A panel of experts selected by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Dec. 5 voted to recommend federal officials stop directing parents to get their infants quickly vaccinated against hepatitis B, unless the babies’ mothers test positive for the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends virtually all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth. The CDC should, moving forward, no longer recommend that infants born to women who test negative for hepatitis B receive a vaccine against the virus, unless parents and health care providers decide to have the infants vaccinated following consideration of the risks and benefits of vaccination, according to a majority of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
