Make shots voluntary.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The Pentagon made a double mistake five years ago when it ordered all military personnel to be vaccinated against anthrax. It overestimated the risk that American soldiers might be exposed to biological weapons in Iraq or elsewhere, and it underestimated the problems arising from a massive inoculation program. Now a federal judge has halted mandatory anthrax vaccinations, giving the government a chance to get its biowarfare preparedness efforts back on track.

William Cohen, President Clinton's secretary of defense, launched the immunization program in 1997. Vaccine shortages and other problems have since limited the program to personnel serving in high-risk areas such as the Persian Gulf and South Korea. About 900,000 servicemen and women have received the series of six injections intended to provide immunity against anthrax. Several hundred others have been discharged from the military for refusing the shots.

Emmet Sullivan, a federal judge in New York, ruled last week that the Pentagon must stop administering the vaccine without service members' consent. The Department of Defense, the judge said, should not use troops as "guinea pigs for experimental drugs." He cited a 1998 law that says military personnel can't be forced to use new or unapproved drugs. The anthrax vaccine has been approved for the prevention of anthrax contracted through skin exposure, but not for disease contracted through inhalation of anthrax spores.

While the unproven efficacy of the vaccine against airborne anthrax provided the legal basis for the judge's decision, the concerns of the military personnel who have refused the vaccine lie elsewhere. The vaccine causes side effects among 5 percent to 35 percent of those who receive it, despite initial claims that adverse reactions occurred in only one case out of 500. Many of those who resisted inoculation also claim the vaccine is linked to chronic fatigue, memory loss and unexplained health problems such as gulf war syndrome.

Despite such misgivings, military personnel are expected to follow orders - and anthrax vaccinations were ordered to ensure that American troops would be prepared for a battlefield hazard. Those who do not prepare themselves put their comrades and their missions at risk. That's why the Pentagon has been willing to court-martial, imprison and discharge those who refused the vaccine. And that's why the 1998 law allows the president to waive the consent requirement for new or unapproved drugs.

Judge Sullivan noted that a waiver would bring the anthrax case to "an expeditious end," but President Bush should not exercise that authority. Instead, he should direct Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to alter the anthrax program, making it voluntary. The absence of biological weapons in Iraq makes the need for immunization less urgent than it was earlier believed to be, and persistent concerns about the vaccine's safety must be investigated.

Rumsfeld should further move to reinstate or clear the records of those servicemen and women who have been drummed out of the military for refusing the vaccine. Their refusal, a judge has ruled, was well-founded in the law - it was the government that overstepped its powers by making the shots mandatory. Congressional critics of the anthrax vaccination program have said they will draft legislation compelling the Pentagon to review its disciplinary actions if military officials don't act on their own.

The nation may one day have reason to thank those who refused the vaccine, often at great cost to their careers. If fears about the vaccine are confirmed, their actions will have spared thousands of their colleagues from long-term health effects. If the vaccine is proven to be safe and effective, their actions will have permitted military commanders, from the president on down, to provide anthrax inoculations with greater confidence. Bravery and self-sacrifice can be found in places other than the battlefield.