Since 1991, there has existed a recommendation requiring all newborns to receive a vaccine against Hepatitis B at birth. However, an advisory panel on vaccines voted on Friday to end this recommendation and instead recommended that only babies whose mothers have had a positive test for hepatitis B should receive the shot at birth.
The panel in question, ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices), advises the CDC on vaccination policy in the U.S. During their recent meeting, the panel voted 8-3 in favor of letting individuals decide whether to have their newborns receive the vaccine or not. This only applies to mothers that haven’t tested positive for the virus at the time of delivery.
It should be noted that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health Secretary, is skeptical of vaccines and fired the entire ACIP back in June. He then appointed individuals who hold a critical view of vaccines to this panel. It is this reconstituted panel that changed the existing hepatitis B vaccine recommendation on Friday.
For the time that the prior recommendation has been in place, data suggests that approximately 90,000 fatalities have been prevented through the hepatitis B vaccination program.
Under the new recommendation, newborns who don’t get the hepatitis B shot at birth will receive it at two months or beyond. This particular stipulation was vehemently opposed by some panel members as they felt it would create leeway for many mothers to opt out altogether because room would be created to doubt the safety of the vaccine.
Doctor Cody Meissner, who voted against the recommendation, said the vaccine recommendation had an established history and its efficacy is well documented, so there was no scientific reason to change it.
Another panel member, Doctor Joseph Hibbeln, seemed to agree with Dr. Meissner that there was baseless skepticism against vaccines and called the choices to be voted on “incredibly problematic.”
However, some members, such as Retsef Levi, thought that the existing recommendations were “not aligned” with those of other countries across the world. This is despite the fact that the World Health Organization recommends that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, at 4 weeks and at 6 months of age.
In a memo, President Trump lauded the panel’s vote as “very good” and ordered health officials to review all the country’s vaccine recommendations and tweak the schedule of the U.S. in cases where other comparable countries had superior recommendations.
Companies like Soligenix Inc. (NASDAQ: SNGX) that also have vaccine R&D programs underway will be watching how the decision on hepatitis B vaccination impacts other vaccination programs.
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