ATLANTA >> Accusations that presenters were cherry-picking data and substituting speculation for science derailed a federal vaccine advisory panel vote this morning on whether to change a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B.

The committee deferred the vote to Friday because some members wanted more time to settle points of heated disagreement. The panel had postponed the vote twice before, for similar reasons.

One outside expert called today’s session “political theater.”

The committee, whose members were handpicked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is charged with shaping the nation’s vaccine policy. They were tasked with making a decision based on the hepatitis B vaccine’s effectiveness, its contribution to reducing infectio

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