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Quoted By: >>1462984
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/kennedy-advisers-vote-dropping-hepatitis-b-vaccine-recommendation-most-us-2025-12-05/
Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. vaccine advisers on Friday scrapped a long-standing recommendation that all American newborns receive the hepatitis B shot, a major policy win for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr that disease experts say will reverse decades of public health gains.
The committee recommended the birth dose only for infants of mothers who test positive for the virus or whose status is unknown, replacing the 1991 universal recommendation aimed at protecting all children from hepatitis B infections.
For the vast majority of children whose mothers test negative for the virus, it said parents should consult with their healthcare providers over if and when to begin the three-shot vaccine series and recommended the first dose no sooner than at two months of age.
Public health experts and medical groups including the American Medical Association decried the move, saying the decision creates obstacles to the vaccine and is in conflict with decades of evidence on its safety and efficacy.
Hepatitis B infections, which can lead to serious liver disease, have fallen nearly 90% in the U.S. from 9.6 per 100,000 before vaccination became widespread to about one per 100,000 in 2018.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - now run by a Kennedy-appointed acting head, Jim O'Neill, who is not a scientist - will use the committee's recommendations to set U.S. public health guidance.
The recommendations affect U.S. health insurance coverage and play a key role in assisting physicians who are choosing appropriate vaccines for patients. The trade group for insurers said they would continue covering the shot.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said it continued to support the birth dose of the vaccine.
Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. vaccine advisers on Friday scrapped a long-standing recommendation that all American newborns receive the hepatitis B shot, a major policy win for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr that disease experts say will reverse decades of public health gains.
The committee recommended the birth dose only for infants of mothers who test positive for the virus or whose status is unknown, replacing the 1991 universal recommendation aimed at protecting all children from hepatitis B infections.
For the vast majority of children whose mothers test negative for the virus, it said parents should consult with their healthcare providers over if and when to begin the three-shot vaccine series and recommended the first dose no sooner than at two months of age.
Public health experts and medical groups including the American Medical Association decried the move, saying the decision creates obstacles to the vaccine and is in conflict with decades of evidence on its safety and efficacy.
Hepatitis B infections, which can lead to serious liver disease, have fallen nearly 90% in the U.S. from 9.6 per 100,000 before vaccination became widespread to about one per 100,000 in 2018.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - now run by a Kennedy-appointed acting head, Jim O'Neill, who is not a scientist - will use the committee's recommendations to set U.S. public health guidance.
The recommendations affect U.S. health insurance coverage and play a key role in assisting physicians who are choosing appropriate vaccines for patients. The trade group for insurers said they would continue covering the shot.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said it continued to support the birth dose of the vaccine.
