Operation Whitecoat
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'''Operation Whitecoat''' was the name given to a secret operation carried out by the [[United States Army|US Army]] during the period 1954-1973, which included conducting medical experiments on volunteers nicknamed "White Coats". The volunteers, all [[conscientious objector]]s 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.<ref name = "bbc"> {{cite journal
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| year =2006
| month =February 13
| title =Hidden history of US germ testing
| journal =BBC
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| url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/4701196.stm
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==Experiments==
Some 2300 "white coats"<ref name="operation whitecoat">{{cite web
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| title =Operation Whitecoat
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| publisher =PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
| date = 2003-09-24
| url =http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week708/cover.html
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| accessdate = 2007-03-09}}</ref> 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]].<ref name = "bbc" /> 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 virus|Venezuelan equine encephalitis]].
===Results===
Many of the vaccines that protect against bio-warfare agents were first tested on humans in Operation Whitecoat.<ref name="front lines">{{cite web
| last =Snyder
| first =David
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| coauthors =staff researcher Bobbye Pratt
| title =The Front Lines of Biowarfare
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| publisher =Washington Post
| date = 2003-05-06
| url =http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/Bioter/frontlinesbiowarfare.html
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| accessdate = 2007-03-16}}</ref>
According to [[USAMRIID]], the whitecoat operation contributed to [[FDA]] approved vaccines for [[yellow fever]], and [[hepatitis]]; investigational drugs for [[Q fever]], [[Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus|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.<ref>{{cite web
| last =Linden
| first =Caree
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| title =USAMRIID Celebrates 50 Years of Science
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| publisher =U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
| date = 2005-06
| url =http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/news/mercury/05-06/usamriid.cfm
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| accessdate = 2007-03-16}}</ref>
==US accountability office report==
The [[Government Accountability Office|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:
{{cquote|Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as Operation Whitecoat, were carried out at [[Fort Detrick]], [[Maryland]], in the 1950s. The human subjects originally consisted of volunteer enlisted men. However, after the enlisted men staged a [[sitdown strike]] to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests, Seventh-day Adventists who were [[conscientious objector]]s were recruited for the studies.<ref name = "report"> {{cite web
| title =Staff Report prepared for the committee on veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman.
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| url =http://www.gulfweb.org/bigdoc/rockrep.cfm
| accessdate=2006-07-30
}} </ref>}}
==Long term health effects==
No Whitecoats died during the tests, nor are there any known post-test deaths attributable to the experiments.<ref name="operation whitecoat">{{cite web
| last =
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| authorlink =
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| title =Operation Whitecoat
| work =
| publisher =PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
| date = 2003-09-24
| url =http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week708/cover.html
| format =
| doi =
| accessdate = 2007-03-09}}</ref> The Army only has addresses for 1000 of the 2300 people known to have volunteered.<ref name="front lines"/> Only about 500 (23 percent) of the whitecoats have been surveyed and the military chose not to fund blood tests.<ref name="operation whitecoat"/> A handful of respondents claim to have lingering health effects<ref name="front lines"/>, and at least one subject claims to have serious health problems as a result of the experiments.<ref name="operation whitecoat"/>
==See also==
* [[Chemical weapons#United States Senate Report|US Senate Report on chemical weapons]]
* [[Project SHAD]]
* [[Tuskegee Syphilis Study]]
* [[US Biological Weapon Testing]]
==Notes==
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==External links==
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weapon/program/weapon_08.html ''The Living Weapon'', chapter 8] about Operation Whitecoat, from the [[American Experience]] documentary video
*[http://news.adventist.org/data/2003/09/1065534428/index.html.en Adventist News Network: Adventist Volunteers Lauded on "Operation Whitecoat" Anniversary]
*{{cite journal | author=O'Neal, Glenn | title=The risks of Operation Whitecoat | journal=USA Today | year= December 19, 2001| volume= | issue= | pages= | url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/bioterrorism/2001-12-20-whitecoat-sidebar.htm | format=subscription required}}
*Linden, Caree Vander [http://www.dcmilitary.com/dcmilitary_archives/stories/030205/33582-1.shtml United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases celebrates 50-year research tradition] March 3, 2005 "Operation Whitecoat served as a model for the ethical use of human subjects in research"
[[Category:Clinical research]]
[[Category:Non-combat military operations involving the United States|Whitecoat]]
[[Category:Seventh-day Adventist history]]