves around government workers, primarily in the Hart Building in Washington, and the postal workers in Washington's Brentwood facility and in New Jersey who were exposed to the virulent form of anthrax. Those workers have been on antibiotics, either Cipro or Doxycycline, since the initial Anthrax attack. Now the time has come to discontinue the antibiotics, but the question remains about the possibility of spores that may be remaining in the victim's tissues. The concern is that these spores could lay dormant for an unknown period of time and then flair to life and reinfect the patient with treatment being delayed and potentially disastrous results. The conclusion reached by some health agencies in the United States, amongst them the CDC, is that the vaccine delivered while antibiotic treatment is underway, may be the solution. Hence the controversy.

The Anthrax vaccine in the United States is manufactured by BioPort. The FDA has not approved nor allowed distribution of this vaccine nationwide because of "manufacturing issues". However, a rush release was granted by the FDA for 10,000 doses of the vaccine to be used due to this situation. The "Washington Post" did break a story that this release was pushed through the evening before the Hart Building employees began receiving the vaccination. In fact the FDA did a late night approval, giving their permission to use the vaccine between 9:00pm and 10:00pm on December 19th, with the vaccine being given to 48 government workers at 10:00am the following morning.

Christopher Shays, United States Representative from Connecticut (Republican) was interviewed on CNN December 22 and had some interesting comments regarding this vaccination. He stated that he would not himself ever use it and couldn't recommend others do either. He stated that it is an unapproved vaccine, not delving into the reasons why, and that considering that the United Kingdom does have a safe and proven vaccine that they have offered to the United States for use, we should be using that one and not the one manufactured by BioPort.

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