What we're covering
• Today’s meeting: Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted today to abandon universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns, instead recommending individual decision-making in consultation with a health care provider for mothers who test negative for the virus.
• Criticism of move: The American Academy of Pediatrics said it continues to recommend routine hepatitis B vaccination for all newborns, and many experts expressed dismay at today’s decision.
• About the panel: The members of the committee were handpicked by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, after he abruptly fired the 17 sitting members this year.
Kennedy's office wanted ACIP meeting produced like "C-Span-type atmosphere," source says
This week was the first time an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting was broadcast from a television studio on the campus of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Normally, the meeting is held in a conference room on campus, with committee members facing each other. This time, they faced a bank of cameras as they made presentations and took questions, a move intended to make the meeting more attention-grabbing.
The change in venue was directed by the Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s press office.
CDC staffers were told that the secretary’s office wanted a “C-Span-type atmosphere” and production level, according to a source familiar with the planning who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to share information with a reporter.
Former CDC official: "Don't listen to ACIP at all"
The CDC advisory committee’s shifting approach to vaccinating babies against hepatitis B won’t necessarily limit access or coverage, according to a former CDC official, but the confusion it creates could have serious consequences.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis said the wording of ACIP’s recommendations will signal to providers that there’s something risky about the vaccine even it has been shown to be “exquisitely low risk” over decades of testing and widespread use.
“What this really means is that the providers are going to be confused and the patients are going to be confused, and very often, what confusion means is the wrong medical decision,” Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told CNN.
“So my advice is, don’t listen to ACIP at all.”
Providers should instead listen to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and other groups “actually giving good advice,” said Daskalakis, who resigned this year after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez.
“Unfortunately, this just creates more chaos, and that’s really been the theme of this new advisory committee. It’s chaotic, and it creates a lot of distrust in vaccines, with no scientific basis,” Daskalakis said. “Nothing has changed about the hepatitis vaccine that we’ve been using now for decades to drive down cases of hepatitis B in newborns.”
ACIP member suggests, against evidence, that "profound autism" may be linked to vaccination
Committee member Dr. Evelyn Griffin suggested Friday that “profound autism” may be linked to vaccination, despite an abundance of evidence that there is no connection.
“Often, there will be an autistic child, and it is unclear whether this is related to a vaccination or not,” Griffin said.
But scientific groups say it is abundantly clear that there is no link between autism and vaccines.
“The science is clear that vaccines do not cause autism,” the Autism Science Foundation says. “No environmental factor has been better studied as a potential cause of autism than vaccines. This includes vaccine ingredients as well as the body’s response to vaccines. All this research has determined that there is no link between autism and vaccines.”
In November, Kennedy’s CDC updated its autism and vaccines website to say, “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim,” which public health experts, local public health departments and other medical groups vigorously disputed.
Griffin brought up autism in Friday’s ACIP meeting after suggesting that “children and people that succumb to pathogens” are “allowed to be talked about,” but “what has not been allowed to be talked about is injuries to vaccinations, and that’s why it tended to have dominated conversation here.”
In response, fellow adviser Dr. Cody Meissner cited British doctor Andrew Wakefield, whose suggestion in 1998 that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine may be linked to autism caused panic but was subsequently discredited.
“One of the great tragedies of Andrew Wakefield’s false and incorrect association of the measles vaccines and autism … was that time was taken away from looking for real, possible causes of autism,” Meissner said. “Money was spent in trials that obviously have demonstrated there’s no association between vaccines and the development of autism that can be found.”
Meissner cautioned that it would be a bad use of the committee’s time to continue focusing on the issue.
Advisers' hepatitis B decision "reckless," AMA official says, urging CDC to reject it
Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, a trustee of the American Medical Association and liaison to the CDC’s vaccine committee, issued a statement about the CDC vaccine advisers’ hepatitis B vote on Friday:
“The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice’s (ACIP) vote to weaken the birth-dose recommendation for the Hepatitis B vaccine is reckless and undermines decades of public confidence in a proven, lifesaving vaccine. Today’s action is not based on scientific evidence, disregards data supporting the effectiveness of the Hepatitis B vaccine, and creates confusion for parents about how best to protect their newborns.
“Administering the birth dose is crucial for protecting children from both perinatal and early postnatal transmission of Hepatitis B virus – and preventing a lifelong condition that can lead to chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death.
