Mistrust

Stabell Benn and colleagues appear impervious to this point. In a LinkedIn post Wednesday, Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer, a Bandim Health researcher involved in the trial, blamed the backlash on the “Anglophone media” that “framed [the trial] as dangerous because there would be a control group that would have followed the current vaccine schedule” in Guinea-Bissau.

Schaltz-Buchholzer’s post went on to claim that the media controversy has led to distrust of the hepatitis B vaccine in Guinea-Bissau and fears that the vaccine would pose a danger to newborns vaccinated in the trial, which he referred to as the intervention group, writing:

In the Bissau-Guinean context, it was widely understood that this trial was dangerous for the intervention group. For instance, rumours spread on social media with an omnipresent desconfiança (mistrust) that this was actually a novel vaccine to be tested by the Americans. Based on the Anglophone media coverage framing the trial as dangerous, Bissau-Guinean influencers speculated that the reason to test the hepatitis B vaccine in Guinea-Bissau was that the vaccine is dangerous, and that Bissau-Guinean newborns are disposable.

In her email to Ars Technica, Stabell Benn declined to say what reasons Guinea-Bissau officials gave for why the trial was rejected or why their office was searched and vaccine doses were seized. Ars Technica could not immediately reach Guinea-Bissau officials for comment.

But local distrust of the researchers could have played a role in the rejection and police operation. Stabell Benn said police were directed to investigate the vaccine doses directly, saying:

In its communiqué, the Council of Ministers instructed the competent authorities to investigate the origin, acquisition, transport, storage and traceability of vaccines intended for the proposed study. The Judicial Police subsequently searched the Bandim Health Project premises on 19 October and sealed the fridge containing a batch of hepatitis B vaccines. The vaccines were intended for the proposed study. The study had not begun, and none of the vaccines had been administered. We cooperated with the authorities.

Stabell Benn said the trial will not proceed and that Bandim has no plans to move it to a different location. “The underlying scientific question remains important,” she said. “But any future proposal would have to arise from an appropriate local context and partnership and undergo all required scientific, ethical, and governmental reviews.”