August 6, 2001 - Air Force Times

'A prisoner in his own body'

SUGAR GROVE, Pa. - Thomas J. Colosimo joined the Air Force nearly 11 years ago dreaming of seeing the world and building a strong future for himself. Now, he wonders if he has a future at all.

After taking the anthrax vaccine, Tom Colosimo's health - and spirit - quickly started to deteriorate.

Still just 29 years old, his once-powerful physique is so withered and frail he must walk with a cane. His boyish looks are marred by bruises and scars, the result of the falls he takes when he unexpectedly passes out. It's gotten so bad he's resorted to wearing a hockey helmet around the house.

Life for Colosimo consists of sitting and eating. He sleeps poorly, lives in dread of moments when he slips into delirium, he stumbles over words, his body fails him daily. He has become, he says, a prisoner in his own body.

But unlike sufferers of the mysterious Gulf War illness, whose doctors can't pinpoint a specific cause for their maladies, Colosimo has medical problems linked to the anthrax vaccine, as publicly acknowledged by Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Randy West, senior adviser to the deputy secretary of defense for chemical and biological protection.

A ruined life Colosimo was a senior airman at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, when he got his first shot in 1998. He would receive three more over the next 19 months.

"I went to the Middle East eight times," he said. "That's when I expected something bad to happen to me, not in a clinic in Utah."

Colosimo doesn't blame the Air Force for his plight, but he does blame the Defense Department policy makers who made the shots mandatory for all troops in the late 1990s.

Because of shortages of the vaccine, the list of members currently required to get the shots has been trimmed several times, so that today, only people involved in vaccine manufacturing, military research and congressionally mandated studies, and "special-mission" units that would respond to anthrax incidents have to get vaccinated.

But as soon as more vaccine is available, program officials say the mandatory-inoculation effort will resume. They say the vaccine is safe and effective, and insist that allergic reactions are no more common with this vaccine than with any other.

Good days, bad days, no work That doesn't matter much to Colosimo. The fact that thousands of others have taken the shots with no ill effects doesn't help his situation. "I never thought I'd get social security at age 28. I never thought I'd never be able to work again."

Even on "good days," it's hard just to leave the house. Mildly hot weather can make him pass out. Once an amateur weightlifting competitor, Colosimo now gets winded pulling his wheelchair out of his pickup truck.

Today is a bad day. A fresh red scar extending above his right eye reminds him why.

The injury happened two nights ago, probably from a fall. Colosimo can't remember exactly what happened - a common occurrence these days. His wife, Tracy, said she woke up in the morning to find her husband's face caked with dry blood and his right eye swollen shut. A trip to the emergency room revealed he'd suffered a concussion, too.

Colosimo's good days have been few and far between since he received his fourth anthrax vaccination in September 1999, the same month he married Tracy. Three months later, he began suffering from fatigue, sores on his head, tunnel vision and his first blackouts. To date, he's blacked out more than 700 times.

His symptoms now include bouts of delirium, panic attacks, explosive and unexpected loss of bowel control, low blood pressure, depression, memory loss, cognitive difficulties and chronic fatigue.

Colosimo said he also suffers from sleep apnea, which causes him to stop breathing in his sleep up to 60 times an hour. So he must sleep with an electronic device over his nose that senses when he stops breathing and forces air into his lungs.

Then there are the side effects of the many medications Colosimo takes to control his primary medical problems. Tracy Colosimo said that a steroid her husband takes to elevate his blood pressure has rendered him impotent now, and eventually "he'll become sterile."

"I can't have sex now anyway," Tom Colosimo said, the hurt in his voice mirroring the wounds on his face. "I've been fighting this so long." Tightening the grip on his cane, he searched in vain for the right words.

"It's been so long dealing with anger now, I've accepted it. When I put my anger aside, I feel better," he said. His eyes welled with tears.

After that fourth shot, Colosimo's health deteriorated so rapidly that he soon was unable to do his job as a nondestructive aircraft inspection journeyman.

