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Tag: Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

CDC advisers drop decades-old universal hepatitis B birth dose recommendation, suggest blood testing after 1 dose

Published December 5, 2025

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom, Laine Bergeson, Liz Szabo, Chris Dall

This morning, after contentious discussion, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 8-3 to drop the recommendation for a universal birth hepatitis B vaccine dose and 6-4 to suggest that parents use serologic testing—which detects antibodies in the blood—to determine whether more than one dose of the three-dose series are needed.

Under the first recommendation, only infants born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B would receive a birth dose, while parents of other babies would be advised to postpone the first dose for at least two months.

ACIP makes vaccination recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including those for different age-groups and disease risk status, as well as on US immunization schedules for children, adolescents, and adults. The CDC director has ultimate discretion whether to approve ACIP’s advice, and physicians can make their own decisions about whether to comply, but ACIP recommendations have historically affected insurance coverage of vaccines.

Continue readingCDC advisers drop decades-old universal hepatitis B birth dose recommendation, suggest blood testing after 1 dose
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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

Panel Votes to Stop Recommending Hepatitis B Shots at Birth for Most Newborns

In a move toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of upending vaccine policy, the committee recommended delaying the shots for infants whose mothers test negative for the virus.

Published December 5, 2025

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: The New York Times
Published on:
By Apoorva Mandavilli

A federal vaccine committee took a major step toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of remaking the childhood vaccine schedule on Friday, voting to end a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that can cause severe liver damage.

The divisiveness and dysfunction of the committee in making the decision, however, raised questions about the reliability of the advisory process and left at least one critic “very concerned about the future” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, voted 8 to 3 that women who test negative for hepatitis B should consult with their health care provider and decide “when or if” their child will be vaccinated against the virus at birth. The committee did not change the recommendation that newborns of mothers known to be infected or whose status is unknown be immunized. The shift is not expected to affect insurance coverage of the shots.

Continue readingPanel Votes to Stop Recommending Hepatitis B Shots at Birth for Most Newborns
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