Children may be vaccinated with anthrax to test if they can survive bioterrorism attack

Daily Mail, Oct. 25, 2011

The Obama administration is considering whether scientists should inject healthy children with the anthrax vaccine to see if it would protect them from a bioterrorism attack.

But critics have called the plans unethical, unnecessary and dangerous and children should only be vaccinated in the face of an actual threat.

Daniel B. Fagbuyiof, of the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, told the Washington Post: 'At the end of the day, do we want to wait for an attack and give it to millions and millions of children and collect data at that time? 'Or do we want to say "how do we best protect our children?"

If the NBSB approves the testing, the FDA, National Institutes of Health and other agencies will meet to work out how many children would be studied, at what age and with what dose.

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Related: Vaccine to Protect Children from Anthrax: Public Engagement Workshop