-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/international.cfm?id=1195332002
Sun 27 Oct 2002 Troops to get Saddam plague jab BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR AN EXPERIMENTAL plague vaccine will be given to thousands of British troops in the event of war against Iraq, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. It is feared Saddam Hussein has developed a super-strain of the ‘Black Death’ bacterium which could wipe out millions. The Ministry of Defence last night confirmed that its scientists had created a new vaccine, which they expect to be licensed for use within weeks. The inoculation will be among a cocktail of drugs - including anthrax vaccine - administered to British troops if Saddam ignores demands to allow inspections of his weapons stockpile. It can also be revealed that the Department of Health is considering stockpiling the same vaccine for use on civilians in the event of an attempt to spread the plague in the UK. But former soldiers who blame the cocktail of inoculations they received before the 1991 conflict for ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ urged troops to refuse the new vaccination. The National Gulf Veterans & Families Association, which recently complained that soldiers going to Iraq would be offered the same anti-anthrax drug administered to troops in 1990, warned that the new drug was being rushed into use. "We were actually given a plague vaccine in 1990, and even if this is a completely different drug, I would advise soldiers to avoid it," said spokesman Jim Moore. "The risks from taking these injections still far outweigh the small risk of being subjected to chemical attack if they do go to Iraq. "The one advantage they have now is that the vaccines are voluntary, although there are concerns about that because it means the troops would have even less comeback than us if things went wrong this time." But government officials were last night insisting that their new vaccine was both effective and necessary, given international anxiety about Saddam’s arsenal of chemical weapons. "If the plague virus got into the hands of terrorists, it could be spread very rapidly through the civilian population," one government source said. "It would only take a few ‘suicide carriers’ to walk around the London Underground for the infection to spread quickly to thousands of people." The fast spread of the disease, which has an incubation period of up to five days, could have a devastating effect on military units where thousands of people spend weeks together. Scientists from the secret MoD research centre at Porton Down, Wiltshire, are now close to the end of final clinical trials after four years of development. Once licensed, the new drug would be rushed into production in collaboration with a major pharmaceutical company. One official confirmed that it was "a reasonable assumption" that troops sent to Iraq would be offered the new protection. The Department of Health, which has been closely involved with the development of the vaccine, is also considering whether to stockpile the drug for civilian use. Health Secretary Alan Milburn has already ordered over 20 million doses of the smallpox vaccine to protect the population in the event of a terrorist-inspired epidemic of the lethal disease. A senior DoH source said no decisions on the plague vaccine had yet been made, but admitted that "vaccination of parts of the civilian population is an important consideration". Bubonic plague claimed almost 2,000 lives out of 18,000 cases across the world between 1980 and 1994, although the last reported deaths in Britain occurred almost a century ago. In 1997, French scientists discovered a new strain of bubonic plague that defied most conventional cures, and the British and United States governments now fear Saddam is developing his own super-strain. Tony Blair’s dossier of evidence to support his hardline stance against Iraq detailed how Saddam tried to obstruct United Nations inspectors’ efforts to investigate the scale of his biological weapons programme. He allegedly created forged documents to account for bacterial growth media, imported in the late 1980s specifically for the production of anthrax, botulinum toxin and plague. Blair has also ordered officials to line up a second multi-million pound delivery of smallpox vaccine amid growing fears that the deadly virus could be used in a terrorist attack on the UK. The Prime Minister has demanded a further increase in the government’s stockpile of the vaccine, after his top health adviser warned that he should provide enough doses to inoculate every single man, woman and child in the country. Health officials have been given the go-ahead to purchase at least 10 million more doses of the smallpox vaccine, to add to the 20 million ordered earlier this year, as the government inches towards its new 60 million target. Scotland on Sunday has also established that Britain’s pre-September 11 store of smallpox vaccine can be diluted up to five times - potentially stretching the three-million-plus existing stocks to 15 million doses. Senior government sources last night admitted that this time they would have to open the new vaccines deal to full competition from drugs companies across the world after their decision to award the original £32m contract to Powderject Pharmaceuticals sparked furious protests. Opposition parties and rival firms complained that the Department of Health had not followed the rules on opening government contracts to competitive tender before giving the deal to Powderject, run by Labour donor Paul Drayson. Ministers refused to explain the full reasons for the decision, citing ‘national security’ - but they claimed Powderject was the only company that could provide the type of vaccine required in the quantities and timescale specified. This article: http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/international.cfm?id=1195332002 More War with Iraq?: http://www.news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=518 Websites: Government Iraq Dossier (PDF) http://www.ukonline.gov.uk/featurenews/iraqdossier.pdf FCO - Policy towards Iraq http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394374 FCO site - Britain, UNSCOM & Iraq http://special.fco.gov.uk/ UN - Office of the Iraq Programme http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/ US Dept of State - Iraq Update http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/ Iraqi Presidency http://www.uruklink.net/iraq/ Iraq Watch http://www.iraqwatch.org John Pilger on Iraq http://pilger.carlton.com/iraq ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; I don't believe everything I read or send (but that doesn't stop me from considering it; obviously SOMEBODY thinks it's important) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. 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