CDC Changes Hepatitis B Vaccine Birth Dose Recommendation for Newborns
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stopped recommending that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, marking a significant shift in a policy that has been in place for decades. The change followed a vote by members at a Dec. 5, 2025 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization […]
The Battle Over Injecting Hepatitis B Vaccine Into Babies on the First Day After Birth
Last week, a very public battle over the wisdom of the at-birth hepatitis B vaccination policy started playing out at a Sept. 18-19, 2025 meeting of U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) when a majority of the newly appointed members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)1 went head to head with pharmaceutical […]
CDC’s ACIP: The Next Generation
On Sept. 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced the appointment of five additional members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The new members—Catherine Stein, PhD; Evelyn Griffin, MD; Hillary Blackburn, PharmD, MBA; Kirk Milhoan; MD, PhD; and Raymond Pollak, MD—bring […]
ACIP Majority Ignores Risks and Recommends Infants Get Merck’s RSV Monoclonal Antibody
On June 25, 2025, the majority of members of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) ignored risk warnings and voted for a recommendation that infants be given Merck & Co.’s monoclonal antibody, clesrovimab, marketed as Enflonsia. The committee advised using Enflonsia to prevent Respiratory Syncytial Virus […]
CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel Purged
On June 9, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired all 17 members of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) committee that makes national vaccine policy—the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). “A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” Secretary Kennedy […]
FDA’s Expert Panel Recommends COVID-19 Booster Dose for Seniors and Others, Rejects Booster Dose for Children
Despite not convening the Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) last month to vote on effectiveness and safety of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (licensed under the name COMIRNATY), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened the advisory committee on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 to vote on booster doses of the vaccine.1 The […]