The anti-vaccine offensive continues | The Press

(Washington) An expert panel appointed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday overturned the recommendation that babies be vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth. Dismayed, public health specialists denounce the Secretary of Health’s attack on vaccines. Here’s what you need to know.

What was decided about hepatitis B?

The vaccine will no longer be routinely recommended for babies in the United States. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decided to abandon this recommendation that has been in place for more than 30 years because a very small proportion of babies are at risk of being infected by their mothers.

The American Pediatric Association (AAP) responded to this decision by indicating that it would now offer its own recommendations, separate from those of the ACIP. “When science returns to the ACIP, the AAP will return too,” thundered Joseph Campbell, head of infectious diseases at the AAP, during a virtual press briefing Friday noon.

The ACIP, however, recommended that all pregnant women be tested for hepatitis B.

What other vaccine changes has the ACIP made?

He reversed the positive recommendation on combined measles-rubella-mumps (MMR) vaccines, preferring three different doses.

These decisions come as the Trump administration’s Secretary of Health, also known as RFK, fired the 17 members of the ACIP in June and replaced them with people of his choosing, including caregivers hostile to vaccination.

To muddy the waters, just before the ACIP meeting this week, its president was promoted to RFK’s top advisor. This is Martin Kulldorff, signatory of the “Barrington Declaration” in the fall of 2020, who opposed confinements.

The D^r Kulldorff was replaced by Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist from Hawaii, who said heart disease caused by COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines has been underestimated. The assertions on this subject of the D^r Milhoan are disputed by the majority of public health experts.

How does this compare to Quebec?

Vaccination against hepatitis B is done at 2 months in Quebec, but all pregnant women are tested for hepatitis B. And if the test is positive, the vaccine is given at birth, says Chantal Sauvageau, member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and specialist doctor at the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ).

The combined MMR vaccine is still recommended in Quebec. “If we separate the vaccines, we increase the probability that babies will not have all their vaccines,” says the D^D Savage.