20 July 2013 (15:24 UTC-07 Tango)/12 Ramadan 1434/29 Tir 1391/13 Ji-Wie (6th month) 4711
“The company [Roche] assessed the event of Homicide as medically significant.”-Case ID: 8504150, FDA-Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS)
In March 2012, United Kingdom news media reported that U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales had been under the influence of a controversial malaria vaccine when he supposedly killed at least 16 Afghan civilians in their homes (Afghans insist there was more than one U.S. soldier involved) . Then, at the beginning of July 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed the British reports!
According to the FDA, at the end of March 2012 a pharmacist filed a Adverse Event report. The vaccine/treatment used on Bales is Mefloquine Hydrochloride (aka Lariam, Mephaquin or Mefliam). It’s made by a company called Roche.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine there are numerous bad side effects of the drug, including “Feeling confused….Seeing or hearing unusual things….Unusual behavior or thoughts of hurting or killing others or oneself.”
Bales attorney says he has military records showing Bales was given Lariam: “We know that he was given Lariam while in Iraq. We just don’t have a complete set of medical records…..He can’t help us. He just says he took ‘whatever they gave me.’”-John Henry Browne
Having spent time in the military I can confirm that it is common for personnel to not question military medical officials.
Remington Nevin, a former U.S. Army doctor, says the Army’s own studies showed the vaccine to be dangerous, and ordered that it not be given to personnel who had suffered head wounds. The Army also ordered the documentation of the administration of the drug. Nevin says both orders were routinely ignored.
On 17 January 2012 the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Joathan Woodson, made this admission: “Some deploying service members have been provided mefloquine for malaria prophylaxis without appropriate documentation…and without proper screening….not all individuals have been provided the required mefloquine medication guide and wallet information card, as required by the Food and Drug Administration.”
It was Remington Nevin, along with The Military Times, that used the Freedom of Information Act to force the FDA to reveal the March 2012 Adverse Event report. The Adverse Event was first reported to the drug maker Roche. Officials with Roche thought it severe enough to forward to the FDA: “We took a look at it, and we decided we needed to submit it.”-Chris Vancheri, Genentech/Roche Group
Note that the Assistant Secretary of Defense statement was made two months prior to the Adverse Event report.