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Panel: 1990s IDF anthrax vaccine tests were unnecessary By Yossi Melman An official medical panel has concluded that tests on anthrax immunization carried out on Israel Defense Forces soldiers may have been unnecessary and there may have been "no medical justification" for what was done. The medical testing, to evaluate vaccine effectiveness and safety, was was done on behalf of the Institute for Biological Research at Nes Ziona and the IDF Medical Corps. Moreover, in its conclusions the committee appears to suggest there may be some validity to the claims by dozens of soldiers who say their participation in the experiment has harmed their health, and are demanding in court the release of the relevant documents. Advertisement On this issue that committee has written that "the results of the experiment have still not been finalized, but the partial results suggest the side effects have been mostly mild and passing." The panel, comprising of members of the Israel Medical Association, a legal expert and a scientist from the Weizmann Institute, was unable to confirm who issued the order to hold the testing, or the development and production of the vaccine. When the program was initiated in the 1990s, it was justified with claims that Israel "is faced with a strategic threat of a surprise attack with biological weapons." "The committee was not convinced," according to the report, "that the need for the vaccine was discussed and evaluated appropriately by the decision makers, and it is not at all clear who the decision makers were on the need for the vaccinations." The experiment was code named Omer Two, and was carried out during the second half of the 1990s. It involved 716 soldiers, who were selected from 4,000 potential candidates. Following a three-month legal battle before the Supreme Court, the report of the special medical panel was released for publication. The court did accept the request of the defense establishment's Field Security to delete some important passages from the text on grounds of state security. Dr. Reuven Porat, who chaired the medical committee, told Haaretz the panel had not been presented with any official documentation that shows the decision to develop, test and produce the vaccine had been authorized by the government. Similarly, there was no authorization presented from the defense minister, who is charged with responsibility for the Institute for Biological Research, and not from the IDF, and there was no proof the chief of staff was consulted about or agreed to the project. However, the panel was informed verbally that then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the production of the vaccine, and that his successor, Shimon Peres, approved the decision. The sole document that the panel was shown in which "the experiment was discussed," was from the office of the assistant to the defense minister. The members of the panel concluded (even though this does not appear in their final report) that the initiator behind the experiment who pushed for it was the director of the Institute for Biological Research, Dr. Avigdor Shafferman, whose specialization is in anthrax, which raises questions regarding his motives in promoting this project. Motives questioned "The committee tried to examine," the report states, "whether pressure was put on the political-defense decision makers by the scientists or scientific bodies with interests linked to anthrax research in any way that would lead to the production of the vaccine with no connection to a strategic threat." The report offers no answer to this question, noting that Dr. Shafferman refused to appear before the committee. The IDF and the Medical Corps, on the other hand, did cooperate with the committee and their representatives appeared before the panel and gave testimony. The report suggests that those responsible for the experiment had ulterior motives in holding the test. The panel "was unable to clarify the real motives," according to the report. Moreover, the report states that while the experiment was being conducted, Israel had millions of doses of vaccine in storage, which adds to suspicions the testing may have been unnecessary. "About a year prior to the experiment," the report states, "an accelerated effort of large-scale production of the vaccine began in Israel, and at that time the state had sufficient stocks of vaccine to meet the needs of the civilian population." In its report the panel is highly critical of the "secrecy" imposed by the managers of the experiment and ask "whether the secrecy was necessary because the experiment was to be hidden from the Israeli public." The report states: "The committee is not convinced whether there was indeed a need for the secrecy, and in any case it is clear that a large number of people knew about it - which is not in line with security against enemies of the state. "This is an important issue, because it raises questions regarding the real motives that resulted in the secrecy, including experimenting on soldiers, which may have not been necessary at all." The medical panel noted: "Selecting soldiers as the population for the experiment prevented achieving the declared aim of the experiment, which was to examine its safety and effectiveness in broad use among the general civilian public, the elderly, women, children and sick patients," the committee wrote. The panel also found that the Medical Corps and the IDF did not abide by the requirements of the Helsinki accords, established in 1975, on proper practices in clinical experimentation on human beings, and especially on soldiers, who are under military orders. Israel and the IDF have accepted the principles set forth at Helsinki and have reiterated that they operate under these rules. But the panel found that according to the "Helsinki rules on military conduct, there was a failure in Omer Two in every one of the points that must be evaluated." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Debate over war dead IDF says 1,166 Palestinians killed in Gaza offensive, including 295 civilians. Simpsons to visit Israel Homer Simpson is about to face his greatest challenge - bringing peace to the Mideast.

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