OREGON, USA — The West Coast Health Alliance strongly recommended that all newborns continue to be vaccinated against hepatitis B after a federal vaccine advisory committee, led by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voted Friday to end the longstanding recommendation .

Over a span of about 30 years, hepatitis B cases among children fell from about 18,000 per year to about 2,200, according to the Associated Press. Vaccinating newborns has reduced pediatric hepatitis B infections in the U.S. by 99%, the WCHA said Friday.

But Kennedy's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 8-3 to recommend the birth dose only for infants whose mothers test positive for hepatitis B, as well as in cases in which the mother was not tested.

Now, it will be the parents' and their

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