Washington D.C. – Public Health Watch, a project of Protect Our Care, condemned the profoundly dangerous and scientifically unfounded vote today by Trump HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s conspiracy-laden, hand picked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that would effectively “end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that leads to chronic liver disease in most infected children.”
“HHS Secretary Kennedy’s woefully unqualified picks for the ACIP panel effectively just gave a death sentence to untold numbers of American children,” said Leslie Dach, Chair of Protect Our Care, and a former HHS Senior Counselor for the Obama administration. “In service of a conspiracy-driven, anti-science agenda, the Trump administration is casting aside decades of peer-reviewed research that shows there’s virtually no adverse effects to vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B – a preventive treatment that has resulted in an astounding 99 percent immunity rate from the virus. Given the horrific reality that one in four children who develop chronic hepatitis B die as a result, the administration’s move today is one of the worst public health setbacks in recent history. Rather than wait around for the grave statistics to come in, the CDC must reject the panel’s recommendation and protect future generations of American children. Of course all this could have been avoided if Senator Bill Cassidy had been more concerned about the health of the American people than his own reelection campaign.”
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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