He spent most workdays behind a desk because his co-workers feared he'd pass out on the job and get seriously hurt.

By August 2000, Colosimo and his family had complained so much and so loudly that he was sent from Utah to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He was admitted for "anthrax intoxication," according to hospital records.

Two months later, the Defense Department admitted that Colosimo's illness was a result of his inoculations. For the first time, the government had publicly acknowledged the shots had caused serous health problems for a service member.

Under questioning in October 2000 by members of Congress about reported health problems among people who received anthrax vaccinations, West said of Colosimo, "that of all the people that were here today, there was only one person that has a medical diagnosis that directly links it to the vaccine, and that was only a portion of his medical problems."

Defense Department statistics compiled through June 5 list only 14 people whose "serious adverse events" certainly were caused by the shots, while two other cases were listed as probably being caused by the vaccine. That's out of 1,578 people who reported mild to serious health problems to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

The Anthrax Vaccine Expert Committee, which makes the determinations, lists cases as "serious" that involve death, hospitalization, life-threatening illness or permanent disability.

Of the 16 cases, all the people are listed as having returned to duty and none are listed as being medically retired due to their ailments. Colosimo is not on the list despite West's testimony.

"I think they're trying to make the vaccine seem safer than it really is," Colosimo said of the numbers. He estimated that he and his family alone have corresponded with at least 100 people suffering serious health problems they believe are due to the vaccine.

'Somebody has to be with Tom constantly' Colosimo's emotions run the gamut. Sometimes he's sad; sometimes he's angry.

"Some days I feel like I'm getting better, and some days I feel like I'm getting worse," Colosimo said while sitting in his mother's home in northwest Pennsylvania July 9. "I've come close to suicide, but I lacked the guts to pull the trigger. I've stopped taking my medication hoping it will end."

Colosimo was granted medical retirement from the Air Force in January with 60 percent disability. That means he gets $812 a month, less than half his E-4 pay. Car payments, child support for a daughter not living with him and health-insurance co-payments gobble up more than half of each check.

"That's not enough for us to get a place of our own," Colosimo said.

Tracy Colosimo can't get a job because "somebody has to be with Tom constantly." So he and his wife divide their time between their parents' homes in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"If not for our parents, we'd be out on the streets," she said.

Neighbors in the close-knit community here, along with others who have heard of Colosimo's plight, have raised $10,000 for him, and he solicits donations to help with his medical care on his personal Web site.

Colosimo said he desperately wants a job but, on most days, his condition allows him to leave the house only for short periods. And the smells of cleaners, colognes, paint and other items that he might encounter in public places can trigger his bouts of delirium.

Nights are particularly stressful for Tracy and her in-laws because Colosimo sleeps only one to four hours at night. When he gets up, he might pass out or slip into delirium and wander outside like a sleepwalker while the family sleeps on unknowingly.

Tracy said police search teams have found Tom bloody and covered with his own vomit and feces; another time he was found bruised, badly cut and unconscious on a country road.

"Thank God nobody ran over him," Tracy Colosimo said.

Tom grudgingly lives with the pain and scars of such incidents. But it's been harder to live with the indignity he feels afterward.

It's worse when he loses bowel control or passes out in a public place.

He sighs in frustration trying to explain how it all makes him feel, but then slumps his shoulders - and he looks to his wife. She sums it up for him: "Do you know how embarrassing it is to wake up with 50 people around you?"

And even at home it's not much better. "A lot of times, it feels like she's my caretaker, not my wife," Colosimo said of Tracy. "We don't even do things that couples do. The only excitement we have is when a new movie comes out [on video] or eating."

"A cigarette and a can of Coke can really get his pressure up." Oddly, cigarette smoke hasn't been a problem, so smoking is one of his few pleasures. And while it's unhealthy, Tracy Colosimo said doctors haven't tried to make Tom quit because it helps elevate his low blood pressure, the cause of his blackouts.

Colosimo said working on his Web site on a neighbor's computer is one of the few things that makes him feel productive. On it, he details his health problems since taking the anthrax vaccine and shares information with other current and former military members concerned about the anthrax vaccine.

