A closer look at “US-backed hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau newborns halted after backlash”, exactly as the source publishes it. A controversial hepatitis B vaccine trial in African newborns, funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has been halted. Lead researcher Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer, a Danish scientist, announced on LinkedIn that the study “will not move forward in Guinea-Bissau” due to lack of governmental approval. The trial had drawn global criticism over ethical concerns, including the use of a placebo group and the involvement of a US agency in a low-income country.
The study was designed to test whether the hepatitis B vaccine could reduce infant mortality beyond its protection against the virus. However, activists and some scientists argued that withholding the vaccine from the placebo group was unethical, as the vaccine is widely recommended for newborns. For the complete material, the listing points back to the source inside the network.