State Department: Serious Problems in the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program.

摘要

This report reviews the State Department efforts to administer anthrax vaccine at U.S diplomatic missions overseas through the contingency stockpiling of vaccine at U.S. diplomatic missions for post-exposure administration and the voluntary Anthrax Vaccine Immunization program. Specifically, you requested that we (1) discuss the rationale for the State Department's decision to establish a voluntary anthrax vaccine immunization policy and (2) examine how well the stockpiling of vaccine at diplomatic posts and the voluntary anthrax immunization program have been implemented to date. The State Department established a voluntary anthrax vaccine immunization policy for its employees and their dependents based on its interpretation of an intelligence assessment that U.S. diplomatic and consular establishments abroad are threatened by potential biological and chemical attack. According to intelligence analysts involved in the assessment, however, the assessment was an extremely limited and general assessment that did not evaluate the relative risks of chemical and biological attack on U.S. missions overseas, identify the chemical and biological agents likely to be used, or assess the ability of states or terrorist groups to disperse chemical or biological agents and cause casualties. Diplomatic Security officials in the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency analysts agree that they have no clear evidence that U.S. missions or interests overseas are threatened by foreign state or terrorist attacks using biological or chemical agents at this time.