Updated September 19, 2025 at 1:20 PM EDT

In a surprise move on Friday morning, a panel of vaccine advisors to the federal government backed off from a proposed change to the vaccine schedule that would have scrapped the current recommendation that all children receive the hepatitis B shot at birth.

It also reversed a vote it took yesterday on coverage for a shot known as the MMRV — measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (or varicella). Yesterday, the panel said the Vaccines for Children program could cover the combined shot if parents want it — Friday they voted that it shouldn't. The MMRV shot is no longer recommended to be given, and it will not be paid for by government insurance.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, had spent much of Thursday debating the rati

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