"Friday's 8-3 vote is a milestone for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who quickly began reshaping the public health agency to reflect his personal views on vaccines after being sworn in early this year. Kennedy has long been a prominent voice among anti-vaccine activists, a position that sparked broad concern that the CDC might break with scientific consensus around vaccines under his guidance."
"In a press release following Friday's vote, the CDC defended its decision to support "individual-based decision-making" which would encourage parents and their doctors to opt into childhood vaccines based on the risk of infection. The committee will now only recommend the vaccine at birth for newborns born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B. "The American people have benefited from the committee's well-informed, rigorous discussion about the appropriateness of a vaccination in the first few hours of life," CDC Acting Director Jim O'Neill said."
An advisory committee at the CDC voted 8-3 to overturn the long-standing universal recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, replacing it with an individual-based decision model. If approved by the acting CDC director, the agency will limit routine birth-dose administration to infants whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B. The hepatitis B shot, standard for newborns since 1991, protects against the leading cause of liver cancer. The vote follows leadership changes at Health and Human Services and the CDC, raising concerns about a shift toward vaccine skepticism within federal public health policy. The acting director characterized the committee discussion as well-informed and rigorous.
Read at Fast Company
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