The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices delayed its vote on changing the current policy, which CDC experts warned could erode the safety net keeping children from being born with the dangerous viral infection.
The vaccine advisory panel newly reconfigured by Robert F. Kennedy is delaying its decision on whether to continue recommending that children universally receive their first dose for hepatitis B vaccination at birth.
In a surprise move Friday morning, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) tabled its scheduled vote over the merits of universal hepatitis B vaccination starting at birth—a policy first enshrined by the ACIP over 30 years ago. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others strongly pushed back on the change being debated by the ACIP, which would have recommended children whose mothers test negative not receive the vaccine until at least one month of age.A 30-year safety net
In 1991, the then-members of the same panel recommended that everyone should be vaccinated against hepatitis B, including children. Notably, this approach was endorsed after the failure of the previous strategy of trying to only vaccinate people identified as high-risk (such as people who inject drugs or people who have risky sex).
The panel first recommended that all children receive their first of three hepatitis B shots either at birth or between one and two months of age. By 2005, the panel only endorsed getting the first shot at birth (with the exception of especially small premature infants).
