WASHINGTON, Dec 05 (AFP): Experts appointed by the Trump administration's vaccine-skeptic health secretary reviewed on Thursday the routine practice of administering hepatitis B vaccines to newborns, considering whether to delay the shot.
The reorganized Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is convening for two days in Atlanta, Georgia, to follow up on a September meeting that resulted in new recommendations for Covid-19 and measles vaccinations.
But it had to postpone until Friday its decision on doing the same for hepatitis B shots due to confusion and resistance from some committee members who sought more time to evaluate the implications of the proposed change.
Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, ACIP is now composed largely of figures criticized by the scientific community for lack of expertise or their promotion of vaccine-skeptic theories.
It has initiated a broad review of the safety of several vaccines, some of which have been in use for decades.
The shift led by the nation's health chief-who has long voiced anti-vaccine rhetoric despite his lack of medical credentials-is causing alarm in the American medical and scientific community.
Experts have warned about dropping immunization rates and the return of deadly contagious diseases like the measles, which caused several deaths in 2025.
Since 1991, US health officials have recommended the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, as is done in countries like China and Australia and is recommended by the World Health Organization.
The viral liver disease exposes infected individuals to a high risk of death from cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Vaccination of newborns has virtually eradicated hepatitis B infections among young people in the United States.
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