The Largest Hepatitis Outbreak in History Was Caused by a Rushed Vaccine at the Start of World II.

The U.S. government wanted to prevent a possible outbreak of Yellow Fever from a theoretical biological attack. So they gave everyone Hepatitis instead.

The Yellow Fever vaccine wasn't approved by the FDA until more than ten years later in 1953.

Oh, and the vaccine that caused the outbreak was mandatory and I'm sure that the soldiers were told it was perfectly safe.

"In January 1942, immediately after Pearl Harbor, the US military decided to vaccinate all active duty personnel with yellow fever vaccine. This decision was based largely on the fear that an enemy power would launch a strategic biologic attack by releasing a virulent virus in areas that harbored the vector. The area at risk included vital areas of the United States: much of the East, Midwest, and South and southern California. It also included essentially all overseas combat areas: China, the Pacific islands, Australia, India, Burma, southern Britain, coastal France, the Mediterranean area, and the southern Soviet Union. The army had since January 1941 already addressed possible accidental transmission of the virus from endemic areas by selective vaccination, fumigation, and quarantine."

In 1942, all military personnel received typhoid, smallpox, and tetanus vaccines, and soldiers who refused vaccination were subject to court-martials—a military legal principle originating in World War I and continuing to this day.4 However, during World War II, a yellow fever vaccine had not yet been licensed for civilian use in the United States and an FDA-approved vaccine would not be available until 1953. The yellow fever vaccine used in early 1942 contained human serum, and despite earlier published reports of unexplained or "homologous serum" jaundice occurring after its use, the perceived urgency of the biological weapon threat propelled this vaccine into use. Unfortunately, many lots were contaminated by the hepatitis B virus. An epidemic of unexplained hepatitis began in March 1942, and yellow fever vaccination was halted on April 15, 1942. Approximately 51,000 military personnel with symptomatic hepatitis were hospitalized, and subsequent serologic investigation of veterans concluded that approximately 330,000 persons had been infected."

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