Fast-Track Health Condemns CDC ACIP Vote to

Weaken Hepatitis B Vaccine Protection for Newborns

WASHINGTON, DC [5 December 2025] – Fast-Track Health today forcefully condemned the vote by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to remove the long-standing recommendation that all newborns in the United States receive a hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth.

By an 8-3 vote, the ACIP recommended that babies born to mothers who test negative for hepatitis B no longer be routinely vaccinated at birth, instead deferring the decision – and potentially the first dose – until at least two months of age. Infants born to mothers who are hepatitis B-positive or untested would still be recommended to receive the birth dose. This decision reverses more than three decades of policy dating back to 1991, when the United States adopted universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination – a strategy credited with a dramatic, roughly 99% reduction in hepatitis B infections among children.

“There is no credible public health or scientific rationale for weakening hepatitis B protection for newborns,” said Dr. José M. Zuniga, President/CEO of Fast-Track Health. “Today’s vote is a pseudoscientific act dressed up as ‘choice.’ If implemented, this wrongheaded decision will translate into preventable infections, avoidable liver cancer, and ultimately unnecessary deaths – especially among families who already face barriers to care.”

Global and U.S. health authorities – including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) – continue to recommend a universal hepatitis B birth dose within 24 hours as a core intervention to prevent mother-to-child and early childhood transmission of hepatitis B. WHO and many countries have committed to eliminating viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. Universal infant hepatitis B vaccination – anchored by a birth dose – is one of the most cost-effective and impactful tools to reach that goal.

In addition to increased morbidity and mortality concerns in the general population, Fast-Track Health underscored the ACIP vote will not impact all communities equally. Newborns whose parents face unstable access to prenatal care or incomplete testing may now be left unprotected if their mother’s hepatitis B status is unknown, inaccurately recorded, or changes late in pregnancy. Families in under-resourced or rural settings, who may already struggle with timely well-child visits, are more likely to miss follow-up vaccinations if the birth dose is deferred. Immigrant, Indigenous, and low-income communities are at heightened risk of seeing preventable transmission and downstream liver disease.

“When you weaken a universal newborn vaccine, you create gaps – and those gaps almost always fall along lines of race, income, geography, and immigration status,” Zuniga added. “This is a textbook example of how anti-science policymaking deepens health inequities and threatens lives in the real-world where scientific evidence really matters.”

The current ACIP membership was newly appointed under U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time anti-vaccine activist prior to assuming office. Multiple news reports indicate the ACIP’s decision was not driven by new safety data or evidence of harm from the hepatitis B birth dose. Instead, the review was initiated in response to pressure from “stakeholder groups” opposed to early vaccination, despite decades of safety and effectiveness data and strong opposition from leading medical and public health organizations.

“Since its creation in 1964, the ACIP’s role has been a critical firewall shielding science from politics. At its first meeting, the committee was ‘charged with the responsibility of advising [regarding] the most effective application in public health practice of specific preventive agents’ including immunizations,” said Zuniga. “Today, that firewall was breached. Elevating fringe arguments over robust data sends a dangerous signal far beyond hepatitis B – it tells parents that evidence is negotiable.”

Fast-Track Health is calling for the following immediate steps, the first of which appears to be highly unlikely but should be the medical and public health community’s focus: CDC leadership must reject the recommendation. Zuniga urged acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill decline to adopt the ACIP’s new guidance and maintain the universal hepatitis B birth-dose recommendation in the official U.S. immunization schedule.

“Health systems and clinicians should hold the line on science, and Congress and state leaders should exercise oversight,” said Zuniga. “Fast-Track Health stands with clinicians, scientists, and families who want children protected, not used as test cases in an anti-vaccine experiment,” Zuniga concluded. “We will work with partners across the United States to defend evidence-based immunization, resist efforts to politicize childhood vaccines, and protect the health and futures of every child.”

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About Fast-Track Health
Fast-Track Health is an international organization committed to fast-tracking responses to communicable and non-communicable diseases and addressing the health impacts of climate change, with a core focus on equity, dignity, and human rights. Working with cities, countries, communities, and partners worldwide, Fast-Track Health advances evidence-based policies and programs to protect and promote health across the life course. For more information, visit: FTHealth.org