Meryl Nass, M.D. - July 24, 2015
Meryl Nass, MD, is an internal medicine physician and activist with expertise in anthrax and bioterrorism; her interest is in prevention, investigation, amelioration, and safe and effective medical response. Her expertise and experience includes treating patients with Gulf War syndrome and adverse effects from the anthrax vaccine. She has raised cogent critiques about the deficient response to the recent Ebola outbreak; unfounded panic about a so-called measles epidemic; global vaccine safety issues; medical ethics; and corruption in the medical industrial military complex.
Dr. Nass tries to provide a balanced medical approach to such issues; she analyzes medical crises by digging into the hidden underlying facts and details, often finding the media reportage to be skewed, by following biased corporate and government agency lenses whose perspective serves a financial and / or political agenda. Dr. Nass fills in the crucial undisclosed details and provides a deeper, nuanced analysis. She has provided testimony to seven Congressional committees and her work has been mentioned in 25 books.
Anthrax and Bioterrorism
- In 1992, Dr. Nass identified the world’s largest anthrax outbreak as an act of biological warfare. It occurred during the Rhodesian Civil War, between 1978 and 1980; it affected only black Rhodesians, and stopped spreading with the end of the war. This was the first scientific investigation of any epidemic that demonstrated the epidemic could not be due to natural causes. Read more here . Her work was cited by the Royal Society and in the book Plague Wars (and BBC documentary Panorama) by Tom Mangold and Jeff Goldberg.
- She created a new methodology for investigating and distinguishing between natural epidemics and biological warfare events. 1992, 1992, 1996
- In 2001, she wrote articles and was interviewed by all major US media regarding the anthrax letters, ways to manage anthrax spore contamination, and how to better investigate the anthrax letters case. Consulted for World Bank affiliate The Interamerican Development Bank about responding to bioterrorism.
- She testified before the Government Reform Committee on the medical response to bioterrorism a month after the anthrax letters event.
- She consulted for the Director of National Intelligence in 2008 regarding the prevention of domestic bioterrorism.
Anthrax Letters
In February 2002, Dr. Nass first wrote about how to investigate the anthrax letters case.
She blogged about the problems with the FBI’s case against army scientist Bruce Ivins who committed suicide, whereupon the FBI named him as their primary suspect in August 2008. Dr. Nass covered this case closely, and was interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major media about the investigation. See: here, here and here.
Anthrax Vaccine
Nass testified before the House Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations
She is cited in the House Government Reform Committee Report on anthrax vaccine, titled Unproven Force Protection.
