Families of two African American infants have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government after their children died following unauthorized participation in RSV vaccine trials in 1967.
On 29 May 2026, the families of two African American infants filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, seeking damages for their children being used in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine trials without parental notification or consent before their deaths in 1967.
The infants, Ross Otto Hambrick and Victor Marcellus King, were only 2 and 4 months old respectively when enrolled in prototype vaccine trials during 1965-1966, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The families’ legal team stated that the two children were selected to receive an intense experimental vaccine known as “Lot 100” without any disclosure of risks or obtaining consent, before both died in January 1967.
The lawsuit also states that tissue samples taken during autopsies of the two children were used for decades in ongoing research, contributing to the development of newer RSV vaccines approved in the U.S. in 2023, which now generate billions in revenue. RSV is a highly contagious respiratory virus and a leading cause of hospitalization among infants in the U.S.
The families’ attorney accused government agencies of selecting Black infants from poor families as test subjects because they were the most vulnerable and easily accessible population.
This case has prompted the American public to revisit the painful history of unauthorized medical experimentation on Black people, which caused deep social wounds. One of the most notorious cases is the Tuskegee syphilis study, for which the U.S. government issued a formal apology in 1997 after hundreds of Black men were left untreated despite available cures. The current lawsuit is proceeding under federal claims law, with the families demanding full disclosure and accountability for events that occurred nearly 60 years ago.