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Consumer group slams proposal to test Anthrax vaccine on kids
The consumer group Public Citizen on Tuesday slammed a proposal to test the anthrax vaccine on children, calling the idea unethical and illegal and accusing the pharmaceutical industry of fear-mongering.
"Millions of taxpayer dollars currently are being spent to maintain a national stockpile of anthrax vaccine," Public Citizen wrote in letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Exaggerating the risk of an anthrax bioterrorism event for both adults and children may help justify such expenditures, but should not be used to justify unethical research in children."
The National Biodefense Science Board, a panel of experts that advises the federal government on biodefense countermeasure issues, voted Friday to recommend that HHS pursue voluntary testing on children. The group said children's reaction to the vaccine is unknown and vaccinating tens of millions of children after an attack could spell disaster.
The report says the risk of an adverse reaction is much lower than the risk from exposure to anthrax.
Public Citizen said the remote possibility of an attack doesn't justify testing on children. Federal officials have warned that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have biological weapons experts who could plan attacks on the U.S., but the only anthrax deaths so far were caused by one of the government's own scientists.
"The proposed research would be unethical," the letter states, "because the research does not present any prospect of direct benefit to the children who would be the subjects of the research, and the vaccine poses significant known risks of potentially serious harm."
