As CDC fades, others must provide vaccine advice [View all]

By The Herald Editorial Board

Continuing what may now have to be a regular response to such decisions, a health alliance of West Coast states, including Washington state, announced Friday it was refuting the advice of what had once been a trusted source of health advice: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, specifically the agency’s vaccine advisory panel.

Last week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, voted 8-3 to end the agency’s 34-year recommendation to parents to inoculate newborns against hepatitis B, a virus that attacks the liver and risks liver failure, liver cancer and cirrhosis. While most adults who contract hepatitis B recovery fully, infants and children are more likely to develop a chronic and long-lasting infection if not inoculated at birth.

The panel’s advice, forwarded to the CDC director for final approval — now an acting director following the White House’s firing of the Senate-confirmed director, Susan Monarez, in late August — is that the vaccine should be given at birth only to infants born to women who test positive for the virus.

The West Coast Health Alliance, which was formed in September in response to similar questionable CDC guidance on access to vaccines for covid-19 and other diseases, said it recommended hepatitis B vaccines for newborns, with a first dose given within 24 hours of birth, followed by completion of the series. The alliance said its recommendation was aligned with guidance from national medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Infections Diseases Society of America.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-as-cdc-fades-others-must-provide-vaccine-advice/