"Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 11-1 to delay a vote on changes to a newborn hepatitis B shot. It was a surprise twist after a lengthy discussion on the hepatitis B vaccine typically delivered to newborns shortly after birth.

 

The committee had planned to consider a new recommendation that would wait to give newborns a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine until they are at least a month old. Currently, babies are given this shot at birth, usually before they leave the hospital.

 

The birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine has been recommended in the United States since 1991. After it was implemented, hepatitis B infections in infants dropped from an average of 18,000 per year to around 20 reported cases of hepatitis B in babies per year now. Children infected with hepatitis B nearly always develop long-term infections which can damage the liver, increasing the risk for liver scarring, transplant and cancer.

 

(more)

 

CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/19/health/cdc-acip-hepatitis-mmrv-covid-vaccine

 

 

Key federal vaccine panel tables vote on delaying newborn hepatitis B shot

In a closely watched vote, ACIP members decided to maintain the status quo for now

"A key government advisory committee voted Friday to postpone a vote on whether to delay infants’ first hepatitis B vaccine — temporarily alleviating fears that a new recommendation on shot timing could reverse the significant progress made in controlling the disease’s spread in recent decades.

 

The decision followed a lengthy deliberation on Thursday by the newly reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, which pressed scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the necessity of the birth dose, and brought into question the veracity of the data presented on the risks and benefits of the vaccine. But ultimately, members voted to push the vote.

 

“I believe that there’s enough ambiguity here and enough remaining discussion about safety, effectiveness, and timing that I believe that a vote today is premature,” Robert Malone, a member of the committee, said on Friday. All of the members of the committee, except its chair, Martin Kulldorff, voted to table the vote. 

 

STAT

https://www.statnews.com/2025/09/19/cdc-vaccines-acip-changes-hepatitis-b-schedule/

 

 

 

It was unclear at the outset whether the latest development was any kind of retreat by anti-vaxer U.S. Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been pushing for changes to the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule, or just a temporary delay before bringing the proposed change back to the ACIP panel that Kennedy has stocked in recent months entirely with his own appointees, including anti-vaxers, vaccine skeptics, and those who, like Kennedy, have spread misinformation during the COVID pandemic.

 

During the committee's discussion session on Thursday, representatives of the nation's major medical associations and others warned that the proposed change would mean more children would become sick and die from hepatitis B if the U.S. were to loosen its 30-plus-year-old policy that all infants should be vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus at or soon after birth.

 

The CDC staff briefing the ACIP panel warned that the adopted change would put more children at risk, and told the panel that the hepatitis B vaccine has a very strong safety record when given to infants and young children. Those sentiments were echoed by representatives of many of the nation’s major medical associations.

 

“I’m wondering what problem exists in the current [vaccine] schedule that has prompted this entire discussion,” said Dr. Sandra Fryhoffer, the American Medical Association’s liaison to the panel, raising a question that panel members never really answered. She said the current universal vaccination policy has “proven to be extremely successful” and safe for children.

 

The U.S. began the so-called universal vaccination policy for hep B in 1991 and gradually tightened it several times in ensuing years, before in 2018 updating the policy to vaccinate within 24 hours of birth. During that period, the numbers of Hep B infections in infants and children dropped from about 18,000 per year in 1991 to about 2,200 in 2023.

 

Under the proposed ACIP policy, Hep B vaccination at birth will no longer be required if the mother has tested negative for the virus, and the first of three doses would not be given until the child is one month old. Others would still have the mandate for vaccination within 24 hours of birth.

 

While the change might seem minor, doctors and public health advocates warned it would open a window for unprotected, unvaccinated infants to become infected at a time when they are most vulnerable, due to flawed test results, contact with infected family members or care givers and other issues.

 

Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) that affects the liver and causes both acute and chronic infections, with the risk of chronic symptoms much higher when contracted at young ages. About 90 percent of those infected during or shortly after birth develop chronic hepatitis B, and that eventually leads to fatal liver cancer and cirrhosis in about one-fourth of those cases.

 

The virus is spread by exposure to infectious blood or body fluids. Conservative and anti-vax groups have often questioned the need for childhood vaccination, referring to how the hepatitis virus spreads among adults via IV drug use and sexual contact. But the virus also can be spread from mother to infant during birth, or via routine person-to-person exposure such as contact with a cut or scrape of an infected person.

