Lawsuit Threatens Anthrax Shots Again

I really wish someone would make a final decision on this:

Mandatory anthrax vaccinations for some troops are expected to resume in late January, said Defense Department spokesman Maj. Stewart Upton on Friday.

Meanwhile, an attorney representing six Defense Department employees who refuse to take the vaccine has vowed that he will try to stop the mandatory vaccination program.

In October, the Defense Department announced it was making anthrax vaccinations mandatory for U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula and in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.

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But Mark Zaid, a Washington, D.C., attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit against the DOD over the program, has vowed to try to block mandatory shots in court.

“We are well-prepared to challenge the Defense Department each time it exercises poor judgment involving AVIP (Anthrax Vaccine and Immunization Program), and will file a Temporary Restraining Order in January to attempt to prevent any unlawful inoculations,” Zaid said in a Friday e-mail to Stripes.

Here is how the anthrax injection schedule works:

I started taking anthrax injections in 2000 when I went to Korea and I received up to four out of the six required shots before the DOD ran out of vaccine. Then I went back to the states and there the program restarted again.  My division deployed to Kuwait to fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and I had to restart from shot number one again due to the time in between my first injections in Korea. Once again I made it up to four shots when the court ruling came out that the DOD could not give anthrax shots anymore. So now I am hoping my unit doesn’t have to take anthrax shots until the court decision is made.  I would hate to have to take more anthrax shots without having to.  If they do uphold the ruling for people to take anthrax shots, let me complete the cycle so I don’t have to keep taking unnecessary anthrax shots.  I have had eight anthrax injections total and will have to take 6 more again if the court allows anthrax shots again.   That would mean that by the time I get done with the next cycle of anthrax shots, I would have taken 14 anthrax shots in 4 years. 

Maybe that explains my receding hair line?