Day 2 - ACIP ends universal Hep B birth dose after two days of fierce debate

As headlines warned of catastrophe, ACIP broke with 30 years of vaccine policy and decided low-risk newborns don’t need a hepatitis B shot at birth.

They did it.

In a move that breaks with three decades of U.S. vaccine policy, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP) has voted to end the universal recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B shot at birth.

After much consternation over the evidence and arguments over voting language, the committee voted 8–3 that infants born to mothers who test negative for hepatitis B should receive their first dose no earlier than two months of age, based on individual decision-making between families and their doctor.

For infants whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B, or whose hepatitis B status is unknown, the birth-dose recommendation remains in place.

Three ACIP members — Dr Raymond Pollack, Dr Cody Meissner and Dr Joseph R. Hibbeln — opposed the change, arguing during the meeting that the new approach would increase the risk to children.

Day 2 opened with the routine roll call and conflict-of-interest disclosures. Vice chair Dr Robert Malone again presided, with the newly appointed chair, Dr Kirk Milhoan, dialling in from a hotel room in Hong Kong.