NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) – A group of vaccine advisers to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday voted to remove the broad recommendation that all newborns in the U.S. receive a hepatitis B vaccine, in one of the most sweeping changes to vaccine policy under Kennedy’s leadership so far. Here are some reactions to the decision:
NOEL BREWER, FORMER ACIP MEMBER AND PROFESSOR IN PUBLIC HEALTH AT UNC: “ACIP continues to take away parents’ choices and make it harder to protect their children through vaccination. The vote to eliminate universal hepatitis B vaccination will increase harm to children, increasing their risk of cancer and being a lifelong carrier of a deadly pathogen.”
DR. CODY MEISSNER, COMMITTEE MEMBER AND PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS AT DARTMOUTH: “We have heard ‘do no harm’ is a moral imperative. We are doing harm by changing this wording. And I vote no.”
JOSEPH HIBBELN, COMMITTEE MEMBER AND FORMER CHIEF OF SECTION ON NUTRITIONAL NEUROSCIENCES AT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: “We have still not had any information or science presented or discussed with regard to this issue of before or after two months of age. This is unconscionable. How can we go forward when this is a specific issue that was supposed to be identified?”
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST AT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER AND FORMER ACIP MEMBER: The vote “is a sadly unfortunate thing. It’s turning back the clock to pre-1991. It will lead to confusion. None of the professional organizations have supported this change. I think you’ll see the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other major societies continue to recommend the vaccine at birth.”
“I’ve been associated with ACIP since 1982, and I cannot recall any other vote that would have put children at a higher risk for infection rather than lowering their risk. This committee seems to tolerate the idea that some children will be at higher risk now.”
DR. FLOR MUNOZ, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST AT TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL: Shared decision-making by parents and doctors “is already existing practice. There is no reason why this has to be a new policy, or that there would be a change in how physicians and parents make decisions on vaccines. All vaccines in the schedule are recommended vaccines. None is mandated.”
