MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Camp Pendleton Marines and sailors shouldn"t worry about being deployed without their anthrax shots for now.The Defense Department resumed anthrax vaccinations of troops Jan. 7 after a federal judge removed a legal restraint he applied to the program 16 days earlier. Navy Capt. Eric McDonald, I Marine Expeditionary Force surgeon, who received his seventh anthrax shot no more than three hours before the original injunction was put into place, said the message has been relayed to immediately resume the six-shot series and annual booster.An All Marine Message authorizing resumption of the shots came out Monday, and the MEF was preparing to restart the shots by today, McDonald said. McDonald said the anthrax shots " about 1,000 were being administered here weekly when the ruling that triggered the stoppage came down " would resume full force in mid-January. The stoppage, begun Dec. 22 in response to a previous federal court ruling, won't mean medical stations will be overly busy with makeup appointments, he added. "This particular period of time didn't really affect us much," said McDonald. "Not many people were scheduled to get their shots during this time frame due to the holidays."People should feel comfortable when getting the vaccine. The publicity of this injunction has given people some more questions, but we have good answers." U.S. District Court Judge Emmit Sullivan originally issued a preliminary injunction Dec. 22 blocking mandatory inoculations, a decision that couldn't have come at a more controversial time as San Diego-based Marines are scheduled for another deployment to Iraq early this spring. In response to the ruling, the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David Chu ordered the Defense Department to stop mandating the vaccination to servicemembers.The judge ruled the vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to protect against the skin form and not inhaled anthrax, and using the vaccine against the airborne element categorizes it as an experimental drug -"making mandatory vaccination a violation of the law.The Defense Department disagreed with the finding, and in a Dec. 30 response to the public, the FDA announced a new "final rule and order" that declared the vaccine effective in "all cases of anthrax disease regardless of the route of exposure."In light of the FDA's findings, Sullivan lifted the injunction Jan. 7 against the mandatory inoculation and cleared the way for DoD to resume its program. As a result, Chu signed a memorandum ordering the military to resume anthrax vaccinations.In the original MARADMIN, the Commandant's intent is listed as, "to continue to implement authorized anthrax vaccinations in order to protect Marine Corps personnel and preserve combat effectiveness in the event of a biological attack. While the threat of a biological cannot be quantified, the vaccination of our forces remains the most effective countermeasure." Department of Defense officials stated in their most recent release that the program is "an important force protection measure."According to the AVIP Web site, "DoD is committed to protecting American troops and continues to feel that anthrax vaccinations provide the best protection against a lethal weapon. Anthrax vaccinations are the best round-the-clock measure to protect our troops."