"the research would have followed 14,000 infants in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau. The problem? Only 7,000 of those newborns would have received an urgently needed hepatitis B vaccine, in order to compare the two groups. On top of the flagrant ethics violations, the total cost of the research would have exceeded the cost to pay for "over a decade's worth of Hepatitis B vaccine birth doses [for everyone] in Guinea-Bissau.""
"In their interview with Faust, the unnamed CDC employee called it "another Tuskegee," a reference to the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which hundreds of Black men with syphilis were studied by government researchers - who never informed them of their disease or made them aware of the treatment that had been discovered for it. "I have read every word of the protocol dated January 14, 2026," Faust told Futurism in an email. "It is wretched.""
Planned HHS-funded research would follow 14,000 infants in Guinea-Bissau while vaccinating only 7,000 newborns with hepatitis B vaccine to create comparison groups. The trial budget of $1.6 million would exceed the cost of supplying over a decade's worth of hepatitis B birth doses for the entire country. The plan was likened to the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which hundreds of Black men with syphilis were studied without being informed of their disease or of available treatment. Guinea-Bissau public health authorities halted the trial, but HHS asserted the trial would proceed as planned.
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