“The AMA calls on ACIP to make good on the Administration’s promise to use gold standard science. Families should be able to rely on the CDC for clear, evidence-based guidance when making important vaccination decisions for their children. We urge the CDC to reject this recommendation and uphold its commitment to science and public health. The consequences of failing to do so are too severe and the potential harm too great.”
What are aluminum adjuvants in vaccines?
After multiple schedule changes, ACIP member Dr. Evelyn Griffin is expected to present on vaccines and aluminum adjuvants at today’s meeting.
Vaccines sometimes include adjuvants, or ingredients that help them work better when they use antigens instead of live virus. Aluminum-containing adjuvants have been used in the US for nearly a century, and the CDC says they help build stronger immunity against the germ the vaccine is targeting. This can also help ensure that fewer doses and lower quantities of vaccine are needed to be effective.
Aluminum salts — such as those in vaccines — are found naturally in soil, water and some foods.
Experts estimate that people ingest about 7 to 9 milligrams of aluminum every day, equivalent in size to a few grains of sand. Most of the vaccines that include aluminum adjuvants — such as the DTaP, Hib, hepatitis A and B, HPV, pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines — contain less than 0.5 mg of aluminum per dose.
Broad scientific evidence shows that using aluminum-containing adjuvants in vaccines is safe, despite concerns about links to allergies, autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions.
In 2022, a study suggested that there may be a link between exposure to aluminum in vaccines and later development of eczema and persistent asthma. The CDC said it will not change vaccine recommendations based on a single study but suggested that further investigation may be needed. In July, a large study in Denmark addressed many of the limitations from the 2022 study and found no association between aluminum adjuvants and asthma, eczema, autoimmune diseases and many other diseases.
The use of aluminum-containing adjuvants may cause more local responses to vaccination, such as redness and swelling around the injection site, but “studies show that aluminum released from intramuscular vaccines is slowly absorbed and efficiently cleared by the kidneys, contributing minimally to systemic levels,” according to a peer-reviewed article in the journal Pediatrics.
“Collectively, the evidence strongly supports the safety of aluminum adjuvants and their necessity in certain vaccines,” the researchers wrote.
Aluminum is back on the ACIP agenda
As the agenda for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices shifted over its two days, two presentations related to aluminum in vaccines were removed from the schedule. As of this afternoon, one is back, according to HHS: ACIP member Dr. Evelyn Griffin will present on vaccines and aluminum adjuvants.
Another presentation, from former ACIP Chair Dr. Martin Kulldorff about aluminum exposure and asthma, was not added back.
For decades, aluminum has been used as a vaccine adjuvant: an ingredient added to created a stronger immune response. It’s used in several childhood vaccines because they allow doctors to give fewer doses of a vaccine and a smaller amount of the vaccine is needed to protect the child.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has argued that aluminum in vaccines is linked to allergies and other health conditions. Kennedy handpicked the members of the current CDC vaccine committee after firing 17 sitting members in June.
The meeting is now scheduled to adjourn at 4 p.m. ET.
"Terrible distortion of all the facts," CDC adviser says of attorney's presentation
Committee member Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth, said a presentation by attorney Aaron Siri was “a terrible, terrible distortion of all the facts.”
“First of all, you began with slides that showed the increase in the number of vaccines that are been administered. What was your point?”
Meissner said the growth in the vaccine schedule is a reflection of scientific accomplishment, not a detriment to health.
“That’s why we have the lowest rates of infectious disease in the United States, because we have the highest uptake of vaccines,” Meissner said. “And if vaccine uptake goes down, we’re going to see an increase of these diseases, such as with hepatitis B, which I think is going to happen now.”
He added that just because someone had a health problem around the time they got a vaccine doesn’t mean the two are related, but Siri seemed to conflate association with causation, “which isn’t fair.”
“You’re very smooth. You know how to present the facts that are favorable to you or to your client. That’s your responsibility,” he added. “But for you to come here and make these absolutely outrageous statements about safety, I think it’s a big disappointment to me, and I don’t think you should have been invited.”
Siri said the United States doesn’t do a good job acknowledging and helping people who’ve been harmed by vaccines.
“I totally understand that an infectious disease doctor every day is confronted by folks who are harmed by infectious disease. So I understand that they are more oriented towards that,” Siri told Meissner. “And obviously for me, I every day have encountered folks who are injured by these products. And so obviously I’m more oriented to that. I accept that bias, by the way.”
