Public Health — News & Analysis

CDC vaccine panel votes to end universal hepatitis B birth dose — Trump calls it "a very good decision" (December 5, 2025)

December 5, 2025 — The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 8 to 3 to end the decades-old recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth — a cornerstone of U.S. liver cancer and chronic infection prevention strategy — replacing it with a doctor-parent discussion framework that public health experts said would introduce dangerous ambiguity. President Trump praised the decision the same day on Truth Social, calling the childhood vaccine schedule "ridiculous."

The vote was driven by Kennedy's newly installed ACIP, whose members include vaccine skeptics and COVID-19 misinformation figures. The American Association of Immunologists called the outcome "extremely disappointing," warning that even a modest delay could result in a "substantial increase in preventable chronic infections, liver cancers, and deaths." A pre-publication analysis estimated the change could cause at least 1,400 hepatitis B infections in children and 480 deaths. The same day the vote occurred, Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing HHS to "fast-track" a review of the entire childhood immunization schedule, calling the United States an "outlier" for vaccinating against 18 diseases.

Multiple hospital systems and doctors across the country announced they would disregard the new federal guidance and continue following the evidence-based birth-dose recommendation backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has recommended universal newborn vaccination since 1991. Experts warned that the wording of ACIP's new recommendation — regardless of uptake — signals to providers and parents that something is risky about a vaccine that has been "exquisitely low risk" over decades of widespread use.