Operation Whitecoat
Operation Whitecoat was the name given to a secret operation carried out by the US Army during the period 1954-1973, which included conducting medical experiments on volunteers nicknamed "White Coats". The volunteers, all conscientious objectors and many members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, consented to the research before participating. The stated purpose of the experiments was to defend troops and civilians against biological weapons, and it was believed that the Soviet Union was engaged in similar activities.
Experiments
Some 2300 "white coats"[1] contributed to the operation by infecting their bodies with pathogens and germs, and then by testing the effectiveness of antibiotics and vaccines against illness. After the volunteers fell ill, they were given immediate medical treatment. Some soldiers where given two weeks of leave in exchange for being used as a test subject. These experiments took place at Fort Detrick which is a US Army research center located outside Washington DC.[2]
Much of the testing remains classified and Fort Detrick allows no visitors. Not even ex-soldiers who were exposed as part of the tests can visit. Whitecoat volunteers were exposed to Q fever, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, Hepatitis A, plague, tularemia (rabbit fever), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis and other diseases.
Results
Many of the vaccines that protect against bio-warfare agents were first tested on humans in Operation Whitecoat.[3]
According to USAMRIID, the Whitecoat operation contributed to FDA-approved vaccines for yellow fever and hepatitis; investigational drugs for Q fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, and tularemia. USAMRIID also states that Operation Whitecoat helped develop biological safety equipment including hooded safety cabinets, decontamination procedures, fermentors, incubators, centrifuges, and particle sizers.[4]
US accountability office report
The United States Government Accountability Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, the United States Department of Defense and other national security agencies studied hundreds of thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.
A quote from the study:
Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as Operation Whitecoat, were carried out at Fort Detrick, Maryland, in the 1950s. The human subjects originally consisted of volunteer enlisted men. However, after the enlisted men staged a sitdown strike to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests, Seventh-day Adventists who were conscientious objectors were recruited for the studies.[5]
Long term health effects
No Whitecoats died during the tests, nor are there any known post-test deaths attributable to the experiments.[1] The Army only has addresses for 1000 of the 2300 people known to have volunteered.[3] Only about 500 (23 percent) of the whitecoats have been surveyed and the military chose not to fund blood tests.[1] A handful of respondents claim to have lingering health effects[3], and at least one subject claims to have serious health problems as a result of the experiments.[1]
See also
- US Senate Report on chemical weapons
- Project SHAD
- Tuskegee Syphilis Study
- US Biological Weapon Testing
Notes
- ^ a b c d "Operation Whitecoat". PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. 2003-09-24. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Hidden history of US germ testing". BBC. 2006.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ a b c Snyder, David (2003-05-06). "The Front Lines of Biowarfare". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Linden, Caree (2005-06). "USAMRIID Celebrates 50 Years of Science". U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Staff Report prepared for the committee on veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman". Retrieved 2006-07-30.
External links
- The Living Weapon, chapter 8 about Operation Whitecoat, from the American Experience documentary video
- Adventist News Network: Adventist Volunteers Lauded on "Operation Whitecoat" Anniversary
- O'Neal, Glenn (December 19, 2001). "The risks of Operation Whitecoat" (subscription required). USA Today.
- Linden, Caree Vander United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases celebrates 50-year research tradition March 3, 2005 "Operation Whitecoat served as a model for the ethical use of human subjects in research"