Guinea-Bissau cancels controversial US-Funded hepatitis B vaccine trial

After weeks of back and forth, Guinea-Bissau has canceled a proposed vaccine trial on newborn babies, over mounting criticism that it was unethical and exploitative. The trial was funded by the U.S. under its vaccine-skeptical health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The study would have involved 14,000 newborns. Half would receive the vaccine, the other half would be denied, despite World Health Organization recommendations. Infants are at the greatest risk of being chronically infected with hepatitis B when the virus is passed on from their mothers. Almost one in five people in Guinea-Bissau is infected. There's no cure for the disease and it can go on to cause long-term liver damage and liver cancer. Bissau had previously banned all vaccine trials involving children. Police have seized a batch of vaccines from the clinic at the center of the controversy.