Advisers weigh delaying newborn hepatitis B vaccine

WASHINGTON —

The childhood vaccine schedule in the United States could soon see major changes, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked advisers expected to revise the timing of hepatitis B shots for newborns and re-examine long-established vaccination practices.

The hepatitis B decision would be the most significant change to the childhood vaccine schedule yet under Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who is now secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He abruptly fired the 17 sitting members of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent vaccine advisory committee earlier this year and replaced them with his own choices.

Since then, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ priorities and processes have changed, resulting in cha