Overview
- The CDC updated its schedule to recommend individual or shared decision-making for the hepatitis B birth dose when mothers test negative, while keeping vaccination within 12 hours for infants of positive or untested mothers.
- If parents decline the birth dose, the CDC suggests starting the series no earlier than 2 months of age, and coverage through Vaccines for Children and most insurers remains unchanged.
- ACIP voted 8–3 to end the universal newborn recommendation and narrowly advanced a serology proposal (6–4, one abstention), which the CDC says it is still reviewing.
- Major medical groups including the AMA, AAP and ACP criticized the change as unsupported by new data and warned it could reverse decades of progress; the AAP reports more parents are already declining the birth dose.
- State and local leaders are rejecting the federal shift: Illinois reaffirmed universal birth dosing, Marin County officials backed existing practice, and Virginia pediatric chairs urged providers to follow AAP guidance.