Doctors stand up to Bobby Jr.'s vaccine insanity
Experts were responding to a vote by members of the Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—all handpicked by Health and Human
Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—to
limit the use of hepatitis B vaccines in newborns, in spite of
evidence that the shots prevent
cancer and save lives.
“Children will
acquire hepatitis B and die as a result of these recommendations,”
said Aaron M. Milstone, MD, representing the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP). “My colleagues or I, not a committee member, will be the ones supporting
the parents of a dying child and trying to explain how they were let down and
lost a child from a preventable infection.”
The ACIP recommended vaccinating all healthy newborns
against hepatitis B at birth for 34 years, because mothers can pass the virus
to infants during delivery. That recommendation helped
to reduce the number of hepatitis B infections in children by 99%.
But last week, the ACIP voted to recommend a birth dose of
hepatitis B vaccine only for newborns whose mothers test positive for the virus or
whose infection status is unknown. Mothers who aren’t infected with hepatitis B
should discuss the risks and benefits with their health provider, the group
advised. Babies who aren’t vaccinated against hepatitis at birth should wait at
least 2 months for their first dose, the committee decided.
Experts note that blood tests aren’t always accurate,
producing “false negative” results about 5% of the time. About 90% of
infants exposed to hepatitis B at birth develop a chronic, incurable infection
that can lead to liver failure, liver cancer, and early death.
Babies and children also can be exposed after birth by
family members.
Research has shown that postponing an infected baby’s first
dose of hepatitis vaccine by 2 months could could
cause at least 1,400 preventable hepatitis B infections among
children, 300 additional cases of liver cancer, 480 preventable deaths, and
over $222 million in excess health care costs a year.
Children will acquire hepatitis B and die as a result of these recommendations.
The comments at the press briefing reaffirmed that the
mainstream medical community resoundingly supports the universal birth dose of
hepatitis B vaccine. Milstone said the advice given by the Trump administration
and its appointees represent “fringe views” endorsed
by a small sliver of the population.
In addition to the AAP, speakers today included
representatives from the Infectious Diseases Society of America; the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; the American College of Physicians;
and the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, which publishes
CIDRAP News.
More vaccine changes likely
The vote on hepatitis vaccines is part of a broad assault on
vaccine access, said CIDRAP Director Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, who leads
the Vaccine Integrity Project, which aims to safeguard vaccine use.
That assault has picked up speed in recent weeks. Other
actions that threaten vaccine access:
- The
FDA plans to scrutinize the
safety of recently approved immunizations that protect infants from
respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the leading cause of hospitalizations
for babies in the first year of life, according to Reuters.
- President
Trump issued a memo Friday calling on Kennedy, who has promoted conspiracy
theories about vaccines and falsely
linked them to autism, to revisit the childhood vaccination
schedule so that it “aligns” with immunization practices in other
countries.
- The
top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration has
proposed sweeping new standards for testing vaccines which,
experts say, would make it impossible to bring new vaccines to market or
even make annual updates to flu shots.
- Kennedy directed
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to revise its website and
deleted the phrase “vaccines do not cause autism.”
In addition, Osterholm said the ACIP appears
poised to stop recommending vaccines that use tiny amounts of
aluminum salts, which stimulate a stronger immune system response. Multiple
studies have found that including aluminum in vaccines is safe, including a
recent Danish study of 1.2 million children published in Annals of Internal
Medicine. Kennedy called for the study to be
retracted.
“If the political appointees running our health agencies and
communities are going to ignore data and evidence, we must absolutely ignore
them,” said Osterholm.
Many health providers tell CIDRAP News that they will
follow vaccination guidance from the AAP, not ACIP.
An HHS spokesman, Andrew Nixon, dismissed the medical
community’s criticism.
“ACIP reviews the full body of evidence and issues
recommendations grounded in data and sound judgment to protect America’s
children,” Nixon said. “HHS agencies remain committed to transparency and
accountability after the failed politics of the pandemic contributed to
historic declines in public trust. We are rebuilding that trust through
transparency and reaffirming that individuals and parents make decisions based
on what is best for their them.”
Although ACIP makes vaccine recommendations, the acting
director of the CDC, Jim O’Neill, MBA, needs to approve them.
