To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Prevent testing of anthrax vaccine in US children
Stop Secretary Sibelius testing anthrax vaccine in American children--a test that will generate no useful scientific information, but instead be used to expand the market for this vaccine. Anthrax vaccine's effectiveness remains uncertain, and it can cause serious adverse reactions, including brain damage and probably death.
Why is this important?
DHHS has had two federal advisory committees make recommendations on testing anthrax vaccine and other medical countermeasures in children, since 2011. The immediate goal is to expand the vaccine license to include children, and to increase the civilian vaccine stockpile. The vaccine might be used routinely in children, in future.
However, antibiotics are the effective treatment of choice in an anthrax attack. Antiserum and monoclonal antibodies could be used in the event of antibiotic resistance. Vaccine, of unknown effectiveness, would only start to be useful 40 days after immunizations were begun. Why the government has spent billions on a large anthrax vaccine stockpile makes no sense.
The US anthrax letters were determined (by the FBI) to come from the supply of a US army scientist. The US has never been attacked by a foreign enemy with anthrax. There is no credible evidence of an anthrax threat to US children.
For these reasons, plus the existence of federal statutes and case law that prohibit testing dangerous products in children, who cannot give informed consent, this pediatric trial should not even have been considered. But DHHS has ignored these prohibitions and wishes to proceed with a pediatric trial regardless.
Please read the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP)'s report to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which is advising Secretary Sibelius on this anthrax vaccine experiment, at
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/images/stories/articles/children_anthraxvaccine_moral_cliff_final_2-28.pdf
Please sign our petition and help get the word out!
WHOSE children will be selected for this dangerous anthrax vaccine experiment, and for future "countermeasures" experiments?
Meryl Nass, MD, Board Member, AHRP
Vera Sharav, President, AHRP
However, antibiotics are the effective treatment of choice in an anthrax attack. Antiserum and monoclonal antibodies could be used in the event of antibiotic resistance. Vaccine, of unknown effectiveness, would only start to be useful 40 days after immunizations were begun. Why the government has spent billions on a large anthrax vaccine stockpile makes no sense.
The US anthrax letters were determined (by the FBI) to come from the supply of a US army scientist. The US has never been attacked by a foreign enemy with anthrax. There is no credible evidence of an anthrax threat to US children.
For these reasons, plus the existence of federal statutes and case law that prohibit testing dangerous products in children, who cannot give informed consent, this pediatric trial should not even have been considered. But DHHS has ignored these prohibitions and wishes to proceed with a pediatric trial regardless.
Please read the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP)'s report to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which is advising Secretary Sibelius on this anthrax vaccine experiment, at
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/images/stories/articles/children_anthraxvaccine_moral_cliff_final_2-28.pdf
Please sign our petition and help get the word out!
WHOSE children will be selected for this dangerous anthrax vaccine experiment, and for future "countermeasures" experiments?
Meryl Nass, MD, Board Member, AHRP
Vera Sharav, President, AHRP