A group of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing to vote on whether the agency should rescind its long-standing recommendation that every baby get vaccinated against hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth.
Credit is given to this injection, which has been universally recommended for newborns in the United States since the early 1990s Reducing the incidence of acute hepatitis in children by 99%. The virus, which can be transmitted from mother to child during birth, can lead to liver disease and premature death. There is no cure.
Despite its success, the hepatitis B vaccine has become the latest target of skeptics who question whether the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the potential risks.
The vaccine given on day one “carries the risk of neonatal fever, which causes further interventions” such as a blood test to determine the cause of the fever, said Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who practices at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Milhone has been a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) since June, when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expelled all its members and replaced them with his own appointees. On Monday, Milhoin was named the new head of ACIP, replacing Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician who has previously questioned childhood vaccines, including the hepatitis B vaccine.
Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease expert and spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said he has never seen a serious reaction after giving “thousands of children” the hepatitis B vaccine.
“I’ve never seen a fever actually associated with the hepatitis B vaccine,” O’Leary said at a news conference on Tuesday.
A review of more than 400 studies found no evidence that the birth dose of vaccines causes any health problems in the short or long term. By contrast, a review of the research published Tuesday by the Vaccine Safety Project, an independent group of experts led by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, found that giving newborns the hepatitis B vaccine prevented more than 6 million infections and nearly 1 million hospitalizations. The paper has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
ACIP is scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday. The committee makes recommendations to the CDC director, who can then choose to adopt them or not. While a vote against newborn vaccination does not prevent doctors from administering the vaccine, the committee’s recommendations affect insurance coverage.
It is unclear whether ACIP members will vote to cancel or delay the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine by a month or two. the The agenda was posted online as of Tuesday He described the meeting in broad terms, and did not provide any details about who would present the data. The vaccine was supposed to be voted on at the ACIP meeting in September, but was postponed due to confusion among committee members.
Hepatitis B can be spread through sexual contact and sharing drug paraphernalia, such as needles. It can also be transmitted from person to person if they share common household items such as toothbrushes or razors.
Any decision to give newborns hepatitis B vaccines should be based on doctors’ individual assessments of the babies’ risk of infection – that is, whether the pregnant woman tests positive for the infection or has a “questionable infectious disease background”, Milhoin said. At the September Health Care Advisory Committee meeting, the committee voted unanimously to recommend that all pregnant women be tested for hepatitis B.
But not all pregnant women get prenatal care, and if they did, not all of them would feel comfortable talking openly with their doctors.
Melhone appears to reject the argument that women may not disclose activities that could increase their risk of hepatitis B because of stigma.
“I hope they love their child more than they love their pride,” he said.
A 2019 report It showed that only 84% to 88% of pregnant women are tested for the virus. Without vaccination, 90% of children exposed to hepatitis B virus during birth will develop chronic hepatitis, according to the report. American Academy of Pediatrics.
The hepatitis B vaccine is not the only immunization about which Milhoin has raised doubts. He is a senior fellow of the Independent Medical Alliance – formerly known as the Critical Care Covid-19 Frontline Alliance – a group that has advocated for unproven treatments for Covid. for him CV on the IMA website He says he is “dedicated to treating patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, long Covid, and vaccine-associated cardiovascular toxicity due to spike protein.” Last year he participated in Event with Rep. Marjorie Taylor GreeneRepublican from Georgia, about alleged gunshot-related injuries.
Melhone has been particularly critical of Covid vaccines because they are associated with a small but increased risk of developing a heart condition called myocarditis in young people. The association has not been observed in clinical trials; It was discovered in 2021, shortly after vaccines became available.
“The rates of myocarditis were much higher than anyone thought,” Milhoan said. He said he has been labeled an “anti-vaxxer” for speaking out about the potential risks.
“People were saying: Are you against vaccines?” “I’m just trying to show you what we see,” he said.
Over the weekend, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s chief of vaccines, told staff in a memo that an internal review found that at least 10 children died “after and because of” Covid vaccines and suggested the deaths were linked to myocarditis. Prasad did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
Studies have shown that myocarditis is more commonly associated with Covid infection than with vaccination.
This week’s ACIP meeting is also expected to include discussion of the use of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines. This ingredient is added to stimulate the immune system to respond better to vaccines. A Study of over a million peopleA study published over the summer found that aluminum adjuvants were not linked to an increased risk of 50 chronic conditions, including autoimmune diseases, allergies and autism.
The meeting comes after months of turmoil within the CDC, including mass firings and major changes to its messaging. In November. 19, A CDC web page What was once stated unequivocally that vaccines do not cause autism has been rewritten to suggest, without evidence, that health officials “ignored” potential links between vaccines and the disorder.