A federal vaccine advisory committee voted Friday to stop recommending that all U.S. newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, ending a three-decade policy that public health experts credit with slashing childhood infections by 99%.
In an 8-2 vote, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said the birth dose should now be a shared decision between parents and doctors for infants born to mothers who tested negative for the virus. The panel also voted to suggest the three-dose series begin at 2 months for those families who decline the hospital shot.
The decision, which still needs approval from acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill, drew immediate condemnation from pediatricians and infectious-disease specialists who warned it would leave babies vulnerable to a virus that becomes chronic in 90% of infected infants and can cause liver cancer or death.
“We’ve heard ‘do no harm’ as a moral imperative. We are doing harm by changing this wording,” said committee member Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatric infectious-disease expert who voted against the change, according to CBS News.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), a physician who chairs the Senate health committee, called the vote “a mistake” and urged O’Neill to reject it.
“Before the birth dose was recommended, 20,000 newborns a year were infected with hepatitis B. Now, it’s fewer than 20,” Cassidy posted on social media. “Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again. This makes America sicker.”
As a liver doctor who has treated patients with hepatitis B for decades, this change to the vaccine schedule is a mistake. The hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective. The birth dose is a recommendation, NOT a mandate.
Before the birth dose was recommended, 20,000 newborns a…
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) December 5, 2025
The committee — whose current members were appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — also passed a separate 6-4 proposal, with one abstention, encouraging parents to discuss post-vaccination antibody testing with doctors to see if fewer than three doses might suffice.
Critics called the two-day meeting chaotic, citing last-minute wording changes and presentations that questioned decades of safety data.
Committee member Dr. Joseph Hibbeln said “no rational science has been presented” to justify the shift, while Dr. Jason Goldman of the American College of Physicians labeled the proceedings “completely inappropriate,” CBS reported.
The hepatitis B vaccine has been universally recommended at birth since 1991 to protect against mother-to-child transmission and serve as a safety net when prenatal screening is missed or results are miscommunicated.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups opposed any change, emphasizing the shot’s proven safety record and the absence of evidence that delaying it improves outcomes.
O’Neill said in a statement that the public “benefited from the committee’s well-informed, rigorous discussion about the appropriateness of a vaccination in the first few hours of life.”
