In general, this means that those who have had the first three shots will resume the program with the fourth shot. The FDA supports this approach. Even the first shot begins to provide a degree of protection. We will resume the full vaccination program as soon as we have a sufficient supply of safe, effective vaccine. As Bioport, the sole vaccine supplier, works to achieve FDA certification for its new production facility, we will look for a second source of the vaccine to help meet future needs.
Anthrax remains the primary biological warfare threat to our forces.
It is cheap to produce, easy to put into weapons, hard to detect and highly lethal when inhaled by those without protection. At least 10 countries have or are developing anthrax as a deadly weapon. This is why I added anthrax vaccination to our force protection program. In the last two years, about 20 percent of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have begun to receive protection against the deadly anthrax threat, with emphasis on those in the highest threat areas. There have been very few side effects.