U.S. Hepatitis B Vaccine Success Faces New Scrutiny

A decades-old vaccine that has dramatically reduced hepatitis B infections in the United States is now the subject of a high-stakes review. An influential federal advisory panel will vote Thursday on whether to change recommendations for who should receive the shot. Since 1991, U.S. health policy has called for all newborns to be vaccinated against hepatitis B. This virus can cause lifelong liver infection and lead to serious cirrhosis or cancer. The universal immunization program is considered a major public health success, with infection rates falling sharply. The upcoming vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) follows a lobbying campaign by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic. Kennedy has urged the panel to end the universal newborn recommendation, arguing instead for targeting only infants born to mothers already infected. Public health experts widely support the current policy. They note that screening during pregnancy is not perfect and that the vaccine is highly safe and effective. Changing the recommendation, they warn, could reverse decades of progress and allow more preventable infections in children.