The future of access to critical childhood vaccines, including the hepatitis B shot, became a flashpoint in a Senate health committee hearing Wednesday, just a day before an influential vaccine panel is set to meet.
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\nAt the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing, Susan Monarez, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the final meeting with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that led to her being fired in August was tense.<\/p>\n
Monarez said she refused two demands by Kennedy: fire career agency officials and sign off vaccine recommendations without seeing any data. \u201cHe said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign,\u201d she said. \u201cI responded that I could not pre-approve recommendations without reviewing the evidence, and I had no basis to fire scientific experts.\u201d Senators questioned Monarez for roughly three hours about her interactions with Kennedy, who said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Sept. 4 that Monarez was ousted because she wasn’t trustworthy.<\/p>\n
A major concern voiced mostly by Democratic senators, who had voted against Monarez during her confirmation hearing in July, was that fewer vaccines for kids could lead to more deaths from preventable diseases \u2014 especially if any new recommendations weren\u2019t based on scientific data. \u201cThe concern is Robert F Kennedy [Jr.] is going to make America sicker again,\u201d said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. \u201cThey\u2019re going to send us towards more disease, more death and more despair in our nation.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is meeting Thursday and Friday, when 12 members appointed by Kennedy are expected to review and vote on shots for measles, Covid and hepatitis B. The group will decide whether to change recommendations for hepatitis B, as well as the combination measles-mumps-rubella and chickenpox vaccine. Another vote on this fall\u2019s Covid shot is scheduled for Friday.<\/p>\n
Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC\u2019s former chief medical officer, who testified alongside Monarez, said she expected the committee will recommend delaying the hepatitis B shot in children until the age of 4. \u201cThere is going to likely be a discussion about hepatitis B vaccine, very specifically trying to dislodge the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and to push it later in life,\u201d Houry told senators. The hepatitis B shot is given to infants as three-dose series. Typically, children are recommended to get the first dose within 24 hours of birth, the second dose at one month, and the third between six to 18 months of age.<\/p>\n
The CDC doesn’t mandate vaccination. It recommends a schedule for children to get shot for communicable diseases. The vaccine advisory group regularly reviews data and updates the schedule based on guidance by doctors or scientists with expertise in the subject matter, said Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California, San Francisco. Kennedy’s push to change when children are immunized and which vaccines are available to them comes amid dwindling confidence in the agency by the public.<\/p>\n
Capturing children and infants, particularly while they are young, with hepatitis B vaccine is critical, said Michaela Jackson, program director of prevention policy at the Hepatitis B Foundation. It\u2019s also important in \u201dpreventing cirrhosis, preventing liver damage, liver cancer \u2014 all the consequences of living with a lifelong virus,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a direct correlation between the age of which you are infected and your chances of getting a chronic infection,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cA baby who is born with hepatitis B has a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B. They\u2019re going to take that with them throughout their entire life,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
The potential changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, particularly the hepatitis B vaccine, have raised concerns among health experts and senators. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is expected to review and vote on the recommendations, which could have significant implications for public health. It is essential to prioritize scientific evidence and expertise in making decisions about vaccine recommendations to ensure the health and well-being of children.<\/p>\n
Q: What is the current recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine?
\nA: The current recommendation is to give the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine to infants within 24 hours of birth, followed by two more doses at one month and six to 18 months of age.
\nQ: Why is the hepatitis B vaccine important?
\nA: The hepatitis B vaccine is crucial in preventing hepatitis B infection, which can lead to chronic liver disease, liver cancer, and other complications.
\nQ: What are the potential consequences of delaying the hepatitis B vaccine?
\nA: Delaying the hepatitis B vaccine could lead to a higher risk of infection and chronic disease, particularly among infants and young children.
\nQ: Who makes recommendations for vaccine schedules?
\nA: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations for vaccine schedules, based on scientific evidence and expertise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Vaccine Schedule Changes The future of access to critical childhood vaccines, including the hepatitis B shot, became a flashpoint in a Senate health committee hearing Wednesday, just a day before an influential vaccine panel is set to meet. At the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing, Susan Monarez, former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/media.nbcmiami.com\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235931491.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=5170,3447&w=1920&resize=1920,1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20100,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20097\/revisions\/20100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}