“The study is designed to knowingly expose 7,000 children to hepatitis B, which can have immensely deleterious long-term health outcomes if exposed.”
The plan was to enroll 14,000 newborns and withhold a proven vaccine from half of them. The trial has been suspended since January, and the CDC still told its budget office in September to set aside $1.6 million for it. That money comes out of global health security while Ebola spreads in Congo. Guinea-Bissau’s police did the ethics review the CDC skipped.