Hartford Courant staff writer Thomas Williams does a nice job reviewing the rapidly ballooning scandal concerning an NIH plan to test an anthrax vaccine on children.

The trial will test and compare the reactions in humans to the vaccine manufactured by BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich., and another being developed by NIH. Bob Bock, an NIH spokesman, said the trial planned for 100 children in first and second grade will not occur until the vaccines are fully tested on 350 adults and shown to be safe for them.

“The results in this study,” says an NIH announcement, “will help in the development of improved vaccines for anthrax.” The NIH and U.S. Health and Human Services Department are calling for development of the vaccine to protect civilians from terrorist or other attacks.

Critics, however, are appalled.

“This vaccine is totally inappropriate for children, because the [exposure] threat is so remote,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center. “They will likely never be exposed to anthrax either through contamination by animal products or inhalation of weaponized anthrax.”

“Children are involved in trials of vaccines that benefit children,” she said, “but this vaccine will not do so.” Fisher said based on the NIH announcement of “rare severe reactions” to BioPort’s vaccine, she fears the parents of children used in the experiments will not be given proper warnings of the vaccine’s potential for adverse reactions.