Siri added that vaccine-injured patients deserve to be recognized. “Until they are recognized, treated well, accepted by medical community, don’t have nasty notes put in their files … That’s just going to continue to grow vaccine hesitancy in this precious program … that you’re worried about. It’s going to be its own undoing.”
Anti-vaccine attorney Aaron Siri now presenting to ACIP
In a highly unusual move, Aaron Siri, a managing partner at Siri & Glimstad, is now presenting about the childhood vaccination schedule to the CDC committee.
Siri’s firm focuses on suing federal agencies and states over vaccine policies. They also represent patients who believe they’ve been injured by vaccines before the federal government’s vaccine injury compensation program.
He is a close friend of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and worked on his presidential campaign.
Siri was slated to present at an earlier ACIP meeting, but was pulled from the agenda after a senior agency official voiced concerns that his presentation might not be appropriate since he was suing the agency.
The agency official declined to be named over fears of retaliation for sharing this information with a reporter.
In a post Thursday on social media, US Senator Bill Cassidy, who is a doctor and chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said it was inappropriate for Siri to present to the committee.
“Aaron Siri is a trial attorney who makes his living suing vaccine manufacturers. He is presenting as if an expert on childhood vaccines. The ACIP is totally discredited. They are not protecting children,” Cassidy wrote.
In a response, Siri disputed Cassidy’s claim that he “makes his living suing vaccine manufacturers,” saying that he “cannot virtually ever sue vaccine companies for vaccine deaths and harms because of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986.”
Cassidy says CDC acting director shouldn't sign off on new vaccine recommendations
Senator Bill Cassidy said the acting CDC director should not sign off on a new hepatitis B vaccine recommendation from the agency’s vaccine advisers.
“As a liver doctor who has treated patients with hepatitis B for decades, this change to the vaccine schedule is a mistake,” Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, posted on the social media platform X.
“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 year were infected with hepatitis B. Now, it’s fewer than 20,” noted Cassidy.
“Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again. This makes America sicker. Acting CDC Director O’Neill should not sign these new recommendations and instead retain the current, evidence-based approach.”
Cassidy cast the deciding vote that allowed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has talked about the harms of vaccines for decades, to become secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. As secretary, he fired members of the CDC committee and replaced them with his own picks.
The CDC makes the final decision on vaccine recommendations, but typically aligns with its advisory panel’s vote. O’Neill is serving as CDC’s acting director since Director Dr. Susan Monarez was ousted from the role.
Local health departments brace for impacts of ACIP vote to end universal hepatitis B vaccinations at birth
Local health departments across the United States are bracing for the potential public health impact of abandoning universal hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns.
Friday’s ACIP vote will impact health departments and the communities they serve, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer for the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
“This is a preventative vaccination that we’re talking about,” Freeman said.
More than 6 million hepatitis B illnesses were prevented by routine childhood immunizations between 1994, when the CDC’s Vaccines for Children Program launched, and 2023, according to a CDC study published last year.
There is also growing concern that the ACIP vote possibly may impact access to vaccines for families who want to vaccinate their children.
“We know that up to two-thirds of pediatric hepatitis B cases happen in cases where a mom initially tested negatively and then the virus was later transmitted through the household or the community,” Freeman said.
“There are cases of hepatitis out there, and we have to keep up the testing and vaccinations, because it can sit silently in a family, in a community, and it can do a lot of damage later on to people. Hepatitis carries with it significant contribution to severe disease, morbidity and mortality — liver diseases, liver cancer, transplants, death.”
Resolution to align recommendations with the Vaccines for Children program is approved
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has voted to recommend individual decision-making, also called shared clinical decision-making, for parents who want to vaccinate newborns against the hepatitis B virus and who get free vaccines through the Vaccines for Children Program.
They also recommended that if parents served by the VFC program delay a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, they should wait until at least 2 months of age for the baby’s first dose.
The Vaccines for Children program, or VFC, provides free vaccines to families who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them.
The adoption of the VFC resolution also means that these families will be recommended to consider giving kids a blood test to check to see if they’ve developed antibodies to the vaccine before proceeding with additional doses.
Eight members of the committee voted to adopt the resolution, while three members abstained, citing confusion about what they were voting on or the impact it could have.
The members voting yes were Dr. Hillary Blackburn, Dr. Evelyn Griffin, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Vicky Pebsworth, Dr. Retsef Levi, Dr. Catherine Stein, Dr. Raymond Pollak and Dr. Kirk Milhoan. The members abstaining were Dr. James Pagano, Dr. Cody Meissner and Dr. Joseph Hibbeln.
