On December 16, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended individual decision-making for universal hepatitis B vaccines for newborns.
This comes after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) lied that it was not opposed to vaccines.
The original vaccine schedule successfully reduced an annual caseload of 18,000 to twenty. It advised a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, a second dose at the first or second month of age, then a third at six to fifteen months of age. The CDC, without a scientific basis, now advises “shared decision-making with health care providers for mothers who test negative for the virus and are deciding when to have their children vaccinated against hepatitis B, including at birth.”
This decision was made despite the fact that the provision of the vaccines was never mandatory to begin with, with providers and parents agreeing to consent for it.
The damage has already been done, with parents declining to provide the initial birth dose to their newborns, according to American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Susan Kressly. Down the line, the results of neglecting to vaccinate against hepatitis B can prove deadly. While most adults recover from acute hepatitis B, it may evolve to chronic hepatitis B as they get older. Chronic hepatitis B victims are “70% to 85% more likely to die early.” Infants and children are also more likely to develop chronic disease without the inoculation.
While the recent vote does not hinder the availability of the vaccines, as they will remain free for parents, the wording of the recommendations is a source of confusion for providers, as it may mislead them into believing that the vaccine is unsafe. In reality, the vaccine is low risk, as proved by “decades of testing and widespread use.”
The annual rate of infections may increase to the hundreds if the birth dose is delayed for newborn infants. This is despite the Trump administration’s call to “Make America Healthy Again.”
