A federal advisory committee voted on Friday to end the universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendation for newborn babies – a decision which will now go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director for final approval.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the CDC’s vaccine advisers, determined in an 8-3 vote to narrow the recommendation. Instead of recommending the shot for all newborn babies, the advisory board is opting to recommend it only for newborns whose mothers test positive for the virus. “Women whose hepatitis B status is negative or unknown should talk with their doctors about vaccination, the recommendation says,” according to NPR.
“If you are a baby that was born to a mother that was tested negative for Hep B, you need to realize, as a parent, that your risk of infection throughout your early stage of life and probably throughout most of your childhood, is extremely low to the extent that it’s even hard to quantify how low. It is, it’s probably one in several millions [sic],” Professor Retsef Levi – a member of the ACIP – said in a clip shared by the CDC.
“And that means that, as a parent, we encourage you, in consultation with your physician, to think very carefully. Do you want to expose your child, your baby, to an intervention that could have some potential harms when the risk is so low?” he asked. “And mind you that we are talking about a very, very young baby in the first few months of their life, where they are not fully developed.”
This move comes as the Trump administration continues to focus on the Make America Healthy (MAHA) movement, challenging the status quo and long-held beliefs.
For instance, in September, the committee changed the guidance for the coronavirus shot, essentially leaving it up to the individual. Meanwhile, individual states are working to remove mandates as well. That same month, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced that the Florida Department of Health was working with the DeSantis administration to “end all vaccine mandates” in the Sunshine State.
“Who am I as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body?” Ladapo asked at the time. “Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body? I don’t have that right.”
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