Is Your Newborn Safe? CDC’s Sudden Hepatitis B Vaccine Rollback Sparks Safety Fears - What You Should Know

A federal vaccine advisory committee in the United States voted to revise a long-standing recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine on the day of birth. The Advisory Committee on Immunization

Practices, or ACIP, voted 8 – 3 to recommend the birth dose only for newborns whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B or have not been tested during pregnancy. So now, instead of a first dose within 24 hours of birth, as it was done for more than 30 years, the panel voted to recommend delaying it until a child is two months old for children born to mothers who test negative for the virus. Experts and medical organisations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have opposed the change, saying it will leave young children at risk of an infection that can lead to a lifelong illness. They have repeatedly pointed to a lot of research done on confirming the vaccine's safety and effectiveness. Recommendations will now go to the CDC director for approval. However, the final decisions are left to the states, which then base their policies on the CDC's guidelines but can choose to set their own as well. Experts say ACIP's recommendations carry weight with insurance companies as well, since most private insurers are required to cover the recommended vaccines. If the recommendation changes, what is covered by insurance may also change. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions, also a physician whose medical practice focused on hepatitis B, called the change "a mistake" and urged acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill to reject ACIP's vote. “The hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective. The birth dose is a recommendation, NOT a mandate," Cassidy wrote on social media. “Before the birth dose was recommended, 20,000 newborns a year were infected with hepatitis B. Now, it's fewer than 20. Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely that the number of cases will begin to increase again. This makes America sicker,” he added.

Kennedy falsely claimed it causes autism

The birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine became a target of vaccine critics after US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed on a podcast earlier this month that it was a “likely culprit” in autism. Multiple studies have shown that the shot is not associated with any increased risk of infant death, fever or sepsis, multiple sclerosis, or autoimmune conditions. While severe reactions to the vaccine are rare, research also shows no evidence of any safety benefit in waiting until a child is older.

What is hepatitis B?

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that causes inflammation in your liver. It can be a brief illness without any symptoms that goes away without treatment. This is acute hepatitis B. But some people have a chronic form of the virus, which causes cirrhosis and liver failure. There is no cure for hepatitis B, but medications can make the virus inactive. Inactive hepatitis B means you have the virus, which cannot spread. Hepatitis B is the most common liver infection in the world, with the World Health Organization estimating more than 254 million people across the world living with it.