CDC advisory panel delays vote on hepatitis B vaccines after unruly, misinformation-filled meeting

Source: NBC News

Dec. 4, 2025, 2:47 PM EST / Updated Dec. 4, 2025, 3:24 PM EST


In a chaotic meeting Thursday rife with misinformation, the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel — whose members Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired in June and replaced with a group that has largely expressed skepticism of vaccines — once again delayed an expected vote on hepatitis B vaccines.

Because of disagreements and confusion over the voting language, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's panel, formally known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, decided to push the vote to Friday morning instead of holding it Thursday afternoon as scheduled. The committee had previously tabled a September vote on the hepatitis B vaccine schedule.

The meeting was, in numerous ways, a radical departure from past practices. Typically, the ACIP evaluates new vaccines or new indications for them, not shots that have been administered in the same way for decades.

The CDC has for 34 years recommended that all newborns get a first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth. But the panel is considering whether to roll back that guidance and instead suggest that women who test negative for hepatitis B decide in consultation with a health care provider whether their baby should get the dose at birth. If adopted, that recommendation would go against widespread consensus among public health experts, who before the meeting issued loud pleas not to change the hepatitis B vaccination schedule.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-advisory-panel-delays-vote-hepatitis-b-vaccines-rcna247362