ANTHRAX
One of the most important responsibilities a Secretary of Defense has is to make sure the United States’ military members are protected as much as possible from any type of harm. Since the cease-fire of the Gulf War, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have discovered that anthrax has become the number one biological threat to our troops. With finding this information, the Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen, has decided to ensure that each military member is protected from anthrax with its vaccine. Senior military leaders are accepting nothing less than total acceptance for the anthrax vaccine. The reason is that military members have been refusing to take the vaccine due to unsubstantiated reports popping up on various Internet sites. These sites have been claiming that the anthrax vaccine is “experimental” and will cause harm if taken. However, the senior military leaders also have been doing what they can to properly educate their members about the anthrax vaccine. Anything less than total acceptance of the anthrax vaccine is not permissible.
ALIFF-SANCHEZ 2
Anthrax is an infectious disease which is caused by the spore forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax can be deadly if the symptoms haven’t been caught in time for treatment. Anthrax infection can occur in three forms: cutaneous (skin), inhalation, and gastrointestinal. B.Anthracis spores can live in the soil for many years and humans can be infected with anthrax by handling animal products from infected animals or by inhaling anthrax spores from contaminated animal products. Eating uncooked meat from infected animals can also spread anthrax. Anthrax can also be spread by biological warfare. Any country that has biological warfare capability can use anthrax on its warheads to spread anthrax (FAQs1).
Since the threat of anthrax has been discovered, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended that all members of the military receive mandatory vaccinations against this disease. However, the first set of immunizations will go to troops scheduled to go to the Middle East and Korea (Cohen 1).
Force protection should not be optional. Moreover, it would be totally incomprehensible to send a soldier on the front lines without
ALIFF-SANCHEZ 3 a helmet; it would make even less sense to send a soldier out into a biologically unfriendly environment without being immunized against it (Cohen 2).
The fear of anthrax vaccine has been unfounded. Unfortunately, the anthrax vaccine has been getting unreasonable criticism in some circles. In particular, a few people have posted incorrect information on Internet sites and distributed it through e-mail campaigns.
There is a war going on against parents that refuse to vaccinate their children. It is coming from the government that makes and enforces laws requiring parents to vaccinate their children, hostile parents of vaccinated children, and doctors that refuse to see unvaccinated children. They are concerned about the potential health risk unvaccinated children pose to the public. These parents aren’t lunatics but are concerned parents that are trying to make the best choice for their children. In fact, these parents aren’t fighting alone; a number of pediatricians and medical experts are apart of this crusade and have taken the lead. They will tell you there is an agenda, “Vaccine manufacturers, health officials, medical doctors, lead authors of important studies, editors of major medical journals, hospital personnel, and even coroners, cooperate to minimize vaccine failings, exaggerate benefits, and avert any negative publicity that might frighten concerned parents, threaten the vaccine program and lower vaccination rates.” 4
Palfreman, J. (Director) (2010). The vaccine war [Television series episode]. In Fanning, D. (Executive Producer),FRONTLINE. PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/view/
This fear was the reason the authors explained the creation of vaccines early on. At this point, the authors again used fear in an attempt to convince readers/parents to ignore these warnings. The authors placed blame directly on those spreading negative propaganda, as well as those who accepted it as fact by stating, “such warnings, if widely heeded, raise the specter of widespread refusal to practice vaccination, thus putting the wider society at risk” (Lee, Carson-Dewitt, 2016, p.2). This directed blame seems to claim that every unvaccinated child puts all members of society at risk, without considering evidence of how an individual’s choice to vaccinate one’s self would offer protection in any
Wilman, D. (2011, March 22). Report faults Army in 2001 anthrax mailings. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 16, 2013, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/22/nation/la-na-anthrax-ivins-20110323/2history/famous-cases/anthrax-amerithrax
Is it justifiable to scare the public by the statement by not vaccinating yourself or your child it poses a threat for the community? Who has the right to take a decision for a child – parent or physician or the legislation? Whose interest is to protect a community by vaccination – the government, the legislation, the pharmaceutical companies, researchers, physician or the individual?
Every year, tens of thousands Americans die from the seasonal flu alone. This alarming statistic is what led the United States government to urge the country to vaccinate themselves, as well as their children every November, when the flu season is fast approaching. Though countless Americans do follow the government’s plea, many others insist that these vaccines distributed every year (as well as other year-long vaccines) contain an abnormally high amount of thimerosal, (a mercury-based chemical in vaccines designed to prevent the growth of bacteria) which could eventually lead to autism. This generation of fear is what has led many concerned parents to refuse to vaccinate their children, who seem to be the most vulnerable to this disease. However, can we really trust a rumor to fuel our doubts of America’s struggle to fight disease among our people? Can we discontinue our trust in the health department because of paranoia? No. Even if autism may be an effect of these vaccines, it is our duty, our responsibility to protect the good of the public by preventing an outbreak of this infl...
