Hi Meidas Mighty,
Normally, this is when we would be posting our mid-day recap of the news, but one story in particular has caused such alarm that we wanted to make sure you and the public receive this urgent information. Don’t worry: Ron Filipkowski’s daily news bulletin will be published later today as always, so stay tuned!
In this emergency episode of Meidas Health, host Dr. Vin Gupta sat down with Dr. Susan Kressly, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, to address a public health crisis unfolding in real time: an RFK Jr.-stacked federal advisory panel’s recommendation to scale back universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns. The conversation, recorded soon after the announcement, made clear that the consequences of this decision, if implemented, would be immediate, dangerous, and entirely preventable.
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Dr. Gupta opened the episode by acknowledging the headlines now breaking across the country. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an influential body that advises the CDC director, voted on proposed changes to long-standing hepatitis B prevention guidelines. The shift would replace the universal at-birth vaccine recommendation with a “test-and-immunize” strategy tied to screening pregnant mothers for the virus. For public health experts, pediatricians, and advocates for children, the alarm bells could not be louder.
Dr. Kressly, who has practiced pediatrics throughout the evolution of hepatitis B prevention policy, was unequivocal: the proposed changes are not grounded in science, ignore decades of evidence, and would return the United States to a time when tens of thousands of infants contracted a virus that can cause chronic liver disease, liver failure, and cancer.
“Hepatitis B has been a problem in this country,” Dr. Kressly explained, noting that the virus is far more contagious than HIV and can be transmitted through contact with microscopic traces of infected bodily fluid lingering on surfaces. “When young infants and children get hepatitis B, they can go on to have chronic hepatitis. That’s chronic liver disease… liver failure… even liver cancer.”
For years, the United States attempted a risk-based approach to prevention, vaccinating only infants considered high-risk. The results were catastrophic. Many adults carrying hepatitis B do not know they are infected. Others may test negative during early pregnancy, then become infected later. Test results get lost. People slip through cracks. And infants, whose immune systems are at their most vulnerable, paid the price.
“When we tried risk-based strategies, it did not capture everyone accurately,” Dr. Kressly said. Universal vaccination at birth changed everything. “When you do the right thing for everyone, you protect those most vulnerable.”
A single dose given in the hospital before a newborn even goes home transformed hepatitis B from a widespread threat into a rare event. But ACIP’s newly proposed reversal risks undoing that progress without offering any evidence to support the change. Dr. Kressly was blunt: “There is no data and no science and no reason behind any of the hepatitis B recommendations they made today.”
Parents, she emphasized, would be left believing their babies were protected when they were not. “You’ve left your child vulnerable at their most vulnerable time in life,” she said, noting that no family can realistically test every visitor, caregiver, relative, or neighbor for hepatitis B before they touch a newborn.
The concern extends beyond hepatitis B itself. Dr. Kressly warned that the changes appear to be part of a broader political effort to erode confidence in vaccines, an effort that could open the door to larger, more dangerous dismantling of public health infrastructure. “They are taking something that is protecting children and removing the protection,” she said. “Every time you sow doubt… you are putting children at risk.”
Perhaps most troubling: according to Dr. Kressly, no new evidence exists, none, that would justify altering the at-birth recommendation. “There is no new medical information or research study that calls into question the safety of that birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine,” she confirmed. “This was completely without any reason, any fact, anything behind it.”
Both Dr. Kressly and Dr. Gupta stressed that this moment calls for clarity and leadership. The American Academy of Pediatrics, she said, will continue issuing evidence-based guidance and serving as the authoritative voice for children’s health, even if ACIP’s credibility has been undermined. “We have now gotten to a place where the recommendations from ACIP should not be trusted by anyone,” she said. “The American Academy of Pediatrics and my colleagues and I are standing up to be that confident voice.”
The path forward requires action, not just from pediatricians, but from the public. “We all, as citizens of this country, need to push back against our legislators and policymakers,” Dr. Kressly urged. “History will judge them accountable for harms that are done because of the erosion of the confidence in vaccines.”
As the episode concluded, Dr. Gupta thanked Dr. Kressly for her unwavering leadership. But the message to listeners was unmistakable: this fight is far from over. With public health experts sidelined and science ignored, protecting America’s children now depends on speaking out, demanding accountability, and refusing to let political agendas dictate medical facts.
For parents seeking evidence-based guidance, Dr. Kressly urged them to visit HealthyChildren.org, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ trusted resource. When our government fails us, Meidas Health is here to fill in the gaps and provide truthful information to fight back against these senseless attacks on facts and science.
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