Blumenthal Joins Battle Over Anthrax Vaccine
By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS
Courant Staff Writer
Saying the controversy over the legalities of the anthrax vaccine is critical to Connecticut National Guardsmen forced out of the service for refusing to take it, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has joined the fight over the vaccine in U.S. District Court.
He is the sole state attorney general to enter that legal battle, one that he has been involved with since May 2000, when he asked the state Consumer Protection Department to investigate the vaccine.
In his arguments, Blumenthal says the vaccine has never been properly licensed because it has not been proved safe or effective for humans through at least two human trials.
The legal challenge to the vaccine was brought in federal District Court on behalf of six anonymous military employees, including civilians.
The outcome of the lawsuit would probably affect two of the leading opponents of the vaccine, U.S. Air Force Majs. Thomas L. Rempfer, 40, and Russ Dingle, 48, who were forced to resign from Connecticut's Air National Guard in 1998 in a dispute within the Guard over the vaccine.
Former Guard Commander Col. Walter Burns assigned them to investigate the vaccine, but after their investigation challenged the legality and safety of the vaccine, he balked and forced them out of the Guard. They later joined the Reserve as pilots and have filed their own, separate lawsuits against the military. Since then, however, Dingle has retired.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on April 5 halted the Defense Department's mandatory anthrax vaccine inoculations for 2.4 million service members. However, the judge left untouched an emergency authorization from federal health officials allowing voluntary vaccinations, which was recently extended to January.
The Department of Defense has appealed the ruling in federal court in Washington, D.C., and Blumenthal has now filed a friend of the court brief opposing the Pentagon's position. Sullivan's ruling requires that service members be told about the unlicensed drug's possible side effects, and to consent to be vaccinated. Without consent, the military would need a presidential waiver to force use of the drug under threat of punishment.
As a result of Sullivan's rulings, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is holding a public comment session on the vaccine, one of the failings of the licensing procedure mentioned by the judge.
Blumenthal argues that the Pentagon is using it, even though its officials are aware of the vaccine's legal-health problems; and it is the FDA, not the Department of Defense, with full responsibility for determining vaccine safety.
The Defense Department appealed Sullivan's ruling to the U.S. Court of appeals, saying the vaccine is properly licensed, safe, effective and needed for all service members to ensure their safety.
Dingle, of East Hartford, and Rempfer, of Suffield, are suing separately in the U.S. Court of Claims to get back pay and a ruling that the vaccine is illegal.
Courant Staff Writer
Saying the controversy over the legalities of the anthrax vaccine is critical to Connecticut National Guardsmen forced out of the service for refusing to take it, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has joined the fight over the vaccine in U.S. District Court.
He is the sole state attorney general to enter that legal battle, one that he has been involved with since May 2000, when he asked the state Consumer Protection Department to investigate the vaccine.
In his arguments, Blumenthal says the vaccine has never been properly licensed because it has not been proved safe or effective for humans through at least two human trials.
The legal challenge to the vaccine was brought in federal District Court on behalf of six anonymous military employees, including civilians.
The outcome of the lawsuit would probably affect two of the leading opponents of the vaccine, U.S. Air Force Majs. Thomas L. Rempfer, 40, and Russ Dingle, 48, who were forced to resign from Connecticut's Air National Guard in 1998 in a dispute within the Guard over the vaccine.
Former Guard Commander Col. Walter Burns assigned them to investigate the vaccine, but after their investigation challenged the legality and safety of the vaccine, he balked and forced them out of the Guard. They later joined the Reserve as pilots and have filed their own, separate lawsuits against the military. Since then, however, Dingle has retired.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on April 5 halted the Defense Department's mandatory anthrax vaccine inoculations for 2.4 million service members. However, the judge left untouched an emergency authorization from federal health officials allowing voluntary vaccinations, which was recently extended to January.
The Department of Defense has appealed the ruling in federal court in Washington, D.C., and Blumenthal has now filed a friend of the court brief opposing the Pentagon's position. Sullivan's ruling requires that service members be told about the unlicensed drug's possible side effects, and to consent to be vaccinated. Without consent, the military would need a presidential waiver to force use of the drug under threat of punishment.
As a result of Sullivan's rulings, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is holding a public comment session on the vaccine, one of the failings of the licensing procedure mentioned by the judge.
Blumenthal argues that the Pentagon is using it, even though its officials are aware of the vaccine's legal-health problems; and it is the FDA, not the Department of Defense, with full responsibility for determining vaccine safety.
The Defense Department appealed Sullivan's ruling to the U.S. Court of appeals, saying the vaccine is properly licensed, safe, effective and needed for all service members to ensure their safety.
Dingle, of East Hartford, and Rempfer, of Suffield, are suing separately in the U.S. Court of Claims to get back pay and a ruling that the vaccine is illegal.
