Yesterday, I took my 7 year old daughter to see the pediatrician for an intestinal infection. I noticed a sign hanging on office bulletin informing the staff and patients of a tetanus vaccine shortage and specifying how the use of this vaccine must now be governed by new parameters to keep a crisis shortage from developing for those patients receiving injuries requiring tetanus shots. Apparently, there were two labs manufacturing this vaccine and one of those labs discontinued production. It was stated that the remaining lab will not be able to meet former production levels of tetanus until mid 2002. HMMMMM? This got me thinking.

How is it then that we have enough antibiotics, anthrax and smallpox vaccines, etc to meet the demands of a mass bioterrorist attack? How is it that the government health officials seem so confident that they can meet rapidly increasing demands for these meds by increasing production? If it takes till the middle of next year to effectively increase production of tetanus how would we meet the demands posed by a mass surprise bioterrorist attack?

Somehow, I don't think we are being told the truth regarding US preparedness to face biological warfare. There also seems to be no real consistency in news reports of our readiness to face attacks. I have also noted some inconsistencies in the reporting of the recent case of Anthrax reported in FL. Does anyone else get the impression that we are not being told the truth here?

-- Tiffani (cappello@alltel.net), October 04, 2001

Answers

The government never tells the truth, for if Americans knew the truth they wouldn't be sheeple anymore, and a controlled and predictable populace is crucial to government.

-- gita (gschmitz@directcon.net), October 04, 2001.

On the CDC website (www.cdc.gov), there are some pages dedicated to bioterrorism preparedness and they openly state that we do not have enough smallpox or anthrax vaccine for the general public. This is a very good website for other diseases as well, very interesting and informative.

-- Elizabeth (lividia66@aol.com), October 04, 2001.

let me rephrase that. the website says the vaccine is not reccomended for the general public and therefore is not available. sorry

-- Elizabeth (lividia66@aol.com), October 04, 2001.

A year or two ago, all (?) military members were suppose to begin receiving a series of four anthrax vaccinations. Some refused and were discharged as a result. Some never received the entire series (my husband was one)...the factory producing the vaccines (I believe there was only one or two) was shut down for a code violation. Stockpile?? I don't think so. At least, not for the general population.

-- Sharon/WI (pinnow@inwave.com), October 05, 2001.

I went in for a tetanus vaccine about 6 Mo. ago and there was a shortage then. I had steped on a nail covered with Goose poop and I got the shot. The only place to get them is the Health office or the ER. your Dr. dose not have them (They're free at the health dept.)

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), October 05, 2001.

Wow, they don't seem to have a problem with shortages of tetanus shots for animals, they use the same stuff to produce human vaccines that they do animals. Wonder what is up. The government does not ever tell us the truth. What you hear in the media is controlled. They bought and sold their souls to the devil already.

-- Barbara (vozarbi@sensible-net.com), October 05, 2001.

From what I understand, the reason it is taking awhile to catch up on production of tetanus shots after the closing of the one plant--it simply takes time to "hatch" the vaccine(having another"senior moment", sorry i can't word that better;).......I don't think there's any reason for us to be paranoid or to think we are being systematically lied to. That said, it would obviously be impossible to quickly come up with vaccines for everybody for everything. Probably the idea would be only to cover area(s) struck.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), October 05, 2001.

Hi Tiffany, with CNN breaking the news of the guy in Florida with Anthrax, it always makes me wonder if there isn't more going on. Especially when our local news and nightly national news, reported late, and reported nothing more than two sentences about it. I always have felt that our local television stations, getting their liscense to be on the air from the government, does not always produce the news, but are being produced. CNN seems to voice anything they want.

Everyone keeps saying that our military receives small pox vaccines as routine, unless they have another route of giving it that doesn't leave the classic scar, my nephew just got out of the Army 2 years ago, he is 27, went over seas etc. and no scar. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 05, 2001.

Of course the gov't lies to us, as do the main line media.

I have seen reports there is enough anthrax antibiotic for about two million people. Just for the "elite" I guess, the rest of us can die a very agonizing death.

I do not believe smallpox vaccine has been available for several years. (Smallpox in the population has been eradicated and vaccine is not manufactured anymore.)

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), October 05, 2001.

Is anyone else planning on making any personal preparations? I am going to visit the feed store and pick up some oxytetracycline. Of course I would NEVER use this routinely on humans. But I would take the risk of using a vet vaccine if I was going to die otherwise.

-- Tiffani (cappello@alltel.net), October 05, 2001.

Tiffani, my understanding of anthrax is that antibiotics only work when taken before any symptoms appear and then must be taken for a total of six months. There are only two or three types of antibiotics that have been shown to be effective. The man in Florida has died even though he was under expert medical care. Bad stuff.

