Recently a federal government commission in charge of evaluating the efficacy of anthrax vaccine for use in a bioterrorism attack, recommended that children be experimentally given the vaccine to test its safety… in children.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/federal-advisers-endorse-testing-anthrax-vaccine-in-children/2011/10/27/gIQA95i7PM_story.html
To say this is absurd (if well intended) is an understatement.
The most ridiculous thing of all is that anthrax is not a communicable disease (person to person). By the time a unique anthrax attack is discovered, the spores will have blown into the next county or beyond, and given the documented very low probability of secondary environmental exposure, would make post-attack administration of vaccine for children, especially, silly at best, and dangerous at worst.
Even if there were more attacks to come after that, unless the U.S. govt is planning to vaccinate half the urban population of the country (neither feasible nor desirable, given the uncertainties of the current vaccine), there would be no guarantee of vaccinating the right population — and to do so for that which had already been attacked would likely be pointless. And for those already exposed, prophylactic antibiotics are far more likely and less problematic than a vaccine.
Thus, given the risk variables, it would be both clinically unethical and parentally irresponsible to administer such vaccine tests to children, given the potential for severe adverse effects. Not only for those potentially injured by vaccine side effects, but to the whole U.S. prophylactic biosecurity development program. Not as unethical as inoculating human subjects with a deadly viral disease (such as smallpox) to test anti-viral drugs, but given the population in question, not far out of the ballpark.
See: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4915a1.htm
The futility of testing anthrax vaccine on children
Recently a federal government commission in charge of evaluating the efficacy of anthrax vaccine for use in a bioterrorism attack, recommended that children be experimentally given the vaccine to test its safety… in children.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/federal-advisers-endorse-testing-anthrax-vaccine-in-children/2011/10/27/gIQA95i7PM_story.html
To say this is absurd (if well intended) is an understatement.
The most ridiculous thing of all is that anthrax is not a communicable disease (person to person). By the time a unique anthrax attack is discovered, the spores will have blown into the next county or beyond, and given the documented very low probability of secondary environmental exposure, would make post-attack administration of vaccine for children, especially, silly at best, and dangerous at worst.
Even if there were more attacks to come after that, unless the U.S. govt is planning to vaccinate half the urban population of the country (neither feasible nor desirable, given the uncertainties of the current vaccine), there would be no guarantee of vaccinating the right population — and to do so for that which had already been attacked would likely be pointless. And for those already exposed, prophylactic antibiotics are far more likely and less problematic than a vaccine.
Thus, given the risk variables, it would be both clinically unethical and parentally irresponsible to administer such vaccine tests to children, given the potential for severe adverse effects. Not only for those potentially injured by vaccine side effects, but to the whole U.S. prophylactic biosecurity development program. Not as unethical as inoculating human subjects with a deadly viral disease (such as smallpox) to test anti-viral drugs, but given the population in question, not far out of the ballpark.
See: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4915a1.htm