New Jersey health officials reaffirmed that all newborns should receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth as a federal panel stacked by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with vaccine skeptics may reconsider the recommendation at a meeting this week, officials said on Monday, Dec. 1.

New Jersey was joined by six other states in backing the hepatitis B guidance under a coalition formed this year called the Northeast Public Health Collaborative . The group aims to develop its own vaccine policy, fearing that federal policy favoring vaccines will be eroded under Kennedy's leadership as health and human services secretary.

"We can protect against these risks by vaccinating babies during the delivery hospitalization at the very beginning of their lives," Jeff Brown, the acting state healt

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