The site has had more than 2,600 visitors.

"There's someone out there like them that's sick. They're not alone or a freak," Colosimo said. "It's nice to know you're not the only one out there fighting this.

"Sometimes I read what these other people are going through, and I realize there are people a lot worse off than me" he said, noting one female Army helicopter pilot he met at Walter Reed who was so emaciated she was down to 70 pounds.

"She says that when she swallows crackers, it's like swallowing razor blades," Colosimo said.

He's also personally taken his message to lawmakers, having testified before the House Committee on Government Reform in October and in June to state legislators in Massachusetts, who are considering a bill that would protect Massachusetts National Guard members from having to get anthrax vaccinations.

Colosimo said he sees the effort in Massachusetts as the best shot to stop mandatory vaccinations because other states might follow suit.

"It's just a matter of time before they get [the vaccine production line] up and running, and there are 18 more biological-warfare vaccines and an AIDS vaccine in the works," he said. "I feel that if we make enough noise and get enough people together, we will win."

Later, after her husband goes to take a nap, Tracy Colosimo laments the change in her husband from a vibrant young man to one worn out and embittered by his ailments. "He was upbeat and very friendly, just the person everyone wanted to be around."

Once an active couple, usually spending evenings at the gym and weekends hiking or doing other outdoor activities, today they are homebodies.

"He's depressed most of the time," she said. "It just seems like he lives in a shell because he's afraid he'll be hurt or fall in public.

"It eats at him to not be the man he once was and be able to do the things he did. . he's lost his sense of self."

Battling for care and support Colosimo's mother, Gloria Graham, said she and Tom's stepfather are feeling the strain of having four people living in their small house.

"It's a miracle my husband and I are still married," she said. "He didn't plan on marrying me and my adult children."

Though her son is stoic in discussing his health problems and his treatment by the Defense Department, Graham isn't so quiet.

She picketed an Air Force recruiting office in August 2000, getting media attention that she believes prompted the Air Force to send Colosimo to Walter Reed.

But it's been a struggle ever since, Colosimo said.

Colosimo said he had to fight to get Walter Reed to provide him a cane and the helmet, and he couldn't get a military lawyer to represent him when it came time for the Air Force to decide on his disability.

Calls by Air Force Times to Walter Reed were not returned. Colosimo had to hire a private lawyer to take his case. His mother mortgaged her house to cover the fee, but the lawyer declined payment.

Colosimo won only partial disability retirement pay because the service didn 't factor all his problems into the decision. His chemical sensitivity, bowel problems and "adjustment disorder mixed with anxiety and depression" were not factored in, according to recommendations of the Air Force physical-evaluation board that considered his case.

Colosimo applied to receive disability compensation benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs - which he believes would cover those conditions the Air Force doesn't and grant him full disability pay - in lieu of retirement pay.

Jim Moreino, veterans service center manager for a regional VA office, said July 24 that a decision on Colosimo's disability could be rendered within a week.

If Colosimo gets the full disability benefit, he'd receive about $2,200 a month and possibly $300 to $400 more for his wife, a stipend for being Tom's caregiver.

In addition, he'd get a lump-sum payment of the difference between his VA benefits and what he got from the Air Force since January.

"If that happened, we could get what we really want," Colosimo said.

His wife finished the sentence for him: "independence."

David Castellon can be reached at (703) 750-8655 or E-mail

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1 Posted on 08/02/2001 07:29:27 PDT by spiker (spiker@ev1.net) [ Reply | Private Reply | Top | Last ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- To: spiker Damn. How does the vaccine DO this, anyway?

2 Posted on 08/02/2001 07:34:36 PDT by Timesink [ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- To: spiker If Colosimo gets the full disability benefit, he'd receive about $2,200 a month and possibly $300 to $400 more for his wife, a stipend for being Tom's caregiver.

My, isn't that generous of them. If I were his wife, I would sue the hell out of the Air Force, since he is not allowed to do so himself. Drag this out in public and let the world (and more importantly other servicemen) see the results.

