New Jersey health officials will continue to recommend universal vaccination of newborns for hepatitis B after a key panel in Washington voted on Friday, Dec. 5 to change its long-held position under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic.

In an executive directive issued hours after the vote, New Jersey Acting Health Commissioner Jeff Brown reiterated that all newborns should receive the vaccine within 24 hours of birth.

The directive is a direct challenge to RFK Jr.'s influential vaccine advisory panel, which on Friday recommended "individual-based decision making" for parents of babies born to mothers who test negative for hepatitis B .

For parents who decline the birth dose, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practi

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