CDC to Fund Controversial Study in West Africa on Infant Hepatitis B Vaccines

The study prompted swift outcry from scientists in the U.S. who say it’s “unethical.”

Kennedy HHS

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has repeatedly pointed to Denmark’s less stringent immunization requirements. Tom Williams/AP

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending $1.6 million to a Danish vaccine research group with ties to the U.S. anti-vaccine movement to study the effects of the hepatitis B vaccine in infants in West Africa.

Notice of the new grant — which the University of Southern Denmark submitted to the CDC “unsolicited” — was quietly posted to a federal website on Wednesday.

It comes on the heels of the CDC Advisory Council on Immunization Practices eliminating long-standing recommendations for hepatitis B vaccines for newborns. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. entirely reshaped that committee earlier this year to include vaccine skeptics.