SALEM, OR – Oregon public health officials rebuked a federal panel’s new recommendation that only newborns with mothers who tested positive hepatitis B or have unclear infection statuses should immediately receive a vaccine.
Other West Coast states also support hepatitis B vaccinations regardless of a mother’s infection status, marking the latest break with the federal government on vaccine science. In September, governors of Hawaii, Washington, California and Oregon created the West Coast Health Alliance in response to concerns about the independence and scientific expertise of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all members of the centers’ advisory vaccine panel in June, replacing many of them with vaccine skeptics who have spread misinformation about the efficacy of immunizations.
Last week, the centers’ Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to undo a rule tracing back to 1991 which recommended that all newborns receive the vaccine at birth. Instead, the panel opted for guidance in favor of “individual-based decision making,” proposing that individuals whose blood tests do not indicate presence of the virus should discuss taking the shot with their doctors. The panel also recommended administration of the vaccine no earlier than 2 months of age if a newborn does not receive it upon birth.
The new guidance contradicts findings from major professional medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, which note that there has been a 99% reduction in hepatitis B infections in children and young people since the original policy. The highly infectious virus targets the liver and can result in potential cancer, failure and death in more extreme cases. It can spread without visible blood or body fluids, surviving on surfaces for up to a week.
“There was no credible evidence presented to support either of these changes,” reads a Friday statement from the Oregon Health Authority. “Delaying the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and using blood tests to guide vaccination will lead to more children and adults developing preventable liver disease and liver cancer with no evidence of a safety benefit.”
The health authority also pointed to a hepatitis B vaccine review by the Vaccine Integrity Project at the University of Minnesota, which found on Dec. 2 that there was “no benefit related to vaccine safety or protection of a delayed first dose compared with vaccination at birth.” Any delay in receiving the immunization would leave infants vulnerable to undiagnosed infections from their mothers and exposure after birth, the review found.
“The birth of a child is a precious occasion that should be the start of many years of happiness for a family,” said Dean Sidelinger, a health officer and state epidemiologist for the Oregon Health Authority. “That happiness should not be marred by an increased risk of a preventable hepatitis B infection. Years of scientific evidence supports hepatitis B vaccination for newborns within 24 hours of birth, which can prevent serious illness and premature death.”
The new federal hepatitis B recommendations will still need to be formally approved by Jim O’Neill, the CDC’s acting director and deputy secretary of the health and human services department. In a Friday statement, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek praised the move by Oregon and other West Coast states.
“The alliance grounds its decisions in facts, data, and expert consensus,” she wrote. “Today’s hepatitis B guidance reflects exactly that. Oregonians who want the vaccine to protect their families should not face artificial barriers to health care due to the Trump administration.”
Oregon and other West Coast states previously broke with the federal government on COVID-19 vaccines in September, when the West Coast Health Alliance was announced. Without guidance from the CDC, tighter restrictions announced by the Food & Drug Administration in late August effectively limited the vaccine to people aged 65 or older or those with an underlying health condition that would risk severe illness. The alliance ended up recommending that anyone who wanted the vaccine could get it, and the CDC eventually moved to apply “individual decision-making” recommendations for that vaccine as well.
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