Dear mankin,
The hepatitis b vaccine was definitely not used by the US military
during the Vietnam War.
It was in 1967 that Dr. Baruch Blumberg together with a number of
colleagues discovered the hepatitis b virus, and in 1969 he and Dr.
Iriving Millman developed the basic principle for producing a vaccine
against the disease. At that point, however, there was no practicably
usable vaccine yet; that was only the beginning of years of extensive
research leading to that goal.
US Army combat forces had left Vietnam by August 23, 1972, leaving
behind only a decreasing number of military instructors. When this
happened, there had not even an experimental prototype vaccine
suitable for humans been developed.
The first hepatitis b vaccine sophisticated enough to be tested on
human beings, developed by Messrs. Szmuness and Hilleman, was ready
for trials in 1975, the same year when the last US soldier left South
Vietnam.
The first effective hepatitis b virus was finally licensed for general
use and made available to the public in 1980/81. So it is not only
unlikely but even chronologically impossible that the US military had
used the vaccine in Vietnam.
Sources:
Beyond Discovery: The Hepatitis B Story (in 11 parts), by the National
Academy of Sciences, 2001
http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/content/view.article.asp?a=265
The Hepatitis B Timeline, by the National Academy of Sciences, 2001
http://www.beyonddiscovery.org/Includes/Dialogs/Timeline.TBody.asp?ArticleID=265#
About the Hepatitis B Foundation, by the Hepatitis B Foundation, 2001
http://www.hepb.org/10thfounders.html
Vietnam War 1969-1975, by The History Place, 1999
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1969.html
Search terms used:
"hepatitis b vaccine" invented:
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22hepatitis+b+vaccine%22+invented&meta=
"vietnam war" timeline:
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22vietnam+war%22+timeline&meta=
"hepatitis b vaccine" blumberg:
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22hepatitis+b+vaccine%22+blumberg&meta=
I hope this answers your question.
Regards,
Scriptor |
