A nurse loads a syringe with a vaccine against hepatitis at a free immunization clinic for students before the start of the school year, in Lynwood, California August, 27, 2013. Nurses are immunizing children in preparation for the first day of public school on September 3. The clinic offers the mandatory vaccinations for school children against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and chickenpox as well as some optional ones. AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel that advises the agency on recommendations for vaccines delayed a planned vote Thursday on changes for the hepatitis B shot long recommended for newborns, putting off a decision with major implications for the Bay Area.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has scrutinized the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, as part of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign to reduce the vaccinations that Americans receive. Kennedy argues that vaccines have health risks, including the development of autism, but respected medical associations call his assertions dangerous and not grounded in evidence.
Hepatitis B is a common viral infection that can lead to chronic cases bringing cancer and liver disease. About 640,000 adults in the U.S. have chronic hepatitis B, according to the CDC, with the highest rates among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The CDC has recommended for decades that all infants should be vaccinated to protect against hepatitis B, as well as older children and adults who have not received the shots.
“The best way to prevent hepatitis B is by getting vaccinated,” the CDC’s website read on Thursday. “You need to get all shots in the series to be fully protected.”
The vaccine panel on Thursday was expected to rescind the CDC’s recommendation that newborns receive a vaccine to protect against hepatitis B. The panel’s members delayed that decision during a meeting in Atlanta, with some saying they were confused about the proposal and others expressing concern.
Dr. Samuel So, a Stanford School of Medicine professor and surgeon whose specialty is managing chronic hepatitis B infections and the treatment of liver cancer, called the CDC panel’s scrutiny of the vaccine for newborns “ridiculous” and “amazing.”
“There’s no scientific rationale for withholding the vaccine for newborns,” he said.
So said the CDC’s recommendation, in the 1990s, prevented a generation of children from becoming infected in the U.S. Most cases of hepatitis B, he said, are in adults who were not vaccinated as children — often because they were born in another country.
“The benefit is so huge,” the doctor said.
And people who are infected as babies, So said, have the highest risk of developing a chronic case of the virus. From there, the statistics are grim: one in four chronic cases leads to liver cancer, he said; the survival rate of that cancer is 20% after five years.
For months, the committee has considered if it should recommend the shot only for newborns with infected mothers. The panel had punted a vote in September, when some members also expressed confusion over their plans. That same month, the panel rolled back recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine and for the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine for children under 4 years old.
In the Bay Area, Santa Clara County saw 13,254 new diagnoses of hepatitis B from 2014 to 2023, with a disproportionate number in Asian American and Pacific Islander residents. That’s alarmed doctors and public health experts, who want to improve multi-lingual services and screenings.
The panel’s recommendations aren’t legally binding, but the agency and insurers typically follow its lead. An exception came this fall, when major health insurers in Northern California pledged to continue covering COVID-19 shots for younger adults and children.
And Gov. Gavin Newsom, as part of his policy wars with the Trump administration, joined a “health alliance” with neighboring Democratic states that issued different vaccination guidelines than the CDC’s. Those guidelines on COVID-19 vaccines aligned closely with those of major medical associations.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
Originally published at Grant Stringer