(NewsNation) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s hand-picked vaccine committee voted Friday to end a decades-long recommendation that all U.S. babies be given the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
Federal health recommendations suggest all newborns be vaccinated against the liver infection in their first day of life. But the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend the vaccine only for those whose mothers test positive, as well as those whose mothers weren’t tested.
For other babies, it will be up to the parents and their doctors to decide if a birth dose is appropriate. The committee voted to suggest that when a family decides not to get a birth dose, the vaccination series should begin when the child is 2 months old.
The vote passed 8-3.
Jim O’Neill, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is expected to decide later whether to accept the recommendation.
The advisory committee makes recommendations to the CDC director on how already-approved vaccines should be used.
‘This makes America sicker’: Sen. Bill Cassidy
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician who was unsettled about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work ahead of his Senate confirmation, condemned the panel’s recommendation as a “mistake.”
“Before the birth dose was recommended, 20,000 newborns a year were infected with hepatitis B. Now, it’s fewer than 20,” he wrote on X. “Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again. This makes America sicker.”
Cassidy also urged O’Neil not to sign the new recommendations, and “instead retain the current, evidence-based approach.”
Cassidy previously said Kennedy pledged he wouldn’t change existing vaccine recommendations during his Senate confirmation process. He also said Kennedy pledged the CDC would “not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The CDC recently revised a webpage, changing previous language that firmly stated vaccines do not cause autism. The agency kept the header “Vaccines do not cause autism” at the top of the webpage, with a caveat explaining it had not been removed under an agreement with Cassidy.
Vaccine panel takes issue with recommendation’s wording
In September, the advisory committee delayed a vote after it was asked to consider whether to recommend postponing the shot to 1 month of age if the mother tests negative for the virus, with an added caveat that the shot could be administered sooner based on “individual-based decision-making.”
Medical organizations have criticized the potential change, though there is no hepatitis B vaccine mandate in the U.S., and parents can decide whether to vaccinate their newborn against the infection.
Some committee members have taken issue with the recommendation’s wording, and others expressed concerns that endorsing the recommendation would result in children losing insurance coverage for vaccinations, including those who rely on the federal Vaccines for Children program.
Those in the hepatology space are already anxious about potential changes to decades-old guidance that has helped reduce hepatitis infections in the U.S.
In 1991, the committee recommended an initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Over about 30 years, cases among children fell from about 18,000 per year to about 2,200.
The consequences of contracting hepatitis B as an infant or child can be fatal. An individual who contracts the virus in early childhood has a 25% chance of dying young due to liver cancer, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The Hill contributed to this report.