U.S. Vaccine Panel, Now Led by RFK Jr. Appointees, Reverses Hepatitis B Shot for Newborns

A key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine panel has voted to end the universal recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine at birth. The decision reverses a decades-old public health policy. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made the change in a recent vote. ACIP members are now appointed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent critic of vaccines who leads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The prior recommendation aimed to protect infants from a serious liver infection. The virus can pass from an infected mother during childbirth. The committee's new guidance is expected to be reviewed by the CDC director and published officially later this year. This shift highlights a major change in federal vaccine policy under the new administration.