The Chicago-based American Medical Association is blasting a federal vaccine advisory committee’s decision Friday to no longer recommend that all babies get the hepatitis B vaccine when they’re born.

The committee’s decision “is reckless and undermines decades of public confidence in a proven, lifesaving vaccine,” said Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an American Medical Association trustee in a statement Friday morning. “Today’s action is not based on scientific evidence, disregards data supporting the effectiveness of the Hepatitis B vaccine, and creates confusion for parents about how best to protect their newborns.”

The government has long advised that babies be vaccinated against hepatitis B right after birth to prevent serious liver damage that can be caused by the infection.

But the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided to recommend Friday that the vaccine be given, shortly after birth, only to infants whose mothers test positive for the illness and to babies whose mothers aren’t tested for it. For babies of mothers who test negative, the committee recommended it be left up to parents and doctors whether to vaccinate the infants right after birth.

“The American people have benefited from the committee’s well-informed, rigorous discussion about the appropriateness of a vaccination in the first few hours of life,” said Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services and CDC acting Director Jim O’Neill, in a news release.

The committee also voted to suggest that when a family decides not to get the vaccine right after birth that the first vaccine against the illness be given when the baby is 2 months old. The committee voted 8-3 in favor of the recommendations.

“Administering the birth dose is crucial for protecting children from both perinatal and early postnatal transmission of Hepatitis B virus — and preventing a lifelong condition that can lead to chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death,” Adamson Fryhofer said in the statement.

For most people, hepatitis B is a serious liver infection that lasts less than six months. But for some, especially infants and children, it can lead to liver failure, liver cancer and scarring called cirrhosis.

Historically, when the federal committee made recommendations, those recommendations would then be adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. States would then typically follow those recommendations.

In recent months, however, some states, including Illinois, have been issuing their own recommendations for various vaccines — after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine skeptic — fired and replaced all members of the committee. Illinois issued its own recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine after the committee voted to no longer recommend the shot and instead leave it up to individuals whether to get it.

The Illinois Department of Public Health did not immediately answer questions Friday morning about whether it would issue its own recommendations regarding the hepatitis B vaccine.

This week, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law formally establishing a process for the state to issue its own guidelines.

The Associated Press contributed.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/05/advisor-committee-on-immunization-practices-ama-heptatis/