Global outcry sinks 'unethical' RFK Jr.-backed study targeting newborns

A vaccine study championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has collapsed after a global outcry over plans to give only half of 14,000 newborn participants a hepatitis B vaccine at birth.The World Health Organization deemed the proposed trial in Guinea-Bissau “unethical,” even after researchers revised its safeguards, Rolling Stone reported Thursday.“Critics feared Kennedy would use the study to help support his efforts to end the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose in the United States, despite being proven safe and effective for decades,” according to the magazine.The backlash included congressional demands for answers, resignations from a Danish ethics board and comparisons from public health experts to the Tuskegee study, which withheld syphilis treatment from Black men.Researcher Frederick Schaltz-Buchholzer announced Wednesday that the trial would “not proceed” after failing to secure the “necessary government approval” from Guinea-Bissau authorities.Medical ethicists raised serious concerns from the beginning, noting that the study stood...