 

The move to loosen the CDC’s policy for childhood vaccination originated with Kennedy, and wasn’t supported by CDC staff or any of the nation’s leading public health and medical groups.  It began in earnest when Kennedy in June abruptly fired all 17 members of the CDC’s ACIP panel, and later replaced them in two tranches with a group that included vaccine skeptics, anti-vaxers and others who have spread COVID misinformation and opposed COVID-era health policies.

 

When then-newly confirmed CDC director Susan Monarez refused to endorse the coming proposed changes in the absence of any supporting evidence, Kennedy fired her at the end of August, leading to the resignations of other top leaders in the CDC, with Monarez and the others warning that Kennedy and his political appointee aides were disregarding evidence-based science, and instead basing decisions on political ideology.

 

Kennedy -- the son of former U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of President John F. Kennedy -- is an ex-environmental lawyer turned conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist who founded and headed the largest anti-vaccine group in the U.S., Children’s Health Defense, and has been described as one of the largest misinformation purveyors during the COVID pandemic.

 

Kennedy had launched an independent campaign for president in the 2024 election, but later withdrew and endorsed Donald Trump, ostensibly in exchange for a Cabinet post in Trump’s Administration. Trump in late 2024 nominated Kennedy to head the U.S. Health and Human Services agency, which includes the CDC, FDA and the NIH, among other agencies – despite Kennedy having no public health or medical credentials. He was narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate in February 2025 despite massive opposition from public health and science groups.

 

His tenure at HHS has involved overseeing massive funding cuts and job reductions across his various agencies including the CDC, withdrawing federal funding for mRNA vaccine research, downplaying the measles vaccine during the U.S.’s  worst measles outbreak in years during 2025, and pushing debunked claims about a purported connection between vaccines and autism. Earlier this year, Kennedy and his appointees at the FDA also narrowed the availability of the COVID vaccine for children and people under age 65, unless they have some heightened risk factor.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_Jr.

 

Washington Post

https://archive.ph/1NSSh

 

ABC News

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/doctors-birth-dose-hepatitis-vaccine/story?id=125627484

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/rfk-jr-removing-17-members-cdcs-vaccine-advisory/story?id=122670046

 

https://youcanknowthings.substack.com/p/the-birth-dose-why-are-babies-immunized

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1373378-more-covid-vaccine-skeptics-added-to-cdc-advisory-panel/

 

 

RFK Jr.‘s vaccine panel postpones vote on whether to delay babies’ first hepatitis B shot

 

"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked vaccine panel on Friday postponed a vote on whether to delay the first dose of the hepatitis B shot from birth to at least one month for most babies born in the U.S.

 

The decision means that the committee’s current recommendation – that all infants receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth – will stay in place until the group meets again at a later date. It’s unclear when the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will convene again to discuss the hepatitis B shot.

 

ACIP was considering whether to delay the first dose of the vaccine until at least one month of age for babies of women who test negative for hepatitis B. That would change a safe and highly effective birth dose recommendation that was introduced in 1991 and is credited with virtually eliminating the disease in young kids. 

...

The hepatitis B shot has been a life-saving public health intervention against the disease, which can lead to severe health problems, including liver cancer and failure, and death. Acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens dropped by 99% between 1990 and 2019, some studies said. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that the so-called birth dose is critical to reduce chronic hepatitis B later in life."

 

(more)

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/19/rfk-jrs-vaccine-panel-postpones-vote-on-hepatitis-b-shot-for-babies.html

 

 

 

Next CDC meeting on vaccines delayed

Oct. 09, 2025

 

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has postponed an October meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an expert panel whose views are critical in the rollout of FDA-approved vaccines in the U.S.

 

According to the panel’s website run by the CDC, the ACIP meeting previously scheduled for Oct. 22–Oct. 23 will not take place. The meeting agenda remains unclear. A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Bloomberg News that the details of the meeting will be made public online after finalization.

 

However, during the last meeting held on Sept. 18 – Sept. 19, ACIP members decided to postpone a vote on whether to recommend a delay in hepatitis B immunization for some newborns.

 

The rescheduled meeting was set to become the third gathering of the ACIP members selected by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in June after he abruptly fired all 17 former committee members, citing conflicts of interest and other concerns."

 

(more)

 

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4502929-next-cdc-adcom-meeting-vaccines-delayed

 

An off-topic post unrelated to the OP topic has been removed.