US Vaccine Panel Delays Vote on Hepatitis B Shots for Newborns

An influential panel of US vaccine advisers is expected to reverse a longstanding recommendation that all babies receive hepatitis B shots within 24 hours of birth, a change public health experts say will endanger children.

The decision would be the most consequential action taken by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices since the group was recast under US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this year. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called for the hepatitis B shot for newborns for 35 years, and in that time infections in children and teens have nearly been eliminated.