March 11, 1999, 09:01 p.m.
Armed Services opt to discharge those who refuse vaccine
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
New York Times
FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- The short, happy military career of Jeffrey A. Bettendorf ended
abruptly this week.
After threatening him with court-martial, the Air Force discharged Airman 1st Class
Bettendorf under "other than honorable conditions" because he refused to take a
vaccine that the Pentagon says could save his life one day.
The vaccine is meant to protect against an attack with anthrax, one of the deadliest
biological agents turned into a weapon. But Bettendorf, once a senior airman with an
untarnished record, came to believe that the Pentagon had never proved the vaccine's
safety and effectiveness.
Hours after signing the papers that ended his service after nearly seven years, Bettendorf
said there were other jobs "where people aren't all over you, saying what you can and
can't do with your body."
Bettendorf is not alone in his defiance. The Los Angeles times reported that the Navy said
on Thursday that 29 members on the Norfolk, Va.-based nuclear aircraft carrier U.S.S.
Theodore Roosevelt have been demoted, fined, jailed for up to 45 days, or given extra duty
for refusing to undergo the mandatory anthrax shots.
Sixteen months after Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen announced that all 2.4 million
military personnel, whether on active duty or in the reserves or national guard, would be
vaccinated, the Pentagon is facing a rebellion from a small, but growing number of those
who have refused.
Only 100 or so of the 218,000 military personnel who have started receiving the first of
six shots that are required have resisted and subsequently been punished. So the Pentagon
dismisses the resistance as insignificant, although officials stopped counting how many
refuse the vaccine.
But in spite of furious efforts by the Pentagon to tamp down what it considers insidious
misinformation about the vaccine, the resistance continues. Efforts have included senior
officers taking the vaccine in public and an unusual memorandum to all Marines from the
Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Charles C. Krulak.
"I think it speaks to the undercurrent of distrust of the government and the
military," said Lt. Gen. Ronald R. Blanck, the surgeon general of the Army, the
service that oversees the vaccination program. "Agent Orange. Nuclear tests in the
'50s. People say, `How can you say this is safe?' Clearly, we have a credibility
problem."
The Pentagon requires a variety of basic vaccinations. While the Pentagon previously has
vaccinated soldiers against biological agents, including 150,000 vaccinated against
anthrax in the Persian Gulf War, it has never before tried to inoculate the entire
military to counter a threat from a biological or chemical weapon.
There is no evidence that any army has used anthrax in combat, but the Pentagon has grown
increasingly concerned by the threat of biological or chemical attack. Anthrax, a
naturally occurring bacteria found in domesticated animals, can with relative ease be
produced as dry spores that, when inhaled, cause death within a few days.
A vaccine was developed in the 1950s and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for
general use in 1970.
The refusals began with troops in the Pacific and the Persian Gulf, who were the first to
receive the vaccination because of their proximity to North Korea and Iraq -- countries
believed to have biological weapons. The number of refusals is expected to grow as the
vaccination program moves to bases in the United States.
To refuse the vaccination is to disobey an order. Each of the services is responsible for
its own discipline, but because commanders cannot force the shots on subordinates, most
cases have ended with discharges -- some general, some bad conduct.
The Marine Corps, in particular, has been hit hard. More than two dozen Marines in
Okinawa, Japan, have refused. At the sprawling desert base at Twentynine Palms, Calif.,
another 10 have declined.
The resisters cite a plethora of reasons. They note that there is no way to test the
vaccine on the form of anthrax used in weapons and they criticize the dearth of follow-up
research on those who did receive it in the Gulf War. They also point to two FDA reports
critical of the vaccine's manufacturer, the Michigan Biologic Products Institute, a state
agency sold last September to a private company, the Bioport Corp. of Lansing, Mich.,
which a month later received a $29 million contract from the Pentagon to produce the
vaccine.
The Pentagon insists the program is safe and effective, saying the criticism of the
manufacturer had no effect on the vaccine.