RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel to vote on changing hepatitis B shot recommendation for babies

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked vaccine committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to change a longstanding recommendation that every baby get vaccinated against hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth. 

It’s unclear if the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will significantly delay or eliminate that so-called birth dose of the shot entirely. The group tabled a vote on the vaccine in September because some members called for a more robust discussion first.

But either change could have wide-ranging consequences: Some public health experts say that having fewer newborns vaccinated against the virus could risk an increase in chronic infections among children. 

Hepatitis B, which can be passed from mother to baby during childbirth, can lead to liver disease and early death. There is no cure. 

“We have a vaccine that is highly effective at preventing an incurable disease. We should take full advantage of that,” Neil Maniar, a public health professor at Northeastern University, told CNBC. 

The birth dose recommendation was introduced in 1991 and is credited with driving down infections in kids by 99% since then. Maniar called that a “remarkable success story that we run the risk of reversing” if the committee changes the recommendation. 

Decisions by the panel are not legally binding, as it is up to states to mandate immunizations. But ACIP’s recommendations have significant implications for whether private insurance plans and government assistance programs cover the vaccines at no cost for eligible children. 

The panel’s upcoming two-day meeting in Atlanta comes after Kennedy earlier this year gutted the committee and appointed 12 new members, including some well-known vaccine critics. During the meeting in September, some advisors raised questions about whether the benefits of the shot outweigh potential safety risks. 

But the jab is “an incredibly safe vaccine with minimal risks,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, said during a media briefing Tuesday. 

“I never once saw a fever actually associated with hepatitis B vaccine,” said O’Leary, who practiced for eight years as a general pediatrician and worked in a newborn nursery. 

The AAP, which publishes its own vaccine schedule, still recommends the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine because “it saves lives,” he added.

A new review, published Tuesday, of more than 400 studies spanning four decades also found no evidence that delaying the universal hepatitis B vaccine birth dose improves safety or effectiveness. The review also found that the birth dose does not cause any short- or long-term serious adverse events or deaths.

A 2024 CDC study showed that the current vaccination schedule has helped prevent more than 6 million hepatitis B infections and nearly 1 million hepatitis B-related hospitalizations.

Merck and GSK manufacture the hepatitis B vaccines used starting at birth. Neither of the shots are significant revenue drivers for the companies. 

Still, Merck during the panel’s September meeting pushed back on changing the recommendation. 

“The reconsideration of the newborn Hepatitis B vaccination on the established schedule poses a grave risk to the health of children and to the public, which could lead to a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases,” Dr. Richard Haupt, Merck’s head of global medical and scientific affairs for vaccines and infectious diseases, said at the time.