00:00Guinea-Bissau has pushed the emergency brake on a US-backed hepatitis B vaccine study on
00:07newborns pending an emergency ethical review.
00:11The country's health minister says a six-member ethics committee never met before the study
00:16was approved, a major red flag.
00:20The trial would randomly vaccinate some newborns and withhold the shot from others, tracking
00:24illness, death and development.
00:26Critics say that's unethical because the vaccine is proven to protect babies in a country
00:32where hepatitis B is common.
00:34African CDC leadership supports the review, saying decisions must serve African public
00:40health, not outside interests.
00:42But US health officials insist the study is still moving forward.
00:47The project is funded by a 1.6 no-bid US contract to a Danish research team linked to anti-vaccine
00:54controversies and praised by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
00:59The study planned to follow 14,000 newborns over five years.
01:02Now its future is uncertain.
01:03Now its future is uncertain.
