Microbiologist administers live herpes virus with no government oversight

NOVEMBER 21, 2017: Kaiser Health News reported that in 2016, William Halford injected at least 20 people in St. Kitts with a live herpes virus that he created (1). The administration of this novel vaccine had no approval from the federal government or the Institutional Review Board, and it is a flagrant ethical violation (5). William Halford was a microbiologist, not a clinician trained to administer vaccines (3). Furthermore, one of the co-founders Augustin Fernandez, apparently was unaware of the need for FDA or IRB approval for vaccine administration.

Furthermore, some of the individuals who were injected fear the consequences. One individual expressed concern that the live herpes vaccine may have actually infected them with a different type of herpes. The individual already had herpes type 1 (which is commonly manifested as cold sores on the mouth) and fears they may have contracted herpes type 2 (which is commonly manifested as sores and/or blisters on the genitals).

Halford worked as a professor conducting research at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. The medical school released a statement in which they essentially expressed that Halford's work was solely on behalf of the company Rational Vaccines (for which Halford and Fernandez worked).

-EM


References:
1. https://khn.org/news/years-before-heading-offshore-herpes-researcher-experimented-on-people-in-u-s/
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/years-before-heading-offshore-herpes-researcher-experimented-on-people-in-us/2017/11/21/064823d6-cebe-11e7-a87b-47f14b73162a_story.html
3. https://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks/videos/10155219139164205/
4. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs400/en/
5. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/01/herpes-vaccine-firm-backed-by-peter-thiel-promises-fda-oversight.html