PITTSBURGH —

A Pittsburgh-based infectious disease physician pushed back on a federal vaccine advisory committee’s decision to change its stance on the hepatitis B vaccine.

"This decision was made basically in defiance of all evidence because there is no safety risk for the hepatitis B vaccine,” Dr. Amesh Adalja told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 reporter Jordan Cioppa. Advertisement

On Friday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to end the recommendation that all U.S. babies receive the shot the day they’re born.

“This vaccine recommendation was in place for a very real reason,” said Adalja, who is a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "Children were still getting infected with hepatitis B, even despite recommendations to test pregnant woman. P

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