Since the end of the Persian Gulf War, the United States along with the United Nations has struggled with Saddam Hussein to locate his “weapons of mass destruction”. Saddam’s persistence and dubious manner towards the United States military has raised concern for military protection. To combat biological threats, Secretary of Defense William Cohen implemented a mandatory military wide vaccination of all military members. Since the inception of the program, the program has been the subject of criticism by military members, Veteran Associations, Doctors, and many Senators on Capital Hill. The criticisms have stirred questions regarding the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Questions that the military has not given clear answers to. Until the many questions regarding the vaccine are answered, service members should not be forced to undergo the vaccination program against anthrax.
Although the Columbian Exchange allowed for the beneficial exchange of cultures, ideas, foods, and animals around the world during the 1450-1750 time period, it also had a dark side. One detrimental result of the Columbian Exchange would be the spreading of smallpox from Europe to the New World.
Louis Pasteur, in 1881, discovered the anthrax vaccine. Anthrax is an infection caused by many bacteria cells called “Bacillus”. These bacteria make “spores” which have a protective shell. This disease is most common in farm animals. They live in soil, and affect domestic a...
Hate speech, According to American Bar Association is "that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, other traits (American).” Hate speech can include “insulting nouns for racial groups, degrading caricatures, a threat of violence, and literature portraying individual as animal-like. There has been long debate whether to protect hate speech in the United States. The hate speech has been protected because it been fundament principle of the constitution. The some part of speech are regulated by the government usually are fighting words which are motivated to
Anthrax can be treated in two ways through antibiotics and vaccines. If caught in the early stages antibiotics are useful in killing the B. anthracis as it tries to reproduce in both humans and animals. The second method of treatment is useful only when the individual receives treatment prior to being infected with Anthrax. Before an individual is infected with anthrax they can receive a vaccine that is very useful in combating the bacterium. Vaccines are currently licensed for limited use. People who are considered eligible for the vaccine are members of the military, veterinarians, laboratory workers, livestock handlers, and abattoir (slaughterhouse) workers.
Director National Immunization Program in a letter to the UK’s Chief Medical Officer 15 February 2002.
In recent years, the correlation between vaccines and autism has become the subject of much debate. On one side, there are the anti-vaccinators, or anti-vaccers. On the other, there’s pretty much everyone else. Despite the fact that the anti-vaccination movement has little base in scientific fact, their campaign to end early infanthood vaccinations rages on. While doctors and scientists try desperately to make parents look at the research studies, vaccination rates continue to fall. But, even in these dark times, there is still hope that scientific fact will prevail and defeat the anti-vaccination fear mongers who have caused many children to fall ill and even die because their parents did not properly vaccinate them. This is one of the most saddening scientific failures of the twenty-first century. A failure to educate the public properly has resulted in child, even infant, fatalities. The anti-vaccination movement was started based on falsified data and continues only because of a lack of knowledge and proper education of the general public.
...cy on biological warfare. During his visit to Fort Detrick, he announced that the United States would terminate all research on biological weapons. By the year 1972 the United States had completely destroyed all biological weapon stockpile. In return of this act the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention was held, As a result of 118 countries signed a agreeing not to develop, produce, or stockpile any form of biological weapon(Mayer p4). Unfortunately despite many laws passed over time, few countries have abided by them. Evidence of this came in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s there were reports that the Soviet Union was using biological weapons in Laos, Kampuchea, and Afghanistan (Mayer p 4).
The third and most essential reason that the United States should enforce national inoculation pertains to the concept that vaccines can support not only individual immunity, but also herd immunity to protect those who are medically incompatible with vaccines. A prevailing argument that pro-volunteer individuals frequently make is that vaccines have the potential to be harmful to individuals; a primary motive behind this pertains to an alleged correlation that exists between thimerosal, a component of vaccines, and countless disorders including autism (Benjamin, 2003). According to Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, “When you take a look at the ever-increasing numbers of doses of vaccines babies have received over the past two decades and you see this corresponding rise in chronic disease and disability in our children, it is out of control” (Benjamin, 2003). Many speculated that the mercury contained within the thimerosal was to blame for this.