Kennedy’s vaccine advisory committee delays vote on hepatitis B shots for newborns

A federal vaccine advisory committee on Thursday voted to delay a decision on whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they re born The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting in Atlanta voted to delay the decision until Friday after committee members voiced confusion about voting language and certain voiced concern about taking such a step For decades the ruling body has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth The shots are widely considered to be a constituents soundness success for preventing thousands of illnesses But U S Soundness Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr s committee is considering whether to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive which would mark a return to a constituents strength strategy that was abandoned more than three decades ago For other babies it will be up to the parents and their doctors to decide if a birth dose is appropriate Committee member Vicky Pebsworth noted a work group was tasked in September with evaluating whether a birth dose is necessary when mothers tested negative for hepatitis B We need to address stakeholder and parent dissatisfaction with the current recommendation she revealed The committee makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Malady Control and Prevention on how already approved vaccines should be used CDC directors almost reliably adopted the committee s recommendations which were widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs But the agency at the moment has no director leaving acting director Jim O Neill to decide Kennedy a leading anti-vaccine activist before he became the nation s top robustness official fired the entire -member panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices The panel has made several decisions that angered major biological groups At a June meeting it recommended that a preservative called thimerosal be removed from doses of flu vaccine even though several members acknowledged there was no proof it was causing harm In September it recommended new restrictions on a combination shot that protects against chickenpox measles mumps and rubella The panel also took the unprecedented step of not recommending COVID- vaccinations even for high-risk populations such as seniors and instead making it a matter of personal choice Several doctors groups declared the changes were not based on good evidence and advised doctors and patients to follow guidance that was previously in place They renewed several of that criticism Dr Jason M Goldman president of the American College of Physicians commented during the meeting calling it political theater and adding that you are basing this on concerns of individuals who don t want the vaccine Chosen committee members argued that safety studies in the past were limited and it s doable that larger additional studies could uncover a obstacle with the birth dose But two other committee members Dr Joseph Hibbeln and Dr Cody Meissner saw no documented evidence of harm from the birth doses and wondered whether the concern behind the discussion is just as Hibbeln stated speculation Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection that for most of people lasts less than six months But for chosen especially infants and children it can become a long-lasting concern that can lead to liver failure liver cancer and scarring called cirrhosis In adults the virus is spread through sex or through sharing needles during injection drug use But it can also be passed from an infected mother to a baby As various as of infants who contract hepatitis B go on to have chronic infections meaning their immune systems don t comprehensively clear the virus In the committee recommended an initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine at birth Over about years cases among children fell from about per year to about But members of Kennedy s committee have voiced discomfort with vaccinating all newborns Cynthia Nevison an autism and environmental researcher presented at the meeting Nevison has written opinion pieces published by Children s Robustness Defense an anti-vaccine advocacy organization Kennedy previously led She also co-authored a article in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders that the publication retracted after concerns were raised about the paper s methodology and about nondisclosed ties between the authors and anti-vaccine groups Another presenter was Mark Blaxill a co-author of the retracted paper who spoke about vaccine safety In the past committee meetings have relied on presentations by the CDC scientists involved in tracking vaccine-preventable diseases and assessing vaccine safety The agenda for this meeting listed no CDC scientists but rather featured a prolonged population airing of anti-vaccine theories that preponderance scientists have deemed as discredited Kennedy is a lawyer by training Aaron Siri a lawyer who worked with Kennedy on vaccine litigation is listed as a presenter on Friday on the topic of the immunization schedule for U S children U S Sen Bill Cassidy a Louisiana Republican who is a medical expert on Thursday posted on social media The ACIP is totally discredited They are not protecting children The current guidance advises a dose within hours of birth for all medically stable infants who weigh at least pounds kilograms plus follow-up shots to be given at about month and months The committee is expected to vote on language that says when a family decides not to get a birth dose then the vaccination series should begin when the child is months old