Infants will no longer receive hepatitis B vaccine at birth, CDC announces
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel voted Friday to change the recommendation for when children should get their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine . Instead of a first dose within 24 hours of birth — as the CDC has advised for more than 30 years — the panel voted to recommend delaying it until a child is 2 months old for children born to mothers who test negative for the virus.
The panel voted, in a 8-2 decision, to recommend individual decision-making in consultation with a health care provider to determine when or if to give the hepatitis B birth dose to a child whose mother tested negative for the virus.
Many medical experts and organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics opposed such a change, saying it will leave young children at risk of an infection that can cause lifelong illness. They point to decades of research confirming the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.
The decision came on the second day of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' December meeting , after confusion on Thursday led to the vote being delayed.
The panel — whose members were all appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — began the day with a reading of the proposed voting language, followed by discussion from the panel members and other experts. Restef Levi, an ACIP member and mathematician who has no medical training, strongly argued against the universal birth dose, falsely claiming that experts had "never tested (the vaccines) appropriately." Levi said he believed the committee should not recommend any timeline for the vaccine.
Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrics professor who previously served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration's vaccines panel and an ACIP board member, and committee member Dr. Joseph Hibbeln continued to criticize the efforts to change the recommendations. Hibbeln said this was the fourth version of the language presented in 96 hours, and that "no rational science has been presented" to support changing the recommendations. Meisner emphasized that leaving the recommendation as-is would still allow parents to make their own choices about the vaccines their child receives.
"We've heard 'do no harm' as a moral imperative. We are doing harm by changing this wording," Meissner said as he voted to oppose the change.
