A controversial research trial that will withhold the recommended dose of the hepatitis B vaccine from thousands of newborns has been approved to move forward. Danish researchers plan to enroll 14,000 infants in Guinea-Bissau in the trial, giving the vaccine to half of the babies at birth and withholding it from the others for the first six weeks of life.
Children randomly selected not to receive the birth dose face the risk of contracting hepatitis B in their earliest days, which can cause irreversible lifelong damage.
The study was presented to a Danish committee by two reviewers, including founding member Stig Børsen Hansen, who resigned from the group in protest, citing major ethical issues. Critics noted that such a trial could not be conducted in the US due to significant ethical concerns.
Last month at an anti-vaccine conference, Kennedy praised the Danish researchers behind the trial and touted US-supported research on hepatitis B in newborns as exemplifying the Trump administration’s agenda for vaccines.