3 Posted on 08/02/2001 07:59:43 PDT by Blood of Tyrants [ Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | Top | Last ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- To: Timesink Check out these web sites.

Adverse Effects Of Adjuvants In Vaccines

When Vaccines Do Harm to Kids

Environmental Effects of Genetically Engineered Vaccines?

COMMON SIDE EFFECTS OF VACCINES AND WHAT TO DO

4 Posted on 08/02/2001 08:01:11 PDT by spiker (spiker@ev1.net) [ Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | Top | Last ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- To: Timesink I don't know so much about it, but a lot of military people are required to take these vaccines. You don't just take one, you have to take a whole bunch of them spaced out over some period of time. After each shot your arm is likely to swell up and be very sore, even so you can't move it. For a few people they get very sick like this guy. Lots of people have mild symptoms that usually go away. My brother had to take the shot, he wasn't badly affected by it.

One of the ugliest things about it all is that the general officer corps simply turns their eyes away from these cases and does not seem to support them. Look at this guy's case, he gets 800 dollars a month, that's it. And he has to pay child support out of that. He's totally disrespected in that common sense and decency dictates that he ought to get the full disability, not partial and he shouldn't have to pay child support.

I'm not sure if soldiers from other countries have to take this shot or not. The military must have a good reason for forcing them to take this shot, but it would definitely make me want to quit the military if I had to take it.

It's a very good thing that Air Force Times printed this.

5 Posted on 08/02/2001 08:07:42 PDT by Red Jones [ Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | Top | Last ]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- To: Red Jones

Perhaps the following will throw some more light on the subject. THE FAUCI FILES, Vol 3(1): Anthrax Vaccine Scandal Unravels

Part I January 3, 2000

Joint Chiefs of Staff Ex-Chairman Admiral Crowe Owns Vaccine Company

In the FDA action involving BioPort, the military's anthrax vaccine plans grind to a halt, as suggestions of yet another obnoxious government ethics scandal have become all too familiar:

One of the owners of BioPort is Adm. William Crowe, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Pentagon ... has put a brigadier general in charge of making sure the privately owned company gets its plant approved quickly

BioPort bought the lab from Michigan Biologic Products Institute for $25 million in 1998, and in the face of bankruptcy, tripled the price of the anthrax vaccine in August, with the Pentagon's approval. The Defense Department awarded the company an additional $18.7 million for the vaccines it had already purchased.

The Pentagon is giving BioPort of Lansing, Mich., $7 million to $10 million, on top of the $130 million it already invested...

No explanation is offered for the BioPort ownership interests of Admiral Crowe. However, the human experiment continues, even though the Anthrax vaccine remains UNAPPROVED by the FDA:

Two years ago, the department (of Defense) began vaccinating soldiers who were being deployed to so-called high-threat areas...

The military needs about 75,000 doses a month to inoculate soldiers...

The Anthrax vaccine for the U.S. military has been rather controversial since early 1999. While the actual reasons for the controversy have not been made clear, it seems that media has simply focused on the soldiers who have refused their commanding officers orders to be vaccinated against Anthrax in full knowledge that they would be court-martialed.

In another recent report on this subject, the military denied the Anthrax vaccine could cause health problems, yet the military doctors admitted that they had NOT been monitoring the potential for health problems that could result from the Anthrax vaccine.

>From the UPI article of December 13, 1999 (below), here are some revealing quotes:

The Defense Department had hoped to begin inoculating soldiers early next year, said Dr. Sue Bailey, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

Another million doses, dating as far back as 1985, are warehoused but have not been certified for use for various reasons

Various reasons?? Hmmm, one must wonder what exact contaminants are in those warehoused vaccines, who was harmed by them, and who in the government got rich from yet another scam that endangers the lives of military "lab rats"

Naturally, since NIH/NIAID's Dr. Anthony "Mussolini?" Fauci, M.D. remains the Direktor of the government agency in charge of vaccines and since Fauci is NO STRANGER to these sort of scandals, one must wonder about the extent of Fauci's involvement in the Anthrax vaccine scam [NOTE: Fauci's own murderous IL-2 patent scandal as a possible HIV cure? lasted a decade, squandered millions in tax dollars and killed thousands. More recently, Fauci's patent-pending invention? of HIV vaccine peptides were shown to INCREASE the risk of HIV infection for the vaccinated, rather than prevent infection].

