The Connecticut Department of Public Health disagreed with a federal vaccine panel’s recommendation Friday, to alter long-standing guidance on vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B.
DPH advised parents to vaccinate all babies against hepatitis B within 24 hours of delivery – that’s been the established practice for 34 years in the U.S. But a vaccine panel under Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. decided in a 8-3 vote Friday not all babies need vaccinations against hepatitis B.
The committee recommended the shots for newborns only if the birthing parent tested positive for hepatitis B. In all other instances, committee members advised parents to make a decision on a case-by-case basis in consultation with their doctors.
Dr. Manisha Juthani, DPH head and a Yale-trained infectious diseases specialist, said in a statement that her agency recommends universal immunizations “because it is a proven, reliable safeguard during a child’s most vulnerable period.”
Children can be exposed through household contact with infected family members who may not know they carry the virus. Young children in day care settings can also potentially spread infections through bites or scratches, according to DPH.
“Clinicians already tailor conversations to each patient, but they also depend on straightforward, consistent national recommendations so they can confidently guide families,” Juthani added. “Shifting routine vaccines into individual-based decision making can create the false impression that the science is uncertain and places unnecessary burden on families and providers.”
Several Connecticut doctors also criticized the federal recommendation.
Dr. Saud Anwar, a pulmonologist and state public health committee co-chair, said the decision was “outlandish and disturbing.”
"Since universal newborn vaccination against hepatitis B was first recommended in 1991, rates of infection among children and teens have plummeted,” he said. “According to the American Public Health Association, this policy has prevented more than half a million infections and 90,000 deaths in the last 30 years.”
Yale pediatrician Dr. Carl Baum said he believed that the committee’s decision was “in a style typical of anti-vaxxers” with committee members imagining “risks of vaccines, while completely ignoring the tremendous morbidity and mortality of the diseases that the vaccines effectively prevent.”
He said in his 35-year career caring for children, he has seen firsthand the near-elimination of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and pertussis, only to see them return when parents are confused and choose not to vaccinate their children “because Secretary Kennedy’s hand-picked vaccine advisory committee completely ignores the overwhelming evidence in support of these vaccines.”
As high as 98.7% of public school kindergartners were vaccinated against hepatitis B between 2014 and 2024, state data shows.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as the cohort of people who were vaccinated as children has grown older, rates of acute hepatitis B among people aged 30–39 years began to consistently decrease, beginning in 2015.
