Infants Died in Secret 1960s RSV Vaccine Trial

Two families are seeking damages from the U.S. government, alleging wrongful death and lack of informed consent in a mid-1960s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine trial. Ross Otto Hambrick and Victor Marcellus King, both infants, were administered an experimental RSV vaccine between 1965 and 1966 in Washington, D.C., without their families' knowledge.

The boys died approximately a year later from RSV and bacterial pneumonia. Their families only recently discovered their infants' involvement after a 2023 investigation by Undark Magazine. The lawsuit contends that the pursuit of a marketable vaccine, rather than infant safety, was the primary motive.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health were developing the RSV vaccine in the 1960s. Human trials for a version known as Lot 100 began in 1965. The lawsuit states that hospital directors warned of potential dangers, but hospitalizations and deaths continued to rise among the trial participants, most of whom were Black and from low-income families.

Following the infants' deaths, researchers preserved lung tissue samples. This tissue proved instrumental in the decades-long research that ultimately led to the first FDA-approved RSV vaccine in 2023. Bioethicists note that while modern research regulations were absent, ethical codes were often disregarded for marginalized groups, as seen in historical cases like Henrietta Lacks and the Tuskegee study.