The Case for "FORCED" Health Protection.
Abstract
In the era following Desert Shied/Desert Storm veterans suffering from what has been dubbed Gulf War Illness have led many to believe that DoD's force health protection measures did more harm than good. It is this legacy when added to similar military health related problems from other eras that DoD was saddled with when the Secretary of Defense directed force-wide immunization with the anthrax vaccine in 1999. From the start this force health protection policy executed as the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP) suffered from lack of trust between military leaders and the service member they led an absence of a reliable source of vaccine an inability to win the information campaign and politicization of the program by the Congress. Despite all these issues the AVIP remained the best protection for military personnel facing a real battlefield biological threat. While court challenges to stop the AVIP are still on-going DoD must stay the course and never concede that force health protection should be a discretionary choice of each individual service member. At the same time DoD must seek funding for continued research for a better anthrax vaccine as well as a more reliable source for future vaccines.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 19, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA424088
Entities
People
- Donald G. Curry Jr.
Organizations
- United States Army War College