Hepatitis B

vote delayed

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal vaccine advisory committee voted to delay a vote on whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born. For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth.

The shots are widely considered to be a public health success for preventing thousands of illnesses. But the committee formed by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist before he became the nation’s top health official, is considering whether to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive, which would mark a return to a public health strategy that was abandoned more than three decades ago.

The committee plans to vote today.

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