Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s hand-picked vaccine committee voted on Friday to do away with the long-standing, universal recommendation that all babies receive a hepatitis B shot at birth, issuing weaker guidance for certain infants.

The group, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, recommended that parents use individual decision-making in consultation with a health-care provider to determine when or if to give the hepatitis B birth dose to a baby whose mother tested negative for the virus. For babies who don't receive the birth dose, the committee recommended that they wait to receive a first vaccine until they are at least 2 months old.

The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has to sign off

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