The ACIP decided 6–3 to postpone its vote on hepatitis B vaccination changes after the language of the questions was repeatedly changed in the days leading up to the meeting.
For the second time, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has deferred a contentious vote that challenges the U.S.’s current guideline of immunizing newborns against hepatitis B.
The delay was prompted by the inconsistent language of the questions that the panelists were supposed to be voting on. “This is the third version of the questions that we have received in 72 hours,” ACIP member Joseph Hibbeln said during the Committee’s meeting on Thursday, as reported by NPR. “We’re trying to evaluate a moving target.”
The ACIP experts were supposed to decide whether to throw out the current, decades-old recommendation to universally vaccinate infants against hepatitis B as soon as they are born, regardless of the mother’s infection status.
According to the CDC, while the vaccine can sometimes cause adverse events, it is “safe and effective” and provides long-term protection against the virus. “Most people don’t experience any side effects,” the agency noted.
However, in a presentation on Thursday, Cynthia Nevison, an atmospheric scientist at the University Colorado Boulder, downplayed the value of vaccination, noting that “there’s very little evidence that horizontal transmission has ever been a significant threat to the average American child,” according to reporting from CNN. Nevison called the hepatitis B risk “overstated.”
When it came time to vote, some panelists flagged repeated changes in the specific wording of the questions that they were supposed to decide on. “I protest the description that the ACIP members have been consulted in developing these questions,” Hibbeln said during the meeting.
Ultimately, the ACIP ended up deciding 6–3 to delay the hepatitis B vote, to give panelists enough time to review the updated questions. It is now set for the second day of the meeting on Friday.
Thursday, the first day of ACIP’s final meeting of the year, was heavily focused on the hepatitis B vaccine. Friday’s agenda will tackle the CDC’s vaccine risk surveillance system and immunization schedules in children and adolescents.
ACIP was reconstituted over the summer after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the previous highly-vetted panelists and replaced them. Some of the new panelists have publicly advocated against vaccines. The new ACIP’s previous meeting, held in mid-September, likewise turned chaotic when panelists were confronted with four new votes that had not been announced before they convened. These votes—which pushed through—concerned various guideline changes surrounding COVID-19 vaccination, generally making the shots less accessible.
The September meeting also addressed hepatitis B and featured presentations from CDC scientists who attested to the safety and efficacy of vaccination, but no vote was held.
