Breaking: CDC Panel Votes to No Longer Recommend Hepatitis B Shot for Newborns

Key TakeawaysA federal advisory panel voted 8 - 3 to no longer recommend automatic hepatitis B vaccine at birthThe change would apply only to newborns whose mothers test negative Many medical experts say the decision could reverse decades of progress in preventing hepatitis B.FRIDAY, Dec. 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A federal vaccine advisory committee has voted to change a long-standing recommendation that all newborns in the United States receive the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they are born.The group, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), voted 8 – 3 on Friday morning to recommend the birth dose only for newborns whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B or have not been tested during pregnancy.For all other newborns, the decision is now left to parents and doctors, and vaccination may start at 2 months old instead.Health experts quickly raised concerns about the move, noting that hepatitis B can be serious and that early vaccination has helped prevent thousands of infections.“This is the group that can’t shoot straight,” Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told The Associated Press.He and others said the committee ignored decades of strong scientific evidence supporting the birth dose.Some committee members also pushed back.“We are doing harm by changing this wording, and I vote no,” committee member Dr. Cody Meissner said.He urged the group to keep the current guidance.The acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Jim O’Neil, will make the final decision.The hepatitis B birth-dose recommendation has been around since 1991, after health experts found that vaccinating newborns helped stop the spread of the virus, especially from infected mothers to newborns.It can cause liver failure, cirrhosis and liver cancer.About 1 in 2 people with hepatitis B do not know they are infected, data shows.Supporters of delaying the vaccine argued that most newborns face very low risk at birth and that early studies may have been too small. They also said families deserve more time to make vaccination decisions.The decision comes after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed the previous 17 panel members earlier this year and replaced them with new appointees, including several individuals known for raising doubts about vaccines.Some experts say the committee is focusing more on individual views than on community protection.Dr. Peter Hotez of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development in Houston declined to speak at the meeting, saying the committee has "shifted its mission away from science and evidence-based medicine."This committee "is no longer a legitimate scientific body," Elizabeth Jacobs, an epidemiologist and member of Defend Public Health, said, calling the meeting “an epidemiological crime scene.”For now, the change is not final. The CDC must approve the vote before it becomes new guidance.More informationThe Mayo Clinic has more on hepatitis B.SOURCE: The Associated Press. Dec. 5, 2025.What This Means For YouThose expecting a baby should talk with their health care provider about the hepatitis B vaccine..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Breaking: CDC Panel Votes to No Longer Recommend Hepatitis B Shot for Newborns

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