RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel to vote on hepatitis B shot for babies

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked vaccine committee voting was planned Discussions will be held Thursday on whether to change the long-standing recommendation that every baby be vaccinated against hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth.

It’s unclear whether the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, would significantly delay or eliminate the so-called birth dose of the vaccine. The group has suggested a vote on the vaccine in September, with some members calling for a more robust debate to be held first.

But both changes could have far-reaching consequences: Some public health experts say vaccinating fewer newborns against the virus could risk increased chronic infections in children.

Hepatitis B, which can be passed from mother to baby during birth, can cause liver disease and early death. There is no cure.

“We have a vaccine that is extremely effective at preventing an incurable disease. We must take full advantage of it,” Neil Maniar, a public health professor at Northeastern University, told CNBC.

The birth dose recommendation was put forward in 1991 and Reduces infections in children by 99% ever since. Maniar called it “a remarkable success story that we risk overturning” if the committee changes the recommendation.

The panel’s decisions are not legally binding. up to the states making vaccines mandatory. But ACIP’s recommendations have important implications for whether private insurance plans and government assistance programs cover vaccines at no cost for eligible children.

The panel’s two-day meeting in Atlanta comes after Kennedy gutted the committee earlier this year and appointed 12 new members, including some prominent vaccine critics. During the September meeting, some advisers raised questions about whether the vaccine’s benefits outweigh potential safety risks.

However, chairman of the Infectious Diseases Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. The vaccine is “an incredibly safe vaccine with minimal risks,” Sean O’Leary said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“I have never seen a fever associated with the hepatitis B vaccine,” said O’Leary, who has worked as a general pediatrician and in a newborn nursery for eight years.

AAP, which publishes its own vaccination program, still recommend He added that the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine was because it “saved lives.”

a new reviewMore than 400 studies spanning four decades and published Tuesday found no evidence that delaying the birth dose of the universal hepatitis B vaccine improves safety or effectiveness. The review also found that the birth dose did not cause any serious adverse events or deaths in the short or long term.

2024 CDC study showed that the current vaccination program has helped prevent more than 6 million hepatitis B infections and nearly 1 million hepatitis B hospitalizations.

Merck and GSK produce hepatitis B vaccines for use from birth. None of the footage is a significant source of revenue for the companies.

Still, Merck backed away from changing the recommendation at the panel’s September meeting.

Merck’s head of global medical and scientific affairs for vaccines and infectious diseases, Dr. Richard Haupt said at the time: “The re-evaluation of the neonatal Hepatitis B vaccine on the established schedule poses a serious risk to the health of children and the public, which could lead to a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases.”