Suit Says Black Infants Were Subjected to Experimental Vaccine Without Consent

Key Points:

• The families of two Black infants, Ross Otto Hambrick and Victor Marcellus King, have sued the U.S. government for enrolling their babies in a 1960s respiratory syncytial virus (R.S.V.) vaccine trial without their knowledge or consent, resulting in the infants' deaths from the disease and bacterial pneumonia.
• The lawsuit, filed on May 22, accuses the government of wrongful death, lack of informed consent, and civil battery, seeking financial compensation as tissue samples from the boys' autopsies contributed to the development of the now widely used R.S.V. vaccine.
• This legal action follows a 2023 investigation by Undark Magazine, which uncovered records linking the infants to the trial, a fact unknown to their families until contacted by a reporter.
• Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump criticized the trial as prioritizing profit over the health and safety of the infants, highlighting ethical concerns about the vaccine's development process.
• R.S.V. remains a major cause of infant mortality worldwide, particularly affecting premature babies, and the vaccine took decades to develop after the initial trials.