Having worked as a pediatrician in Maryland my entire adult life, I am exasperated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendation to delay the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns until two months of age (“ US vaccine advisers say not all babies need a hepatitis B shot at birth ,” Dec. 5). This is wrong, and puts vulnerable infants at risk for a life-threatening disease that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in 50% of infected children.

This was not a fact-based decision. It will undo all of the work we have done to eliminate hepatitis B in children.

I urge parents and guardians to pay attention to doctors and scientists who speak with the gravity of peer-reviewed research and disease prevention.

Do right by your children.

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