It is FDA's job to see that the food we eat is safe and wholesome, the cosmetics we use won't hurt us, the medicines and medical devices we use are safe and effective, and that radiation-emitting products such as microwave ovens won't do us harm. FDA is one of our nation's oldest consumer protection agencies. Like all vaccines, anthrax vaccine may cause soreness, redness, itching, swelling, and lumps at the injection site. Lumps can persist a few weeks, but eventually disappear. Injection-site problems occur about twice as often among women.
Larger reactions occur in about one in a hundred vaccine recipients.
In over 30 years of use there has been no long term side effects associated with the anthrax vaccine. You may wish to read the 13 human safety studies, that have been used to review the safety of the anthrax vaccine. Balancing the risks of immunization versus the risks of disease from failing to vaccinate, the scales tip decidedly in favor of immunization. The consequences of unvaccinated unit members becoming biological warfare casualties would be tragic enough, but the consequences would be graver than their deaths alone. Their individual deaths may jeopardize the capability and survival of entire military units, as well as the success of the military mission.