Paper details

Paper authors	Myfanwy James
In panel on	Ebola and accountability
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

During the tenth Ebola epidemic (2018-2020), the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) became the site of two Ebola vaccine trials. In 2019, the prime- (Ad26.ZEBOV) and boost- (MVA-BN-Filo) Ebola vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) became the second vaccine in North Kivu, after the Ervebo vaccine manufactured by Merck had already been part of a ring vaccination to address the outbreak. There was international debate as to the value and ethics of introducing a second vaccine in an epidemic context. This paper examines how this debate unfolded among actual and potential trial participants in Goma. Drawing on ethnographic observation, interviews and focus groups, it explores how the J&J trial was perceived and contested on the ground, and situated in broader debates about the ethics of clinical trials, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We illustrate how debates around the ethics of clinical research are not simply centred on bioethical principles, but are inseparable from local political dynamics and broader contests about governance, inequality and exclusion.

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