http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/thu/metro/news_1mc30anthrax.htm
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Charge filed in anthrax case
Marine who refused the vaccination could face prison time
By Jeanette Steele
STAFF WRITER
January 30, 2003
CAMP PENDLETON – Cpl. Anthony Fusco has become the first San Diego
County-based Marine to face court-martial for refusing the anthrax
vaccination since the military resumed the controversial program last fall.
Fusco, a switchboard operator, said he believes the vaccine isn't safe,
based on his Internet research.
"They haven't really done any studies on long-term side effects," Fusco, 22,
said in an interview. "I believe it's your own body. It's your own right to
put something in your body."
Fusco, a Santa Clarita native, was charged this month with disobeying a
lawful order and probably will go to a special court-martial in February, he
said. If convicted, his maximum sentence would be a year in military prison
and a bad-conduct discharge.
Fusco is the only member of the 45,000-person 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
charged with refusing since the vaccinations resumed, said 1st Lt. Dan
Rawson, a Camp Pendleton spokesman.
For the military community, it is an old debate coming to the forefront
again.
Fusco is accused of the same offense that at least 37 service members were
convicted of when they refused inoculations in the late 1990s. The Pentagon
largely suspended its anthrax vaccination program in 2001 because of low
supply from troubled manufacturer BioPort Corp. of Michigan.
With a potential war against Iraq, the Marines in September began
inoculating troops bound for the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
All members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton and
Miramar Marine Corps Air Station are expected to get the shot if they might
deploy.
The anthrax bacterium can be deadly, especially when inhaled. Spores enter
the lungs and migrate to lymph nodes, where they produce lethal toxins that
destroy vital organs. Five Americans died in late 2001 when anthrax-laced
letters circulated through the postal system.
Rawson said the Marine Corps has tried to educate troops about the safety of
the vaccine – the same version given to service members in the late 1990s.
"Whenever a Marine thinks about refusing the anthrax vaccine, that refusal
is thought to be a misunderstanding of the purpose and efficacy of the
vaccination," he said.
"The Marine is given multiple opportunities to sit down one on one with a
number of individuals in the chain of command and learn and have his
questions answered. If that fails, charges can be brought."
Fusco said he fears the vaccine might cause autoimmune diseases and birth
defects when he and his wife decide to have children.
He studied a Web site called www.majorbates.com, which is a collection of
articles and documents about the vaccine. The site is run by retired Air
Force reservist Lt. Col. John Richardson, who launched it in 2000 after
fruitless attempts to get the military to change its mandatory vaccine
policy.
Richardson disputes the military's claims of the vaccine's safety.
"Objective information makes me believe it's not safe," he said yesterday.
"I've talked to victims."
Fusco, who joined the Marine Corps in 1999 during the height of the earlier
courts-martial, said he had never heard of the controversy until he was
offered the shot, if he wanted it, while stationed in Japan later that year.
He declined.
In December, he was ordered to be inoculated when his 13th Marine
Expeditionary Unit was scheduled for a six-month deployment to the Persian
Gulf in June. He refused.
Fusco said he was removed from his unit and initially was offered
nonjudicial punishment, which he intended to accept to avoid a negative
discharge. With hopes of becoming a police officer, he worries that a
bad-conduct discharge could hurt his chances.
Then his superiors told him the deal was off, Fusco said. Now he has been
told he faces a special court-martial, the second-highest kind of military
trial.
Fusco said he still hopes for a less-severe general discharge. But if he
doesn't get it, he won't be sorry.
"Even if it's hard for me, I'll do my own business or something," Fusco
said. "I'll make it.
"I still don't hate the Marine Corps. I just think what they are doing is
very wrong."
