Judicial police in Guinea-Bissau raided the offices of the Bandim Health Project on Monday, October 19, 2026, seizing doses of the hepatitis B vaccine amid an intensifying dispute over a planned infant study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the Guardian, local authorities announced on Facebook that the search involved investigative procedures to clarify the circumstances surrounding the vaccine batch, though officials noted the seizure did not indicate any defects in the quality, safety, or effectiveness of the immunizations.

The police action targets a Danish-led research team whose work has drawn praise from U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while simultaneously facing fierce condemnation from global public health leaders. At the center of the controversy is a clinical trial design that would withhold the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine from thousands of West African newborns for their first six weeks of life.

Why the Newborn Hepatitis B Trial Sparked Global Outrage

The proposed clinical trial, led by Bandim Health Project founder Peter Aaby and epidemiologist Christine Stabell Benn, aims to enroll approximately 14,000 newborns in Guinea-Bissau. Rather than testing the vaccine's established ability to prevent hepatitis B, the study seeks to examine whether receiving the immunization at birth causes non-specific health outcomes, such as skin ailments, neurodevelopmental disorders, or changes in overall mortality, according to Rolling Stone and O Globo.

Under the trial's protocol, half of the enrolled infants—roughly 7,000 babies—would receive the hepatitis B vaccine immediately at birth, while the other 7,000 would not receive it until six weeks of age. In Guinea-Bissau, hepatitis B is endemic, affecting nearly one in five adults. The virus kills 15% to 25% of individuals with chronic infections by causing cirrhosis, liver failure, or liver cancer. Because newborns are highly vulnerable to mother-to-child and early childhood transmission, administering the vaccine within 24 hours of birth is considered by international medical consensus to be a safe, proven method to prevent lifelong infection.

Following initial outcry, the researchers revised their protocol in August to increase maternal screening, stating that infants born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B or whose status cannot be determined would be excluded from randomization and offered the birth dose promptly. However, public health agencies maintain that maternal screening alone is insufficient in high-prevalence regions. Tarik Jašarević, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), told the Guardian that even under the revised protocol, any study denying the birth dose to participants is "unethical and exposes newborns to serious and potentially irreversible harm."

Conflicting Claims Over Government Authorization

A central question surrounding Monday's police raid is whether the Bandim Health Project had valid legal authority to proceed with the trial in Guinea-Bissau. Different institutions have offered sharply conflicting accounts of the study's regulatory standing.

Researchers defended the project by pointing to local and European ethics clearances, noting that Guinea-Bissau does not currently administer the birth dose routinely, with a national rollout planned for 2027 or 2028. Consequently, the group argued that no child in the study would receive fewer vaccines than currently provided under existing national policy. The Bandim Health Project recently publicized a letter of approval for the revised protocol from Guinea-Bissau's national ethics committee at the Ministry of Public Health, dated July 14, 2026, and signed by committee president Mouhammed Djicó Ould Ahmed.

Similarly, an ethics panel at the University of Southern Denmark approved the study on September 30 after altering its rules to review an overseas clinical trial—a fast-tracked process that prompted at least four committee members to resign in protest, according to O Globo. Professor Jakob Grauslund, dean of the university's faculty of health sciences, told Juta MedicalBrief that while the study had cleared both ethics panels, final national authorization from the government of Guinea-Bissau was still required before enrollment could begin.

However, Guinea-Bissau's leadership has flatly rejected claims that the trial is moving forward. Quinhin Nantote, the health minister of the country's transitional government, summoned national health officials and Bandim Health Project representatives for an emergency meeting last week. Speaking to reporters, Nantote dismissed reports of government approval as disinformation, according to Deutsche Welle.

"Even I, as the supervising minister, have no knowledge of this, much less the Council of Ministers," Nantote stated, adding that ethical concerns had led the government to suspend and cancel the trial earlier in the year. "We will not allow, in any way, the application of a study on a group like children to see the reaction [of not administering a vaccine]."

Connections to RFK Jr. and U.S. Health Funding

The dispute in Guinea-Bissau has drawn intense scrutiny in the United States due to its financial and ideological ties to the current leadership of American health agencies. According to Rolling Stone, the trial moved forward at the end of September largely because $1.6 million in global health security grant money allocated by the CDC was set to expire in the agency's budget. That $1.6 million CDC commitment was matched by private contributions from the Pershing Square Foundation and the Bluebell Foundation, bringing total reported support for the research to $3.2 million.

While public records do not indicate whether the CDC funds have been formally disbursed, and HHS previously told Reuters that "the study was not approved," the researchers enjoy high-profile backing in Washington. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his long-standing skepticism of routine immunizations, has repeatedly praised Aaby and Benn, once referring to them as "the deities of vaccine research" at a conference. Kennedy has frequently cited their earlier observational studies on the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine to question established immunization schedules.

Stabell Benn defended the team's methodology to Rolling Stone, stating, "Ethics is not mathematics: reasonable people and independent ethics committees can weigh risks, benefits, and scientific value differently."

What This Means for Public Health and Global Research

For parents and healthcare providers, the international consensus on hepatitis B remains unchanged: the birth-dose vaccine has been used safely for decades and is the cornerstone of preventing chronic liver disease in infants. The backlash in Guinea-Bissau highlights growing resistance across African health ministries against externally funded medical studies perceived as bypassing national sovereignty or applying lower ethical standards to developing populations.

Have any researchers been charged following the police raid?

No. Available reports from Guinea-Bissau's judicial police state only that vaccine doses were seized to investigate the circumstances surrounding the batch. Authorities have not announced any criminal charges or alleged that the vaccine doses themselves were unsafe or compromised.

Will the hepatitis B clinical trial still take place?

The future of the study is highly uncertain. While Danish university officials and the researchers point to ethics committee approvals, Guinea-Bissau Health Minister Quinhin Nantote maintains that the transitional government has canceled the trial and will not permit it to proceed. Meanwhile, the country plans to introduce routine birth-dose hepatitis B vaccinations for all newborns in partnership with the WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, by 2027 or 2028.

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