A Danish Couple’s Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment in RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy By Arthur Allen May 18, 2026

https://kffhealthnews.org/public-health/rfk-kennedy-vaccines-denmark-danish-scientists-africa-aaby-benn-dtap-dtp/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20First%20Edition&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-98MaGE1b6xYieWMzPn7HEn5f3hEyCLwij8H8EBM3r_CtWHoQEmxPPEyIScCxgEHS7MBxT6oqZMli8QxNP7jQEiQqfotQ&_hsmi=419243754&utm_content=419243754&utm_source=hs_email KFF Health News: A Danish Couple’s Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment In RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy In 1996, Guinea-Bissau seemed like an ideal research post for budding pediatrician Lone Graff Stensballe. Her supervisor, a fellow Dane named Peter Aaby, had spent nearly two decades collecting data on 100,000 people living in the mud brick homes of the West African country’s capital. Aaby and his partner, Christine Stabell Benn, believed that the years of research in the impoverished country had yielded a major discovery about vaccines — and what they described as “non-specific effects”: The measles and tuberculosis vaccines, which were derived from live, weakened viruses and bacteria, they said, boosted child survival beyond protecting against those particular pathogens. (Allen, 5/18)