RFK Jr’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services was always going to be a mess. He has no knowledge of health and science, and no understanding of how research works. Recent decision decisions by ACIP are not just the fruit of collective ignorance and arrogance, but are dangerous to the point of deliberate malice.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) decision to remove the universal recommendation for neonatal Hepatitis B vaccination, opting instead for maternal status-based or delayed dosing at 2 months, ignores decades of evidence showing the birth dose prevents perinatal and early horizontal transmission, averting chronic infections and long-term liver disease.
This change risks thousands of preventable cases annually. Modelling estimates 1,400 extra paediatric infections, 300 liver cancers, and 480 deaths per year, plus over $222 million in costs, due to gaps in maternal testing, false negatives, and non-perinatal exposures. A review of over 400 studies spanning 40 years found no evidence supporting delay, confirming the birth dose alone cuts perinatal transmission by between 70% and 90%, with protection lasting over 35 years.
Infants contract Hepatitis B primarily perinatally from infected mothers during birth (via blood or fluids), but also through close household contact with chronic carriers via microscopic blood from cuts, shared towels/toothbrushes/nail clippers, or contaminated toys or drinks. Most chronic carriers do not know they are carriers. Even with HBsAg-negative mothers, early infection risk persists from undetected carriers in the home or community, especially in endemic areas or immigrant families from high-prevalence regions. Delaying vaccination to 2 months leaves this vulnerable window unprotected, as transmission frequently occurs in weeks 1-6.
Anti-vaxxers mislead by claiming Hepatitis B spreads only via “high-risk” adult behaviours like sex or drugs, implying zero infant risk beyond maternal infection, and exaggerating newborn vaccine harms like fever without evidence. They falsely portray it as a casual-contact disease (e.g., hugging, sweat, utensils), ignoring blood-borne specifics, while downplaying household risks and universal need due to testing imperfections. This echoes myths that vaccines are “dangerous” for healthy newborns, despite data showing transmission via everyday items like facecloths and toothbrushes.
Perinatally infected infants face 80-90% chronicity risk, versus <5% in adults, leading to cirrhosis (20-30% lifetime), hepatocellular carcinoma, liver failure, and death decades later. In other words, the risk to infants of serious long-term harm from Hepatitis B infection is sixteen times higher than for people infected as adults. Chronic paediatric cases silently progress, with 15-25% developing severe outcomes. Vaccination has cut U.S. child acute cases 99% since 1991.
Hepatitis B and its complications cause some 900,000 deaths per year. Neonatal Hepatitis B vaccination in the USA, recommended universally since 1991, has reduced infections dramatically: from approximately 20,000 newborns infected annually to fewer than 20 today, a greater than 99% decline in perinatal cases
Over 1 billion doses since 1982 confirm Hepatitis B vaccine safety: adverse events are rare and mild (e.g., transient pain/fever, matching placebo), with no causal links to neurological issues, SIDS, or autoimmunity in trials/meta-analyses.
This decision by ACIP, like others made by this committee of dunces, will have serious negative long-term effects on health.
For more information see:
https://academic.oup.com/…/224/Supplement_4/S343/6378091 and
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