White House Weighs Testing Anthrax Vaccine on Children

The Takeaway

A working group of The  National Biodefense Science Board  (NBSB) has endorsed a plan to test anthrax vaccines on healthy children. The NBSB, which advises the federal government, says scientist should inject healthy children with BioThrax, the anthrax vaccine, to see if it is as effective on children as it is in adults. The Obama administration is now weighing the controversial step of subjecting children to possibly risky medical testing against waiting for an attack to happen and collecting data afterwards. Dr. Art Caplan, bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, explores the debate over testing anthrax vaccines on children.

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