In 1954, the US Department of Defense's biological weapons development center, Fort Detrick, embarked on a multi-year and top secret operation, codenamed "White Coat." Obviously, American researchers were haunted by the "successes" of the notorious "detachment 731", especially since a mass of documents from this division fell into the hands of the military. The idea of the "White Coat" was the massive use of volunteers to infect various infections, most of which were deadly. Naturally, all conditions were created to observe the experimental "guinea pigs": the necessary supply of medicines, a quarantine zone, trained personnel and a special clinic in the center of the fort.
It must be said that the Americans had considerable experience in treating and monitoring patients with anthrax, brucellosis and other especially dangerous infections. In 1943-46, the Americans worked on the creation of vaccines against such infections, using naturally infected patients. But an unhealthy interest demanded to clarify what would happen with the combat use of biological weapons. In addition, only analyzes of mass diseases could provide accurate data on the nature of a combat infection. It would take too long to wait for outbreaks and epidemics in the United States. In Fort Detrick, there were monkeys, rats, pigs and guinea pigs for these purposes, but, naturally, they could not provide exhaustive information. Therefore, a controlled epidemic was required under tightly controlled conditions. For this purpose, a giant steel ball with a capacity of a million liters was built on the territory of the biological complex in 1950. Inside it, ammunition with pathogens of infectious diseases was exploded and the experimental animals were poisoned with the resulting aerosol. Several locks were provided along the perimeter of the sphere for people. Such a 130-ton invention went down in history under the name "Eighth ball" (8-ball). It is now a monument of American culture and science.
The ethical question of choice
Both now and in the early 1950s, the American government refers to the Nuremberg Code, adopted in 1947 after the trial of the doctors of the Third Reich, in evaluating the White Coat project. There are ten provisions in the code that govern the conduct of medical research.
1. An absolutely necessary condition for conducting an experiment on a person is the voluntary consent of the latter.
2. The experiment must bring positive results to society, unattainable by other methods or methods of research; it should not be casual, inherently unnecessary.
3. The experiment should be based on data obtained in laboratory studies on animals, knowledge of the history of the development of the disease or other problems studied. It must be organized in such a way that the expected results justify the very fact of its holding.
4. When conducting the experiment, all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and damage must be avoided.
5. No experiment should be carried out if there is reason to assume the possibility of death or disabling injury to the subject; an exception, perhaps, may be when medical researchers act as subjects in their experiments.
6. The degree of risk associated with conducting an experiment should never exceed the humanitarian importance of the problem to which the experiment is aimed.
7. The experiment should be preceded by appropriate preparation and provided with the equipment necessary to protect the subject from the slightest possibility of injury, disability or death.
8. The experiment should only be conducted by scientifically qualified persons. At all stages of the experiment, from those who conduct it or are engaged in it, maximum attention and professionalism is required.
9. During the experiment, the subject should be able to stop him if, in his opinion, his physical or mental state makes it impossible to continue the experiment.
10. During the course of an experiment, the investigator in charge of conducting the experiment should be prepared to terminate it at any stage if the professional considerations, conscientiousness and caution required of him give reason to believe that the continuation of the experiment could lead to injury, disability or death. the subject.
The Americans in 1953, in the Wilson Memorandum, documented the use of the Nuremberg Code in the army, navy and air force. Actually, taking into account these ethical standards, the development of the CD-22 program began, aimed at researching the effect of biological weapons on humans in Fort Detrick.
It was planned to identify a strategy for treating the affected, determine the minimum infectious dose and develop effective vaccines. And also to collect information about the specifics of the development of natural immunity in experimental subjects. In the course of the research program, it was planned to dose infectious agents in a wide spectrum in order to select the most optimal concentration in the aerosol. When we summed up the planning of CD-22, it turned out that a lot of volunteers are needed. Where can I get them?
Alternative Adventist Service
In October 1954, Colonel WD Tigert of Fort Detrick sent a request to the Seventh-day Adventist Church to provide the necessary number of healthy recruits to participate in the White Coat Project. In the letter, special emphasis was placed on the need to participate in research, which is of great importance for the health of the nation. The calculation was simple: if your religious beliefs do not allow you to serve in arms, then welcome to the ranks of the "guinea pigs" of the US Department of Defense. And, it should be noted that the Adventist Church willingly responded to the call, considering it an honor for twenty-year-old children.
These conscientious objectors were selected from the US Army Medical Training Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Here, recruits were preparing for service as orderlies in the active army. At the same time, only Seventh-day Adventists were selected for medical experiments "experiments". During the moments of recruitment, the young people came under double pressure - from the army and church leadership. In addition, pacifist-minded recruits were particularly influenced by the prospect of being a military medic in Vietnam or Korea. It was there that the majority of those who refused to participate in the project were sent. It is safe to say that the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) misled the Seventh-day Adventist Church by claiming that Project White Coat was defensive.
A total of 2,300 volunteers passed through the hands of the doctors at Fort Detrick, who were infected with tularemia, glanders, hepatitis, q fever, plague, yellow fever, anthrax, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, pappatachi fever and Rift Valley fever. Some of the test subjects were infected in the field conditions of the Dougway test site, along with mice, pigs, guinea pigs and monkeys. Usually they sprayed aerosols from flying planes, or simply exploded nearby ammunition. Naturally, all the medical and service personnel were wearing gas masks at that time. After infection, the volunteers were transported to the Fort Detrick hospital, where the clinical picture of the course of the disease was observed and new vaccines were tested. In the event of an aggravation of the situation, doctors always had strong antibiotics of a wide spectrum of action at hand. Another group worked with the "eighth ball" directly in Fort Detrick, receiving their dose of viruses and bacteria through the airlock. Most of these experiments have been associated with Q fever infection and tularemia. Intravenous administration of infectious agents was also practiced. Some volunteers contracted multiple infections consistently over a two-year period.
Among the unquestionably positive results of the White Coat program, there is a wide range of developed vaccines, many of which are used in practice. However, the inactivated Rift Valley Fever vaccine is still experimental and inaccessible to widespread use. In an attempt to justify the White Coat project, the United States has cited the successful suppression of Egypt's major Rift Valley outbreak in 1977. Then, according to various sources, from 200 thousand to 2 million people fell ill, while 600 people died. The focus of the disease was initially much to the south, and then the virus managed to cross 3,000 km of the desert and cause an outbreak in the Sinai Peninsula. It is still unknown how exactly this happened - with infected sheep, mosquitoes or food. According to the US Department of Defense, fever vaccines were donated to Egypt and Israel, which saved the region from a massive epidemic. While declaring the defensive nature of the White Coat project, the Americans conceal that the results obtained are excellent for offensive biological warfare. The most effective concentrations of pathogens in the air were selected, spray techniques were worked out, and new strains of bacteria and viruses were obtained from the biomaterials of the experimental subjects.
The biological weapons testing program on living people was closed in 1973. Evil tongues argue that now the recruits-pacifists had nothing to fear - full-scale military conflicts with the participation of the United States are over. At Fort Detrick, after the closure of the program, no one inquired about the health of the test subjects. And although no one died as a result, the damage to health has not yet been fully assessed.
