[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 159 (Thursday, October 29, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H12121-H12122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1900
                           H1N1 VACCINATIONS

  (Mr. STUPAK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

[[Page H12122]]

  Mr. STUPAK. Madam Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to an 
article I read yesterday in The Miami Herald. The headline is 
``Pentagon to offer swine flu vaccine to terror suspects.''
  While much of America waits in line to receive their H1N1 
vaccination, the Pentagon is giving priority status to accused 
terrorists. This does not bode well with me or my constituents. If 
taxpayers need to wait their turn to be vaccinated, then so should the 
accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.
  Next week my subcommittee, the Oversight and Investigations 
Subcommittee, along with the Health Subcommittee, will hold a hearing 
into where we are with the manufacturing and distribution of the H1N1 
flu vaccine. We will hear from officials from the Department of Health 
and Human Services as well as from the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention and the manufacturers of the vaccine.
  I look forward to our hearing next week, and I urge Pentagon 
officials to reconsider their decision to vaccinate terrorist detainees 
ahead of Americans who are waiting for their H1N1 vaccines.

                 [From The Miami Herald, Oct. 28, 2009]

         Pentagon To Offer Swine Flu Vaccine to Terror Suspects

                          (By Carol Rosenberg)

       Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu 
     vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers 
     and terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
       There was no word Wednesday on when the first vaccines 
     would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba.
       But U.S. military there were notified late last week that 
     service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations 
     first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children 
     could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.''
       And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be 
     vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt, a 
     Guantanamo spokesman.
       ``They get all the same quality medical care and treatment 
     options that are provided to service members,'' he said by 
     telephone. ``But they don't have to wait for appointments.''
       Each detainee would be given the vaccine on a voluntary 
     basis, just like ``with our seasonal flu vaccination 
     program,'' said Army Maj. Diana R. Haynie, a prison camps 
     public affairs officer.
       Guantanamo senior staff also had no plans to address the 
     overarching question of whether a vaccine named colloquially 
     for a pig would present particular challenges.
       Instead, Haynie said, a detainee could raise any concerns 
     when he is offered it in person.
       Haynie added that the detention center's Muslim American 
     ``cultural affairs advisor'' said ``there is no religious 
     reason for detainees not to receive the H1N1 vaccine.''
       But a former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain predicted there 
     might be some objections among a captive population long 
     characterized by the Pentagon as devotees of a radical fringe 
     of Islam.
       ``There was huge resistance back in 2003 when just the 
     regular flu shots were administered,'' said James ``Yusef'' 
     Yee, who left the Army as a captain after being cleared of 
     wrongdoing during his Guantanamo duty.
       ``Many prisoners feared they were being experimented on 
     with some sort of truth serum or other drugs,'' and refused, 
     he said.
       Instead, they were tackled and shackled so prison camp 
     staff could ``forcefully'' administer the shots--something 
     DeWalt said could not happen today.
       ``Immunizations and all that kind of stuff are always 
     voluntary for them,'' added DeWalt. ``I'm sure there'll be a 
     percentage who will be accepted, and I'm sure there'll be 
     another percentage that declines.''
       Similar plans are underway to give the vaccine to federal 
     inmates at the Bureau of Prisons, where some Guantanamo 
     detainees may be headed as part of President Barack Obama's 
     Guantanamo closure order.
       A spokeswoman said Wednesday that the BOP had ordered 
     enough H1N1 vaccines for all of its prisoners but ``we just 
     don't know when we're going to receive it.''
       U.S. military at Guantanamo have long engaged in an uneasy 
     balancing act between the captives' rights to practice 
     mainstream Islam and security concerns.
       During the 2003 showdown over run-of-the-mill flu shots, 
     Yee recalled, the detention center command staff waited until 
     after dark to administer ``the shots during Ramadan--as some 
     prisoners believed the injections would break their fasts.''
       Either way, Yee predicted: ``I would anticipate prisoners 
     objecting to the vaccinations'' among a captive population 
     that includes 17 men whom federal courts have ordered set 
     free.

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