A new report released Tuesday by the General Accounting Office (GAO), a special investigative branch of Congress, says a high percentage of service members in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve are leaving their posts to avoid or delay receiving the mandatory anthrax vaccine.
In May 2000, the GAO mailed over 1,250 surveys to pilots and crews of both branches of service. Using data from nearly 900 responses, the GAO determined that between September 1998 and September 2000, 16 percent of Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve crews moved to inactive status or transferred to different positions to evade vaccination.
According to the report, 85 percent of those surveyed who had received one or more anthrax shots as of September 2000 experienced negative side effects from the vaccine. The Defense Department disagreed with the report, saying data does not exist suggesting the vaccine needs to be monitored. A spokesperson for the Defense Department blamed the dwindling numbers on normal turnover rates.