Robertson, an expert in biological warfare, has been analyzing Defense Department test records obtained by Mark Zaid, executive director of the James Madison Project, which seeks to reduce government secrecy. Zaid is also an attorney representing several service members who are resisting the anthrax vaccinations. Zaid and Robertson conceded that being ill for as long as two weeks is better than dying, the likely fate of those who aren't inoculated or treated quickly with antibiotics after exposure to anthrax. But they said the Pentagon has failed to disclose publicly that the vaccine doesn't confer full immunity to the disease. It doesn't tell them they will be incapacitated for two weeks.
Anthrax is an acute infectious disease carried by spore-forming bacteria.
It usually occurs in farm animals but can be contracted by humans through tainted meat or, more rarely, inhalation of the spores. When inhaled, it first causes cold-like symptoms and is almost always fatal within a week unless treated immediately by antibiotics. What it doesn't say is that some of the monkeys became very ill. Zaid and Robertson analyzed the laboratory notebooks from one of the tests conducted on 10 immunized rhesus monkeys and a control group of five animals at the Army's infectious diseases institute. After being fully vaccinated, the monkeys were exposed to a highly lethal dose of aerosol spray of anthrax on June 13, 1991.