"Babies deserve protection": Vaccine advocates respond to ACIP vote to delay hepatitis B vaccination
“Instead of protecting babies, this ACIP vote will lead to preventable hepatitis B infections and future cases of liver cancer,” said Fatima Khan, co-founder of the non-profit parents group Protect Their Future.
“The hepatitis B birth dose is one of the safest, most effective vaccines ever introduced, with decades of data showing it prevents lifelong infection, liver cancer, and early death. There is no scientific basis for delaying it,” Khan said in a statement to CNN.
“This move is driven by politics and ideology, not public health. Babies deserve protection rooted in evidence, not the shifting priorities of political appointees,” Khan said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said it continues to recommend routine hepatitis B vaccination for all newborns.
“This irresponsible and purposely misleading guidance will lead to more hepatitis B infections in infants and children,” said American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Susan J. Kressly. “I want to reassure parents and clinicians that there is no new or concerning information about the hepatitis B vaccine that is prompting this change, nor has children’s risk of contracting hepatitis B changed. Instead, this is the result of a deliberate strategy to sow fear and distrust among families.”
Dr. Jason Goldman, the ACIP liaison from the American College of Physicians, told CNN, “In my opinion, Secretary Kennedy’s vaccine committee is political theater without any concern for true scientific inquiry or evidence review. Their decisions are dangerous and will cause generational harm to our public health system and trust in vaccines.”
Vaccine advisers: Consider testing for immunity after first hepatitis B vaccine before next doses
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices appointed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has voted in favor of recommending that parents and health care providers consider blood tests for children to assess their immunity to hepatitis B before determining the need for additional vaccine doses.
Six committee members voted yes, four voted no and one abstained. Committee members Dr. Retsef Levi, Dr. Vicky Pebsworth, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. James Pagano, Dr. Evelyn Griffin and Dr. Kirk Milhoan voted yes. Dr. Cody Meissner, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, Dr. Raymond Pollak and Dr. Hillary Blackburn voted no. Dr. Catherine Stein abstained.
The language of the second vote was:
When evaluating the need for a subsequent HBV vaccine dose in children, parents should consult with health care providers to determine if a post-vaccination anti-HBs serology testing should be offered. Serology results should determine whether the established protective anti- HBs titer threshold of ≥10 mIU/mL has been achieved. The cost of this testing should be covered by insurance. Y/N
ACIP member: “We are doing harm” with hepatitis B vote
Dr. Cody Meissner, among the three vaccine advisory committee members who voted against removing the universal hepatitis B newborn dose recommendation Friday, told his fellow panelists that “we are doing harm by changing this wording.”
He was joined in his “no” vote by Dr. Raymond Pollak and Dr.
Joseph Hibbeln, the latter echoing Meissner’s language in his own comments.
“This has a great potential to cause harm, and I simply hope that the committee will accept its responsibility when this harm is caused,” Hibbeln said.
ACIP votes to abandon universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices appointed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has voted to abandon universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns.
According to the CDC, the United States is the only country that has ever moved from giving all babies a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth to delaying the shot.
Eight members voted yes, three voted no for the first vote. Committee members Dr. Catherine Stein, Dr. Retsef Levi, Dr. Vicky Pebsworth, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Hillary Blackburn, Dr. James Pagano, Dr. Evelyn Griffin and Dr. Kirk Milhoan voted yes. Dr. Cody Meissner, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln and Dr. Raymond Pollak voted no.
The voting language was:
For infants born to HBsAg-negative women: ACIP recommends individual-based decision-making, in consultation with a health care provider, for parents deciding when or if to give the HBV vaccine, including the birth dose. (1) Parents and health care providers should consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risks, and infection risks. For those not receiving the HBV birth dose, it is suggested that the initial dose is administered no earlier than 2 months of age. Y/N
(1) Parents and health care providers should also consider whether there are risks, for example, such as a household member is HBsAg-positive or when there is frequent contact with persons who have emigrated from areas where Hepatitis B is common.
The language calls for individual-based decision-making, also known as shared clinical decision-making, which generally means consultation with a doctor or other health care provider and possibly a prescription before vaccination. This requirement can make it more complicated for patients to get vaccines.
The second part of the vote means that for those not receiving a dose at birth, there would be a delay for two months or longer, leaving newborns and children vulnerable to hepatitis B infection.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes the final recommendation, but typically aligns with the advisory panel’s vote. Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Jim O’Neill is serving as acting CDC director since Director Dr. Susan Monarez was ousted from the role.
