Ben Crump, families of two Black infants allege decades-old government-backed vaccine testing without consent
According to the complaint, the infants were selected for experimental testing tied to RSV vaccine development later used in FDA-approved vaccines.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is set to announce a federal lawsuit accusing the U.S. government of secretly using two Black infants in experimental RSV vaccine trials during the 1960s without their families’ knowledge or consent.
According to a press release issued by Ben Crump Law, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the families of Ross Otto Hambrick and Victor Marcellus King. The complaint alleges that both infants were enrolled in an NIH-sponsored experimental RSV vaccine study in 1965 and 1966 before dying in January 1967.
The lawsuit, filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, claims the United States government, through the National Institutes of Health, intentionally selected vulnerable Black infants from low-income families to participate in what attorneys describe as a dangerous and highly concentrated experimental vaccine trial known as “Lot 100.”
The filing further alleges that tissue samples taken during the infants’ autopsies later contributed to the development of RSV vaccines that were eventually approved by the FDA in 2023. Attorneys representing the families say neither family was informed about the alleged experiments for decades and that they have never received compensation or acknowledgment from the federal government.
“The legal team is seeking justice on behalf of the Hambrick and King families, demanding full accountability from the United States government,” the release states.
Crump is representing the families alongside attorneys William H. Murphy Jr., Carol Lexing Powell, Malcolm P. Ruff and Nabeha Shaer.
The attorneys are expected to discuss details of the lawsuit during a news conference Thursday at 1 p.m. EST in Washington, D.C.