Guinea-Bissau denies it has approved controversial vaccine trial in newborns - The Guardian
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Guinea-Bissau has not approved the controversial hepatitis B study in newborns that would be funded by the US government and private partners, the African country’s minister of health said on Tuesday. The study, which would not investigate the safety or effectiveness of vaccines but would instead track “nonspecific” health outcomes like overall mortality or neurodevelopmental conditions, has been championed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime anti-vaccine activist. Members of a Danish research ethics committee were informed that officials in Guinea-Bissau had approved an updated design of the study, which influenced some committee members’ votes to proceed with the trial last week. But the health ministry never agreed to or authorized the trial, said Quinhin Nantote in Portuguese at a press briefing, where he referred to the study as “tests”. “The ministry did not authorize the tests under the terms presented in the publications currently in circulation,” the health minister said. He said officials in Guinea-Bissau were “surprised” to see media reports that the country had given approval to the study.
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