Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s hand-picked vaccine panel on Friday postponed a vote on whether to delay the first dose of the hepatitis B shot from birth to at least one month for most babies born in the U.S.

The decision means that the committee's current recommendation – that all infants receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth – will stay in place until the group meets again at a later date. It's unclear when the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will convene again to discuss the hepatitis B shot.

ACIP was considering whether to delay the first dose of the vaccine until at least one month of age for babies of women who test negative for hepatitis B. That would change a safe and highly effective birth

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