The first thing that jumped into my head when the news stories started on him was Julie Gerberding's statement in the CNN interview when confronted with the idea that government vaccine experts were not being earnest. Julie wants to remind us that, "the government is actually composed of mom's and dad's... they understand the dilemma that a parent feels". I want to believe that what she is saying is at least mostly true and that Ivins is not in any way representative of what vaccine researchers are capable of.
I will post this one quote from the LA Times today:
Last week, one anthrax expert suggested that Ivins' deteriorating mental state after 2000 might have been affected by the annual vaccinations he would have received over his 28-year career to protect against infection by the potent anthrax spores he cultivated. Ironically, much of Ivins' research was aimed at developing a new vaccine.
Meryl Nass, a Maine physician and expert on the anthrax vaccine, said Ivins complained to her in 1998 that he was suffering from a blood disorder he worried might be a side effect of anthrax vaccinations.
Nass suggested last week that Ivins may have had psychological side effects as well, especially if the vaccines interacted with the antipsychotic drugs he took over the last decade.
The old vaccine has been linked to psychological effects in a report by the National Academies of Science Institute of Medicine. Examining active-duty military personnel who received shots from 1998 to 2000, the study found that the diagnosis rate for psychoses and other personality disorders more than tripled after the vaccinations.
Feel free to discuss.
Maybe I will get the stomach to write about this story more, but not today.
HT: Toto
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