Operation Whitecoat

Operation Whitecoat was a biodefense medical research program carried out by the United States Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland, between 1954 and 1973.

The program pursued medical research using volunteer enlisted personnel who were eventually nicknamed "Whitecoats".

Over the course of the 19-year program, more than 2,300 U.S. Army soldiers, many of whom were trained medics, contributed to the Whitecoat experiments by allowing themselves to be infected with bacteria (tularemia, Black Plague, Q fever, etc. )

The participants were required to sign consent forms after discussing the risks and treatments with a medical officer.

A quotation from the study: 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.

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 objectors were recruited for the studies.

The size of the study population was judged to be insufficient to assert with confidence that the statistical associations with asthma and headaches were real.

According to Bull and Lockhart, Operation Whitecoat, and the earlier established Medical Corps, enabled Adventists to participate in the armed services without violating their Sabbath principles.