A few people claim the Department of Defense (DoD) added squalene to anthrax vaccine to stretch the vaccine supply. Four civilian panels have looked into these allegations since 1999 and repeatedly found them groundless. Neither DoD nor anybody else added squalene to anthrax vaccine for our troops.
Does the anthrax vaccine use squalene as an adjuvant? No, the adjuvant in the anthrax vaccine is aluminum hydroxide.
Before they go looking for squalene, lab workers have to use a chemical solvent such as hexane to completely remove their own fingerprint oils from lab glassware. When lab workers intentionally tested an extract of fingerprint oil, the squalene reading went off the chart. Before the FDA test results became known, Stanford Research International (SRI), under DoD contract, looked for squalene in anthrax vaccine. At the limit of detection of its test, 140 parts per billion, SRI found no squalene in several lots of anthrax vaccine. The FDA’s test, which was developed later, is more sensitive. It is able to detect as little as 10 parts per billion. The FDA found squalene at 10 to 83 parts per billion in diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, and anthrax vaccine.
The trace level of squalene found by the FDA in anthrax vaccine is less than the concentration naturally present in human blood (250 parts per billion) (Miettinen, 1982; Nikkila et al, 1992). After the FDA reported its results, DoD asked SRI to refine its assay. Using an improved method that could detect as little as 1 part per billion, SRI found no squalene in 32 out of 33 lots of anthrax vaccine tested (including lots in which FDA found low levels of squalene).
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