Washington D.C. – Late Tuesday night, the Trump-RFK Jr. CDC rubber stamped dangerous and unfounded claims based on pseudoscience by formally ending the agency’s long standing recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that leads to chronic liver disease and cancer. Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care, released the following in response.
“The Trump-RFK Jr. health department just put countless American children on a tortured path to chronic liver disease and even death from a completely preventable disease,” said Kayla Hancock, Director of Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care. “The Trump administration is propping up unfounded, fringe anti-vax conspiracies with official policy while throwing out decades of peer-reviewed research that shows there’s virtually no adverse effects to vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B. This preventive treatment has been celebrated for achieving a 99 percent immunity rate from the virus, yet Trump and Kennedy want to go back to the dark ages based on zero credible health concern or evidence. There’s something deeply cynical about Trump and Kennedy claiming to be “pro-life” as they prepare to stand by and watch as one in four children who needlessly develop chronic hepatitis B die as a result. Paging Senator Bill Cassidy, who has no one else to blame for this deliberate act of sabotage against our public health by casting the deciding vote to confirm Secretary Kennedy. What’s Cassidy’s plan to fix this before the grave statistics arrive?”
Here’s What You Need To Know:
- The hepatitis B vaccine has been administered to newborns for more than three decades, helping reduce infections among infants and children by 99%.
- Hepatitis B is a deadly, incurable viral infection that can lead to liver disease and cancer. Left untreated, 25% of infants with perinatal hepatitis B die prematurely.
- Earlier this year, RFK Jr. fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), replacing the panel with scores of extremists who opposed childhood immunizations, promoted COVID-19 misinformation, and testified in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.
- The fired ACIP members published a letter expressing deep concern that RFK Jr.’s new panel would “roll back the achievements of US immunization policy” and “impact people’s access to lifesaving vaccines.”
- Dozens of public health experts and organizations expressed serious concerns about RFK’s ACIP firings months ago.
- Today’s ACIP vote drew swift rebuke from one of ACIP’s own board members.
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