Meryl Nass, a Maine physician and expert on the anthrax vaccine, said Ivins complained to her in 1998 that he was suffering from a blood disorder he worried might be a side effect of anthrax vaccinations.
Nass suggested last week that Ivins may have had psychological side effects as well, especially if the vaccines interacted with the antipsychotic drugs he took over the last decade.
The old vaccine has been linked to psychological effects in a report by the National Academies of Science Institute of Medicine. Examining active-duty military personnel who received shots from 1998 to 2000, the study found that the diagnosis rate for psychoses and other personality disorders more than tripled after the vaccinations.
Friends of Bruce Ivins say he was a frail man who simply unraveled under the extreme stress of the government's pressure-cooker investigation. "Their science is suspect, but even if they had done a better job, it's still the wrong guy," said Dr. W. Russell Byrne, who was Ivins' supervisor from 1998 through 2000.
At home and around Frederick, Ivins seemed the model citizen. Living in a cramped white frame house across the street from the walled-off military installation, Ivins played keyboards during Sunday folk Mass concerts at St. John. He taught lifesaving courses. He juggled for delighted children at the county fair.
At his lab table, Ivins was regarded as a top-notch researcher who excelled in "spore prep," the cultivation of virulent strains of anthrax for use in efforts to find a cure that could be used by American soldiers in the event of a mass biowarfare attack.
Ivins was deemed promising when he joined Ft. Detrick's research staff in 1980. Microbiologist John W. Ezzell, who was on the hiring committee that brought Ivins into the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), laughed at his 1970s-era bell-bottom pants but was impressed by his "teamwork. That's what we were looking for."
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Troubled childhood
Ivins came from Lebanon, Ohio, where he had impressed his small-town high school teachers with his acuity in biology and chemistry. His chemistry teacher, Dean Deerhake, said Ivins was "very intelligent but pretty much a loner."
At home in Lebanon, there were indications of a troubled existence. Thomas Ivins, the scientist's estranged older brother, said that Bruce was alternately "coddled" and punished by a mother who kept him "attached to her apron strings."
