( 25News Now ) -The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel voted Friday to roll back a decades-long recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices now says the birth dose should be given only if the mother tests positive for hepatitis B or if her status is unknown. For babies whose parents decline at birth, the first dose would be delayed until at least two months of age.

The vote overturns a universal newborn vaccination policy that has been in place since 1991, a policy that researchers credit with a 99% drop in childhood hepatitis B infections nationwide.

Pediatricians and infectious disease experts say the change was not prompted by new scientific evidence, and they warn

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