While the military claims that its need for the vaccine is an urgent one, yet it does not appear to be in a rush to find an alternate supplier, nor does it seem to be interested in using the vaccines that have been in storage since 1986.

Apparently, the crooks in the Defense Department have granted Admiral Crowe's vaccine an exclusive -- it will be the Admiral's vaccine, or it will be no vaccine.

And the best of the worst is yet to come ... so stay tuned for Part II !!!

Crooked Murdering Bastards!

fred

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Anthrax Vaccine Maker Fails FDA test WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The Pentagon's only producer of the anthrax vaccine failed its FDA inspection last month, impeding the Defense Department's ability to inoculate soldiers if a conflict of the scope of the Persian Gulf War started, according to Pentagon officials.

We could not today do a full blow-up to (a Desert Storm-size conflict) and have every serviceman or woman vaccinated on the battlefield, said Maj. Gen. Randall West, the Pentagon's special adviser on anthrax and biological defense matters.

Desert Storm required the deployment of more than 500,000 soldiers.

The Defense Department had hoped to begin inoculating soldiers early next year, said Dr. Sue Bailey, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

The Pentagon is giving BioPort of Lansing, Mich., $7 million to $10 million, on top of the $130 million it already invested, to help correct the problem and has put a brigadier general in charge of making sure the privately owned company gets its plant approved quickly, said David Oliver, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition.

One of the owners of BioPort is Adm. William Crowe, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The plant was hit with 34 equipment and process-related deficiencies by Food and Drug Administration inspectors in November, setting back the Pentagon's hoped-for mass vaccination program by six to 12 months, said Oliver. There will be a series of follow-up inspections that could reveal more problems, Oliver said.

There is no deadline for attaining certification, Oliver explained, because the Defense Department?s foremost concern is that the vaccine be both safe and effective.

Two years ago, the department began vaccinating soldiers who were being deployed to so-called high-threat areas: the Persian Gulf and South Korea, areas where anthrax spores are believed to be packed in weapons by Iraq and North Korea. At any given time, there are roughly 23,000 service personnel in the Gulf and 37,000 in Korea.

The military needs about 75,000 doses a month to inoculate soldiers deployed to those regions, and those preparing to deploy.

About 383,000 military personnel have received the six-course vaccination so far. The Pentagon had hoped to begin the second phase of its operation, which involves having enough vaccine on hand to immunize hundreds of thousands of soldiers rapidly in the event of a major crisis.

As it stands, the department has about 2 million usable doses. just enough to continue immunizing soldiers who rotate in and out of the Gulf and Korea until BioPort is expected to produce viable, safe vaccine.

The Pentagon is funding BioPort to the tune of about $130 million to build a state-of-the-art production facility on the site of an old Michigan state-run laboratory and expects to spend $228 million on the program between fiscal years 2001 and 2005. Production will burgeon from the old rate of about 2,000 doses a year to 400,000 a month.

Another million doses, dating as far back as 1985, are warehoused but have not been certified for use for various reasons, Oliver said.

BioPort bought the lab from Michigan Biologic Products Institute for $25 million in 1998, and in the face of bankruptcy, tripled the price of the anthrax vaccine in August, with the Pentagon's approval. The Defense Department awarded the company an additional $18.7 million for the vaccines it had already purchased.

Oliver said he thinks the company will rise to the challenge of fixing the new lab's faults and producing the vaccine in sufficient amounts. He said he believes this 'because the people are inherently good people.'

Bailey said the vaccine is the best method of protecting soldiers from anthrax, although protective clothing and antibiotics are also available.