The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 8–3 on Friday to end the longstanding practice of administering hepatitis B vaccines to newborns in the United States.
The recommendation would reverse a policy in place since 1991, under which infants receive three doses beginning at birth, followed by shots between 1 and 3 months and again between 6 and 15 months.
Hepatitis B is a viral infection that can lead to serious liver damage.
It can be transmitted from mother to child during delivery.
Federal health data shows that all expectant mothers are screened for hepatitis B upon admission for childbirth.
The National Institutes of Health reports that the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B among pregnant women in the United States is between 0.7% and 0.9%, which amounts to approximately 17,000 cases each year out of roughly 3.7 million annual births.
Department of Health and Human Services guidelines outline when additional testing or caution is required during delivery, including cases where women were not previously tested, have a recent history of injection drug use, have had multiple recent sexual partners, have a hepatitis B–positive sexual partner, have had recent evaluations for sexually transmitted diseases, or show clinical signs of hepatitis.
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Supporters of ending universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth said infants can receive the vaccine immediately if the mother tests positive at delivery.
Opponents of the change stated their concerns during the meeting. Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the only current member who has served on ACIP in previous years, said, “Do no harm is a moral imperative. We are doing harm by changing this wording.”
Committee members debated multiple issues connected to the recommendation, including concerns raised about the total number of vaccines children receive in their first months of life.
By 18 months of age, a child may receive 26 vaccine doses under current schedules, not including influenza or COVID vaccinations.
Other members discussed earlier efforts to reduce hepatitis B transmission by vaccinating all newborns, an approach similar to current strategies for human papillomavirus vaccination.
The committee noted that the original risk-based approach used in the 1980s for hepatitis B had limited success.
Questions were also raised regarding vaccine costs.
1991 Rationale for Hep B Vaccine For All American Babies
“If [sexually promiscuous] adults won’t get the shots, then give them to babies.” Now finally after 34 years of faulty reasoning ACIP has dropped universal hepatitis B vaccination of healthy babies born to seronegative… pic.twitter.com/HGDU5j3T32
— Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH® (@P_McCulloughMD) December 5, 2025
Public pricing varies, with CDC contracts for programs such as Vaccines for Children estimating prices between $13 and $25 per dose.
Private-sector prices typically range between $40 and $110 per dose without insurance.
Averaging these figures places an estimated cost at around $30 per dose.
Under the three-dose infant schedule, the estimated cost of vaccinating the approximately 17,000 infants at risk for hepatitis B transmission would total about $1.5 million, whereas vaccinating all 3.7 million newborns would exceed $333 million annually.
The meeting also included discussion on how mandatory vaccination policies are evaluated within the public health system and how safety concerns are addressed.
Some panelists objected to how critics of the previous policy were characterized during the debate.
With the vote concluded, the committee’s recommendation will now be sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for final review and action.
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