Of course the gov't and or media paints a positive spin on most things they have absolutely no control over. Here is a partial clipping off the new wire:

"Federal and state health investigators have emphasized that the disease is not contagious and that no other cases have been reported. But both the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating."

If it is not contagious how in hell did he catch it -- injection?

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), October 05, 2001.

Check this web site: http://www.bact.wisc.edu/Bact330/lectureanthrax. Has very good information (not from the government, but from Univ. of Wisconsin Lecturer.

Personally, I never believe anything the government says, just look at all the facts and make my own decisions regarding safety, etc. After all, the government doesn't always tell the truth, i.e. why spread panic if it turns out differently than the general public suspects? So, guess that means I take what the government says with a grain of salt. I did hear today on National Public Radio that the lab which makes anthrax vaccine cannot pass FDA standards because of vaccine repeatability. The lab, Bio??? (the name escapes me right now) cannot produce evidence that the vaccine they make will be the same every time they make it, lot by lot, from now on. In my lab, repeatability is a big issue as who wants to test an item which may fail one time, pass the next, etc. The Dept. of Defense, it appears, has been keeping this lab financially afloat even though the lab cannot get FDA clearance to make the vaccine for the general public. This lab is the ONLY lab in the US right now which has an approved method (approved by whom?)of producing the anthrax vaccine. However, even their method cannot meet the repeatability standards the FDA imposes. The Director of the lab was quoted as saying they have spent the last 18 months working on a program to meet the FDA guidelines for repeatability and should have this issue resolved in the next few months. The Dept. of Defense, meanwhile, is their main customer, as well as a few overseas customers. Personally anthrax doesn't scare me half as much as the thought of someone getting the vaccine from a company who can't say for sure that Lot A will be the same as Lot B. No wonder the soldiers are refusing to take the vaccine. So that is the primary reason that the vaccine is not available to the general public - it appears that this lab can't make two batches the same and if they can do it, they can't show laboratory evidence of that. And that evidence is what the FDA is looking for.

Hope this helps and check out the website above, it is pretty informative.

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), October 05, 2001.

I found a site - www.medicorps.com that said that oxytetracycline would work. Your right that it must be done before symptom development occured. I guess the first people to get actively symptomatic will be the immunocompromised folks with AIDS, small children with immature immune systems, and the elderly. If the alarm was sounded immediately, alot of people could be saved. No time to waste though. That is why I wonder if it would be wise to keep antibiotics on hand in the event you were unable to obtain these from medical authorities. Let's face it, can you imagine the lines at the emergency room door if a major city was sprayed with Anthrax and people were starting to get sick! You'd better hope you got in line first! It would be mass hysteria.

I read that anthrax is not transmissible through human contact. So you cannot catch it from anyone. It must be either eaten, breathed, or contracted through an open wound. It is not a common US disease at all. I don't buy the argument that this man was an avid outdoorsman so he probably got this from the soil etc.. I live among the Amish- VERY avid outdoorsman, yet when is the last time you heard of Anthrax among them? When is the last time you saw an article about Anthrax in an outdoor magazine? The way I understand it the only people at significant risk of developing airborne anthrax are those who work with the hides of infected animals that originate from countries where Anthrax is prevelant. Yet, this guy was a business man! Unless I am misunderstanding the research, inhalation Anthrax (which this man died of) must be inhaled. It just doesn't jsut float around in US air. If he had drank or eaten the spores -as the media has suggested he would have contracted intestinal anthrax - far less fatal. If he had been infected through an open wound - he would have gotton cutineous (spelling error) anthrax - highly treatable.

My feeling is that he was a terrorist test case. Possibly they were testing the virulance of the organism on a human subject. Of course, it is possible that this is really a coincidence, but I just have a hard time believing it.

-- Tiffani (cappello@alltel.net), October 05, 2001.

Of course the government lies. They do their best to keep us happy. The tetanus shortage has been on for ages. I went to do flood relief and wanted to update mine--every doctor and hospital I called said the same thing. If I had an emergency need I could get it, otherwise, wait.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), October 05, 2001.

Our son is 28 and I took him to get a tetanus shot when he was right out of high school so that was 10 years ago. Clear back then there was only enough tetanus vaccine in our whole county for 2 shots and he got one of them. I was shocked, to say the least, and mentioned it to a number of people. Believe it or not, no one seemed to care about it one way or the other except for my husband and myself. I'll admit we're a very rural county with not a huge amount of people but one accident involing 2 cars with people cut up and who gets the one remaining tetanus shot???

I don't think any of these shortages are real new, it's just that they're coming into the open now.

-- Anna in Iowa (countryanna54@hotmail.com), October 05, 2001.