NEWS 23 January 2026 Guinea-Bissau suspends US-funded vaccine trial as African scientists question its motives Officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services, which awarded funding for the controversial study, say it will proceed as planned. By Abdullahi Tsanni

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00220-9?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=f4f2b22b7f-nature-briefing-daily-20260123&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-50432164 Controversial hep-B trial is up in the air Confusion is swirling around a US-funded hepatitis B vaccine trial, which critics say will cause harm and is designed to undermine trust in the jab. Officials from Guinea-Bissau’s health ministry say that the trial is suspended. But the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Nature that the study was still on track. The vaccine is among those that US health officials, under HHS leader and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr, recently stopped recommending for newborns in the United States. “They’re trying to use African children to prove a case for reducing vaccines in the US,” says Seye Abimbola, who researches decolonizing global health.