Vaccine-A uncovers a story of betrayal—the betrayal of the men and women who serve in the armed forces, the betrayal of medical ethics, and the betrayal of the American people by military and civilian leaders sworn to defend and protect. Veteran journalist Gary Matsumoto shows that the worst friendly-fire incident in military history came from something no soldier had any reason to think would harm him: a vaccine administered by the military's own medics. When troops went to the Middle East to fight the Gulf War in 1991 and the Iraq War in 2003, many—perhaps thousands—received an experimental anthrax vaccine instead of the FDA-approved vaccine. Without their knowledge or consent, the U. S. government used them as human guinea pigs in a massive medical experiment that went disastrously wrong.

In 1978, the Pentagon began developing an anthrax vaccine of unsurpassed safety and purity. Soon, however, military scientists learned that their new vaccine, though pure, was also ineffective. To remedy this they added an oil called squalene—an "adjuvant"—to stimulate the immune system. What the scientists didn't know, but should have known, is that squalene causes autoimmune diseases: chronic and even life-threatening diseases like lupus erythematosus, crippling arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Matsumoto reveals that even very recently, squalene-laced "vaccine A" continues to be secretly injected into Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel.

Vaccine-A introduces you to the victims of this experimental mistake. We meet an Army sergeant whose skin became so diseased that doctors, in a desperate attempt to cure him, removed every square inch of skin from his body. We read the story of a Green Beret colonel who, suffering walking blackouts that left him unable to find his way home, was misdiagnosed for years and even accused of bleeding himself to distort his laboratory tests. We see that others, including a man whose cerebellum literally shrank until he could no longer walk straight or write his name, were often told they had psychiatric disorders or were accused of malingering.

We also meet the doctors, Pamela and Kevin Asa, who uncovered the truth about these illnesses despite strong opposition by the Pentagon and National Institutes of Health.

Finally, Vaccine-A warns about what is yet to happen. The military, the vaccine's manufacturer, and the Department of Health and Human Services all refuse to admit that any experiment took place or that they are responsible for its devastating effects. Instead, they continue to inject the same anthrax vaccine into Iraq War soldiers and plan a release for civilian consumption soon. Should these vaccines become widely used, Matsumoto predicts, we should expect a man-made epidemic of unprecedented size.

About the Author
Gary Matsumoto, a journalist based in New York City, has reported from thirty-two different countries on five continents, covered two wars and five popular uprisings, and won ten journalism awards. He has been the London Bureau Manager and Chief Foreign Correspondent for NBC Radio News; a National Correspondent for NBC's Weekend Today Show and Senior Correspondent for the Fox News Channel. As a broadcaster, he has covered events ranging from the toppling of the Communist Party in Eastern Europe to Desert Storm, the Tiananmen Square massacre to the death of Princess Diana. He has written about the anthrax letter attacks for the Washington Post and Science magazine. His 1998 article in Vanity Fair was the first to draw the connection between the anthrax vaccine and Gulf War Syndrome.