CDC hepatitis expert: US, Denmark are not “peer nations” when it comes to health
Friday’s meeting of the CDC’s outside vaccine advisers includes a scheduled presentation comparing the US vaccination schedule to that of Denmark.
It’s set to be delivered by the US Food and Drug Administration’s Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, who said of a planned vote to remove a universal newborn dose recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine: “I think this is a very positive … vote, one that brings us in line with peer nations to not recommend giving the hepatitis B vaccine routinely at birth.”
Dr. Adam Langer, the CDC’s hepatitis B expert, who’s worked for the public health agency for almost 20 years, took issue with the comparison Friday morning.
“The United States is a unique country,” Langer began. Of Denmark, he pointed out, “the entire country has 6 million people. The population of New York City alone is 8 million people.”
Other differences cited by Langer:
• More than 95% of pregnant women in Denmark are screened for hepatitis B, “far higher than the number in the United States.”
• Prenatal care in Denmark is free “for both citizens and refugee or asylum seekers in Denmark. We all know this is not the case in the United States.”
• Denmark has a national health registry that compiles health information at the individual level; “the US does not have that, and I imagine that our privacy culture would not permit us to ever have something like that.”
• In Denmark, pregnant women who test positive for hepatitis B virus are followed up with, along with all infants, to ensure they’re vaccinated and tested for the virus, whereas in the US, “many of these infants are lost to follow-up as soon as they leave the hospital.”
“Denmark and, for that matter, virtually all other high-income countries are not really peer nations,” Langer concluded.
The best comparison, he said, might be Canada, where right now recommendations for hepatitis B vaccination are developed at the local level. But, Langer said, “recent studies in Canada have shown that a universal hepatitis B birth dose is going to be needed to achieve elimination” of the virus in Canada, “which is exactly what we learned here in the United States decades ago.”
“Let’s talk about apples to apples, not apples to oranges,” Langer said.
Hoeg responded that the level of risk for babies isn’t different because of differences in health-care systems.
“Fourth iteration of votes in 96 hours:” Disputes among ACIP members continue over hepatitis B vote
After two delays of a potentially seismic vote to remove the universal recommendation for a newborn dose of the lifesaving hepatitis B vaccine, debate continued among CDC vaccine advisory committee members Friday morning over what to vote on.
“I consider that this fourth iteration of votes in 96 hours is still incredibly problematic,” said ACIP member Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, who’d protested the voting language chaos Thursday as well.
The committee delayed Thursday’s scheduled vote on the vaccine to Friday morning, after another delay from its September meeting.
The extra time didn’t appear to settle internal disputes, with ACIP member Dr. Cody Meissner saying the second vote “is kind of making things up,” referring to a proposed recommendation that
babies have their blood tested to assess their immunity before determining the need for additional vaccine doses.
The current voting language says:
There will be no change to the vaccination recommendation for infants born to women who test HBsAg-positive or have an unknown HBsAg status – existing recommendation remains the same.
VOTE 1 For infants born to HBsAg-negative women: ACIP recommends individual-based decision- making, in consultation with a health care provider, for parents deciding when or if to give the HBV vaccine, including the birth dose. (1) Parents and health care providers should consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risks, and infection risks. For those not receiving the HBV birth dose, it is suggested that the initial dose is administered no earlier than 2 months of age. Y/N
VOTE 2 When evaluating the need for a subsequent HBV vaccine dose in children, parents should consult with health care providers to determine if a post-vaccination anti-HBs serology testing should be offered. Serology results should determine whether the established protective anti- HBs titer threshold of ≥10 mIU/mL has been achieved. The cost of this testing should be covered by insurance. Y/N
(1) Parents and health care providers should also consider whether there are risks, for example, such as a household member is HBsAg-positive or when there is frequent contact with persons who have emigrated from areas where Hepatitis B is common.
"This is unconscionable": Some vaccine advisers say they're being asked to vote on recommendations without evidence or debate
During discussions before the vote, CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices member Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist, objected to a proposed recommendation that babies who don’t get a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth should start the series “no earlier” than 2 months of age.
“This specific point is the reason why we tabled this issue for three months to more fully discuss it,” Hibbeln said.
“However, we have still not had any information or science presented or discussed with regards to this issue of before or after two months of age. This is unconscionable,” he added.
