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To the Editor: Dr Halsell and colleagues¹ reported that myopericarditis occurred at a rate of 1 per 12 819 primary vaccinees in the US military. Similarly, Drs Grabenstein and Winkenwerder² found that between 0.5% and 3.0% of military vaccine recipients needed short-term sick leave. Both groups of authors concluded that adverse events occurred at rates below historical rates, and that a mass vaccination program could be carried out safely. In both reports, however, vaccine complications were derived using passive rather than active surveillance. Therefore, the very favorable comparison of military adverse effect rates to historical rates is misleading.

Furthermore, claims that no deaths were associated with the military vaccination program and that no women developed myopericarditis are incorrect. Two military deaths have in fact been reported to be associated with smallpox vaccination.^3-4 One occurred in a previously healthy 22-year-old female reservist who died 1 month after receiving both anthrax and smallpox . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Meryl Nass, MD
Mount Desert Island Hospital
Bar Harbor, Me

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