See story below; reaction from Kayla Hancock, Director of Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care: “This study reinforces what we’ve long suspected: the decline in vaccination rates seems to be directly tied to RFK Jr. using his celebrity and influence to stoke anti-vax fear with baseless claims and zero credible science. And now, the ongoing historic measles outbreak putting unvaccinated children in the hospital is a tragic symptom of the Trump-RFK anti-vaccine agenda, with a rise of preventable hep B cases almost certain to follow.”
Early immunization rates had climbed between 2017 and 2023, but fell after Kennedy repeated misinformation about autism.
BY KRISTIN HUNT
PhillyVoice StaffFewer parents were vaccinating their newborns against hepatitis B even before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed its recommendation that all babies get the immunization, new research shows.
Early immunization against the disease, which is associated with chronic liver disease and liver cancer, had been trending up between 2017 and early 2023. Newborn hepatitis B vaccination rates peaked at 83.5% in February 2023, but then fell “significantly below” expectations after July 2023, when Robert Kennedy Jr. spread misinformation about the vaccine on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a study published Monday found. By last August, vaccinations had dropped to 73.2%.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” has been among the most streamed podcasts for several years. Since appearing on the podcast, Kennedy has become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“While no single explanation can be identified, the decline coincides with a period of heightened public discourse in the US regarding childhood vaccination following the COVID-19 pandemic, including high-visibility media coverage and policy discussions that may have influenced perceptions of vaccine safety, clinician recommendations and parent decisions,” the study authors wrote.
The study period spanned January 2017 to August 2025, a nearly nine-year stretch when the CDC still universally recommended the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. That policy has changed since Kennedy assumed control of the CDC. An advisory committee voted to stop recommending the vaccine for newborns in December. The CDC pediatric vaccine schedule, updated in January, now recommends the shot for high-risk newborns only.
Kennedy misleadingly claimed on “The Joe Rogan Experience” in 2023 that hepatitis B was contracted from “sharing needles or from going to a really seasoned prostitute or from sort of compulsive homosexual behavior.” The disease is spread through exposure to infected bodily fluids, including amniotic fluid, blood and saliva. It is frequently transmitted from mother to child, a fact that Kennedy elided by claiming that “every pregnant woman is tested.”
He also suggested that newborn vaccination against hepatitis B is linked to autism, a widely debunked conspiracy theory that Kennedy has repeatedly pushed.
###