Operation whitecoat

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Operation Whitecoat was the name of an operation by the US Army from 1954 to 1973, in which medical experiments were carried out on volunteers, which were referred to as "White Coats" (in German: Weißkittel). The volunteers were conscientious objectors , including many Seventh-day Adventist members . The stated aim of the experiments was to be able to repel the use of biological weapons against armed forces and civilians. The Soviet Union was believed to be running similar programs.

The trials

Over 3,000 US Army soldiers, most of whom were trained paramedics, contributed to the experiments by infecting them with viruses and bacteria that could be targeted for biological weapon attack. The volunteers were infected with Q fever , yellow fever , Rift Valley fever , hepatitis A , Yersinia pestis (plague), tularemia (rabbit plague), Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis and other diseases.

The volunteers, also known as “white coats”, were then treated according to their illness in order to test the effectiveness of antibiotics and vaccinations . Some soldiers were given two weeks' leave as compensation for participating as a test subject. The experiments took place at Fort Detrick , an experimental center near Washington, DC .

The implementation of the experiments is seen as a good example of how to deal with voluntary consent according to the Nuremberg Code . Volunteers were allowed to seek advice from outsiders such as clergy or family members before participating. After clarification by a military doctor about the risks and treatments a consent form had to be signed. A share of 20% of the soldiers who were suggested to participate refused.

Much of the actual attempts are confidential and visitors are not permitted in Fort Detrick. This also applies to the former participants.

Results

Many of the vaccines against pathogens that as a biological weapon come into question were first tested on humans as part of Operation Whitecoat.

Operation Whitecoat helped the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve vaccines for yellow fever and hepatitis, as well as drug trials for the other diseases, according to a USAMRIID report . Also have to deal with the pathogens safety cabinets , decontamination procedures , bioreactors , incubators and centrifuges developed.

Government Accountability Office report

The Government Accountability Office published a report on September 28, 1994 that the United States Department of Defense and other security agencies tested dangerous substances on hundreds of thousands of human subjects between 1940 and 1974:

“Many experiments, also known as Operation Whitecoat, that tested weapon-grade biological pathogens on human subjects, took place in Fort Detrick , Maryland, in the 1950s. Originally, the test subjects were soldiers who had volunteered. But after the soldiers sat down to learn more about the dangers of the biological experiments, Seventh-day Adventists, who refused to do military service, were recruited for the experiments. "

Long-term health consequences

No whitecoat died during the experiments, and there are no known deaths after the experiments that could be attributed to the experiments. The US Army only has the addresses of 1000 of the 2300 known participants, so that follow-up observation is only possible to a limited extent. Only about 500 (23%) of the whitecoats were interviewed and the Army refused to fund blood tests. However, some participants complained about long-term consequences, and at least one participant reported serious health problems believed to be a result of the experiments.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Operation Whitecoat . PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. September 24, 2003. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  2. ^ Hidden history of US germ testing . In: BBC . June 8, 2010. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
  3. ↑ a b c David Snyder, staff researcher Bobbye Pratt: The Front Lines of Biowarfare . Washington Post. May 6, 2003. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  4. ^ Caree Linden: USAMRIID Celebrates 50 Years of Science . US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. June 2005. Archived from the original on November 12, 2005. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  5. ^ Staff Report prepared for the committee on veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman. . Archived from the original on August 13, 2006. Retrieved June 8, 2010.

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