[[link removed]]

RFK JR.’S TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT  
[[link removed]]


 

Paul Offit
January 6, 2026
Beyond the Noise
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ RFK Jr. recently directed the CDC to fund a study in West Africa
that lays bare his cruelty and dishonesty. _

Guinea-Bissau child, humanism.org

 

Between 1932 and 1972, the United States Public Health Service, in
what was called “The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the
Negro Male,” knowingly withheld life-saving antibiotics from 600
African American sharecroppers in Alabama. Most died from syphilis.
Purposefully withholding antibiotics so that investigators could
observe the neurological outcomes of untreated syphilis was then, and
remains today, a dark stain on American history.

RFK Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, will soon conduct
his own Tuskegee experiment. He has chosen the resource-poor nation of
Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, to do it. Guinea-Bissau is currently
overwhelmed by hepatitis B virus. About 18 percent
[[link removed].]
of the population is infected. The World Health Organization (WHO)
strongly recommends that all children in all countries receive a birth
dose of hepatitis B vaccine to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
The United States implemented
[[link removed]] the birth dose in 1991,
eventually eliminating tens of thousands of cases of hepatitis B virus
in children less than 10 years of age. Guinea-Bissau, on the other
hand, has struggled to implement the WHO recommendation, deferring the
first dose to 6 weeks of age. Consequently, about 11 percent
[[link removed]] of children less than 18
months of age in Guinea-Bissau are infected with hepatitis B virus.
These children have a 90 percent
[[link removed]?]
chance of developing cirrhosis (chronic liver disease) or liver cancer
later in life. Realizing the problem, Guinea-Bissau has decided to
launch a universal birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine for all infants
in 2027.

RFK Jr. sees this one-year delay in implementation of the much-needed
hepatitis B birth dose as a “window of opportunity
[[link removed].]”
to test his theory that the vaccine causes long-term neurological
problems
[[link removed].]
even though more than 30 years of experience in the United States has
disproved his claims.

Kennedy recently funded a $1.6 million, 14,000-person study
[[link removed].]
in Guinea-Bissau set to begin
[[link removed].]
in early 2026. Investigators will divide 14,000 newborns into two
groups. One group will receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, as
recommended by the WHO. The other group won’t receive the vaccine
until 6 weeks of age, a continuation of the woefully substandard care
that has put so many children in Guinea-Bissau at risk. Because it is
unethical and cruel, this study could never be performed in the United
States.

In addition to exposing children needlessly to a potentially fatal
infection, RFK Jr. has manipulated the study to support his
unsupportable, science-resistant beliefs about harms caused by the
hepatitis B vaccine:

• The study will not be examining
[[link removed].]
the efficacy of early or late vaccination, as it is clear that there
is no value in delaying a hepatitis B vaccine, especially in a child
whose mother is infected. RFK Jr. would prefer not to know that he is
exposing children to unnecessary risk.

• The study will be conducted over 5 years. Children who are
infected with hepatitis B virus at birth don’t develop chronic liver
disease for decades. Therefore, RFK Jr. is unlikely to know about how
much harm his “study” has done during the 5-year period.

• The study is single-blinded. This means that investigators will
know whether children received a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine,
but the parents won’t know. This allows for investigator bias, where
the investigator might find vague neurodevelopmental problems in the
birth-dose group but not the 6-week group.

• RFK Jr. bypassed the standard bidding process so that he could
choose his own investigators. He picked Peter Aaby and Christine Benn.
Benn has several ties
[[link removed].]
to the anti-vaccine movement in the United States. In 2018, Aaby and
Been published a study [[link removed]]
claiming that the DTP vaccine had caused the premature deaths of young
girls in Guinea-Bissau. In a subsequent paper
[[link removed]], they recanted their
findings.

• It is unlikely that parents will be asked to sign a consent form
outlining the real risks of being in the 6-week vaccine group. As this
study is funded by the American taxpayer through money provided by the
CDC, the U.S. Congress should insist on seeing the details of the
study, including the consent form.

In the next few months, as many as 7,000 children born in a country
with a high-risk of hepatitis B infection early in life will be denied
a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine. Many of these children will have
shortened, difficult lives as a result. Who will step forward to
protect these children whom RFK Jr. considers expendable? When, pray
tell, will someone in power stand up to this man. But we remain
silent, much as we did during the Tuskegee experiment when we
considered African American sharecroppers in rural Alabama expendable.
Now it’s children in a resource-poor country. To quote W. H.
Auden’s _Shield of Achilles_, “They were small and could not hope
for help, and no help came.”

 
Paul Offit
[[link removed]"TellMeWhenItsOver"],
MD, is professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of
Philadelphia, co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine, and author of "Tell
Me When Its Over"
Beyond the Noise [[link removed]] is a column written
by Paul Offit, MD, cutting to the chase about important health
topics. 

* RFK jr.
[[link removed]]
* Guinea-Bissau
[[link removed]]
* vaccines
[[link removed]]
* Medical ethics
[[link removed]]
* Tuskegee Study
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Bluesky [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]