Operation Whitecoat

Operation Whitecoat was the name given to a secret operation carried out by the US Army during the period 1954-1973, which included conducting medical experiments on volunteers nicknamed "White Coats". The volunteers, all conscientious objectors and many members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, consented to the research before participating. The stated purpose of the experiments was to defend troops and civilians against biological weapons, and it was believed that the Soviet Union was engaged in similar activities. It has also been alleged that experiments were conducted on civilians, but to a lesser extent.^[1]

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Experiments

Some 2300 "white coats"^[2] contributed to the operation by infecting their bodies with pathogens and germs, and then by testing the effectiveness of antibiotics and vaccines against illness. After the ‘subjects’ fell ill, they were given immediate medical treatment. These experiments took place at Fort Detrick which is a US Army research center located outside Washington DC.^[1] Diseases Whitecoats were exposed to include, in part; Q fever, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, Hepatitis A, plague, tularemia(rabbit fever), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis.

Results

Many of the vaccines that protect against bio-warfare agents were first tested on humans in Operation Whitecoat.^[3]

According to USAMRIID, the whitecoat operation contributed to FDA approved vaccines for yellow fever, and hepatitis; investigational drugs for Q fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, and tularemia. USAMRIID also states that operation whitecoat helped develop biological safety equipment including hooded safety cabinets, decontamination procedures, fermentors, incubators, centrifuges, and particle sizers.^[4]

US accountability office report

The United States Government Accountability Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, the United States Department of Defense and other national security agencies studied hundreds of thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.

A quote from the study:

Long term health effects

No Whitecoats died during the tests, nor are there any known post-test deaths attributable to the experiments.^[2] The Army only has addresses for 1000 of the 2300 people known to have volunteered.^[3] Only about 500 (23 percent) of the whitecoats have been surveyed and the military chose not to fund blood tests.^[2] A handful of respondents claim to have lingering health effects^[3], and at least one subject claims to have serious health problems as a result of the experiments.^[2]

See also

• US Senate Report on chemical weapons
• Project SHAD
• Tuskegee Syphilis Study
• US Biological Weapon Testing

Notes