The reported reactions include flu-like symptoms. Bailey said 26 of those reports involved reactions severe enough to require hospitalization, but only six cases were traced directly to the vaccine. The others were attributed to medical treatment or other causes, she said. Bailey said the adverse reactions are normal for any vaccine. But U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., the subcommittee's chairman, said his own investigation concluded that the Pentagon acted too quickly in ordering personnel to take the shots.
Anthrax is a bacteria that naturally infects sheep and other animals.
He said the Pentagon should make the shots voluntary, not mandatory, until the military develops a new generation of safer, more effective anthrax vaccines. He said Russian military laboratories have already developed a strain of anthrax that can defeat the vaccine given to U.S. troops, and he contended that modern genetic engineering should be used to produce a more reliable countermeasure. U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said that, based on what he has gleaned from the subcommittee's probe, he would not take the vaccine. The Pentagon has administered anthrax shots to troops likely to be sent to the Middle East or Asia, where anthrax weapons could be used in war. But in the next four years, the program is being expanded to inoculate another 2 million military personnel.