Hibbeln and Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrician at Dartmouth, also objected to the idea that babies should get a blood test after the first dose of the vaccine, before more shots in the series are given.
“This has not been debated. No information was presented on this issue. And you know the full series of doses is required to achieve 95% efficacy, so in addition to this not being discussed, there has been no data presented that this plan would actually work,” Hibbeln added.
“What is the advantage of giving a dose starting at two months? Rather than at one month? We’ll lose at least some of the protective effect. And I don’t think there’s any reduction in risk,” Meissner said. “So it simply would be hard for me to accept.
“Vote two is kind of making things up,” said Meissner, referring to the recommendation that children get a blood test before they get more doses of the hepatitis B vaccine. “I mean, it’s like never-never land.”
Vaccine experts Offit, Hotez declined invitations to ACIP, say committee is now "a font of misinformation”
Kicking off Friday’s meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Vice Chair Dr. Robert Malone said the group had invited vaccine experts Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. Peter Hotez to “present and discuss their perspectives” on the childhood immunization schedule, and that they’d declined.
Aaron Siri, an attorney with close ties to US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is scheduled to make a presentation on the vaccine schedule Friday morning.
Offit, a vaccine scientist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and previous ACIP member, told CNN he’d declined because he “didn’t see the point of presenting to a group that is a parody of a public health agency.
“They have already made up their mind that vaccines were unnecessarily dangerous,” Offit said. “They’re a font of misinformation.”
Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said that he declined “because ACIP appears to have shifted its mission away from science and evidence-based medicine.”
“I’m always happy to discuss the science of vaccines with individuals or groups who are committed to truth and genuine intellectual inquiry,” he said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has also declined to participate in ACIP meetings this year after Kennedy dismissed the entire panel in June and reconstituted it with ideological allies. “It is no longer a credible process,” the academy said in June.
Dr. Cody Meissner, the ACIP member most respected among outside public health experts for his vaccine expertise – and who frequently finds himself at odds with other current ACIP members – criticized the AAP Friday morning for declining to participate.
“My concern is that by not participating, the academy will be seen as more focused on making a political statement, rather than focusing on the health of children,” Meissner said.
“Along with other advances in public health, such as clean drinking water and pasteurization, immunizations are one of the most important medical interventions available,” Meissner went on. “Vaccines are a standard of care, and pediatricians should be part of these discussions.”
Dr. James Campbell, vice chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, told CNN Friday the academy “did not protest the meeting, and we never have. As ACIP continues its work this week, it is essential that deliberations are firmly grounded in rigorous, independent, evidence-based science. The committee’s role in safeguarding public health depends on transparent review processes and policy decisions that reflect high-quality data and established scientific consensus. Recent discussions have increasingly reflected departures from that standard. When evidence and science returns to the process, so will the AAP.”
What to know about hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by a virus.
After an acute hepatitis B infection, many adults clear the virus. But acute infection can lead to chronic hepatitis B, which is linked to increased risk of liver cancer, organ failure and cirrhosis, or scarring over the liver. People with chronic hepatitis B are 70% to 85% more likely to die early.
Infants and children who are infected with hepatitis B are more likely to develop chronic disease, including about 90% of infants and 30% of children ages 1 to 5.
How is hepatitis B spread?
The hepatitis B virus is extremely infectious. It is transmitted when blood, semen or another body fluid from a person infected with the virus enters the body of someone who’s not infected.
Certain medical conditions, behaviors and other factors increase the risk of acquiring hepatitis B — including injecting drugs and sexual activity — but anyone can get it. The virus can also be passed easily from mother to child during either a vaginal delivery or a C-section.
How common is hepatitis B?
Many people with hepatitis B do not have symptoms, and more than half may not be aware of their infection.
The latest data from the CDC shows that there were about 2,200 newly reported cases of acute hepatitis B in 2023, but estimates suggest that the actual number of cases was more than six times higher: closer to 14,400.
The CDC also estimates that about 640,000 adults in the US have chronic hepatitis B.
Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that 254 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B infection, with about 1.2 million new infections each year.
Can hepatitis B be treated?
There is no treatment for acute hepatitis B, but there are some medications that can be used to treat chronic cases. Treatment for chronic hepatitis B can be lifelong, and there is no cure.
How can hepatitis B be prevented?
The best way to prevent hepatitis B infection is vaccination.
Most people who have hepatitis B were infected as infants or young children when their immune systems were not fully developed. Currently, it is recommended that all infants get vaccinated shortly after birth.
