EYDER PERALTA, HOST:
The Trump administration's campaign to overturn how children get vaccinated against infectious diseases took a major step forward yesterday. A powerful federal advisory committee recommended dropping long-standing guidance that all babies get vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein joins us now. Hey, Rob.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Hey there, Eyder.
PERALTA: So let's start with an explanation of what exactly happened yesterday.
STEIN: Sure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to abandon one of the nation's most effective vaccination policies, a recommendation that all children get vaccinated against hepatitis B within the first 24 hours of life. This has been U.S. policy for more than 30 years and is responsible for a dramatic plunge in hepatitis B infections in this country. That's protected countless babies from getting a chronic liver infection that can lead to liver failure, liver cancer and premature death.
PERALTA: I can't help but ask, why? I mean, why would the CDC committee endorse this?
STEIN: Well, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long campaigned against vaccines, essentially stacked this committee with like-minded members, and many of them question whether vaccinating children against hepatitis B when they are so young is really necessary. They also question whether it's safe to give newborn babies this shot so early in life. Here's how new committee member Retsef Levi, a professor of operations Management at MIT, put it.
RETSEF LEVI: You would never agree to fly on a plane that the aircraft vendor tells you that it's safe. Apply the same level of scrutiny to the safety of your child as much as you will apply to the safety of a plane. And I don't believe that we currently do that.
STEIN: The committee recommended that only babies born to mothers who test positive for the virus or whose status is unknown routinely get vaccinated at birth. Those who test negative should talk to their doctor.
PERALTA: And what's been the reaction to this change?
STEIN: Most public health experts are horrified, frankly. They say there's overwhelming evidence that the vaccine is safe for newborns, and babies can catch the virus even if their mothers aren't infected. Here's Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, another member of the committee who voted against the change.
JOSEPH HIBBELN: The hepatitis B vaccine program is one of the world's greatest achievements in medical health in the protection of children, and for that reason, we have a very high bar before we make any changes to the current program.
STEIN: And he and other members are worried that other changes may be in the works.
PERALTA: So let's talk about that. This isn't the first change this administration has made in vaccine policies. Remind us what else has happened and what may be coming.
STEIN: Yeah. The Trump administration has already made it harder for many people to get the COVID-19 vaccines, made it more complicated to vaccinate babies against chickenpox and changed the CDC's stance on a possible link between vaccines and autism, even though that's long been debunked. The CDC committee is now scrutinizing the entire childhood vaccine schedule, which for decades has protected children against more than a dozen dangerous diseases, including measles, mumps, tetanus and, you know, polio. Here's Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a former CDC director.
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: We rely on an infrastructure of vaccines not only to protect ourselves and our children, but to protect our communities and one another. Today's meeting was just another one of those chisels in the infrastructure that we are really, really relying on to keep our children, ourselves and our communities safe.
STEIN: And the committee laid the groundwork during the meeting to consider other controversial changes in U.S. vaccine policies in the future.
PERALTA: That's NPR's health correspondent, Rob Stein. Rob, thank you.
STEIN: You bet, Eyder. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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