The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned a US-funded vaccine trial as unethical, citing its decision to withhold a safe and potentially life-saving hepatitis B vaccine from newborns in Guinea-Bissau, Africa, according to a formal statement released Friday. The trial, which has drawn widespread criticism since its funding was announced in December, is considered inconsistent with established ethical and scientific principles, the WHO concluded.
The WHO's assessment, based on publicly available information, provided a bullet-point list of reasons the trial was deemed harmful and of low quality, as reported by Ars Technica. The trial's controversial nature has sparked condemnation from health experts.
Meanwhile, in other health-related news, Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is promoting the use of artificial intelligence avatars as a solution for the rural health care crisis in America, according to Hacker News. Oz stated, "There's no question about it - whether you want it or not - the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars," at an event focused on addiction and mental health.
In related developments, Jim O'Neill, the US deputy health secretary, who oversees a department with a budget exceeding a trillion dollars, indicated that vaccine guidelines are still subject to change, MIT Technology Review reported. O'Neill, who signed the decision memorandum on the US's new vaccine schedule, also expressed his plans to increase human healthspan through longevity-focused research supported by ARPA-H, a federal agency dedicated to biomedical research. Following the publication of this story, Politico reported that O'Neill would be leaving his current roles within the Department of Health and Human Services.
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