What?! BIOETHICS COMMISSION TO DECIDE ON WHETHER TO TEST THE ANTHRAX VACCINE ON KIDS BY YEAR END

The government is prepared with a stockpile of the anthrax vaccine should a widespread bioterror attack ever take place, but there is a segment of the population that experts are unsure how they will react: children.

“We can’t just assume that what we have for adults works for children,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a bioethics panel Thursday.

Last fall, Sebelius has asked the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to discuss whether or not the anthrax vaccine — and other vaccines that could prove useful in a bioterror event — should be tested on children. It decided that the vaccine testing should be allowed but with a caveat: only if ethical issues can be agreed upon.

The commission began its deliberations Thursday; recommendations are expected by year’s end.

Sebelius made clear that the question is far broader than anthrax.

“There are serious ethical issues around the development of medical countermeasures for children” in general, she said.

Developing protections for youngsters is critically important, but in a way that puts “our children’s safety as our highest priority,” Sebelius said.

[link to www.theblaze.com]