RFK-appointed CDC panel drops hepatitis B vaccine at birth recommendation

Geoff Bennett:

The federal government's vaccine advisory panel, all of whom were appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., today voted to drop the recommendation that all babies get vaccinated for hepatitis B at birth. Instead, the panel recommended that parents consult with doctors.

William Brangham looks at this sharp break in practice and other significant revisions being considered for childhood vaccinations.

William Brangham:

That's right, Geoff.

For decades in the U.S., the hepatitis B vaccine has been recommended for all newborns. Hepatitis B is a serious virus. It affects the liver and infection can lead to major health problems, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. Newborns are especially vulnerable to this blood-borne virus, and a baby exposed at birth has a 90 percent chance of a lifelong infection.

The vaccine has been shown to be highly effective in preventing infection if given within 24 hours of birth.

So, joining us now is pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit. He directs the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Offit, so good to have you back on the program.

You were invited to testify before this panel, but you said no. You are a longtime supporter of this previous recommendation that all babies born get hepatitis B vaccine. Why?

Dr. Paul Offit, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Well, so in 1991, when the recommendation was to have a birth dose for all babies, babies whose mothers had hepatitis B infection or babies whose mothers didn't have hepatitis B infection, because, at the time, 30,000 children less than 10 years of age had hepatitis B.

Half of them got it from their mothers. The other half didn't. The other half got it from relatively casual contact with someone who had chronic hepatitis B. And there were millions of people in this country then and millions of people in this country now who have chronic hepatitis B.

And this can be transmitted fairly casually. I mean, if you live in that home or if you share any sort of common things like toothbrushes or washcloths or towels or nail clippers, you can get hepatitis B; 15,000 children got hepatitis B, not from their mothers.

And that — with that, with that recommendation, we virtually eliminated this disease in children less than 10 years of age. But this Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, RFK Jr.'s committee, doesn't recognize that.

And so they're now trying to put children in harm's way again.

William Brangham:

I mean, what they're arguing is that the risk to a baby is low and test the mother, and if the mother has hep B, then you should vaccinate, but, if not, maybe you can consider that. What do you make of that argument?

Dr. Paul Offit:

I think it's not founded on the epidemiology.

I mean, if it was true that children would not come in contact with anyone who had chronic infection and therefore be at risk of this disease, then that would make sense. But you knew that, in the early '90s, 15,000 children less than 10 years of age got hepatitis B.

They didn't get it from being sex workers. They didn't get it from being intravenous drug users. They got it from coming in contact with one of the millions and millions of people in this country who have chronic hepatitis B. And most people who have chronic hepatitis B don't know that they have it.

So testing the mother is not good enough. What you should do is, you should test everybody with whom this baby comes in contact or this young child comes in contact, which obviously is not possible to do. So the more reasonable thing to do is to just vaccinate all babies, because we actually had a birth dose recommendation only for babies whose mothers had hepatitis B from 1982 to 1991, and made little impact on this disease in young children.

It wasn't until we had the birth dose for all that we made an impact. This committee, this Robert F. Kennedy Jr. anti-vaccine, anti-science committee, wants us to bring us back to the '80s, when we had little impact on the instance of hepatitis B in children.

William Brangham:

One of the supporters of the old guidance, someone who aligns with your view on this, kept asking today, what is the harm of these vaccines?

We know that, very recently, Secretary Kennedy has linked the hepatitis B vaccine with a shockingly high rate of autism. He cites a 1990s Belgian study that showed, he says, shockingly high rates following vaccination.

Is there any truth to that? Is there any demonstrable evidence that these vaccines cause harm?

Dr. Paul Offit:

No. And the study that he references doesn't show that either.

But when do we start to get to the point where we don't believe Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? When he claimed that the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine caused autism, he made a movie called "Vaxxed II." He was the executive producer claiming MMR vaccine causes autism.

Then, when the fear was that thimerosal, this ethylmercury-containing preservative vaccines, caused autism, he wrote a book, "Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak." And thimerosal, study after study showed that didn't cause autism.

Then, in April of this year, he said, I'm going to have a major announcement. Autism is preventable. We're going to have a major announcement in September. And, in September, Donald Trump stepped up to the microphone and said, Tylenol causes autism, which isn't true either. There's two excellent studies in Sweden and Japan that show that's not true.

When does he start to lose credibility?

William Brangham:

There was another representative from the FDA today who put up a lot of evidence arguing that the U.S. compared to European nations, other developed nations, is an outlier when it comes to vaccinating children.

Is there any truth to that?

Dr. Paul Offit:

Well, we believe in giving vaccines to children if it prevents a disease that causes children to suffer or be hospitalized or die. We are willing to spend the money to do that. Not all developed world nations are willing to do that.

So, we care about our children and want to make sure that they don't suffer. So, for example, some European countries choose not to give the chicken pox vaccine. But in this country, chicken pox caused 10,000 hospitalizations a year. It caused 75 to 100 children primarily to die every year. So, if you can prevent it, prevent it. And that's where we stand.

William Brangham:

Last question. There was a lawyer, an anti — notorious anti-vaccine lawyer, Aaron Siri, who made a long presentation arguing today that pharmaceutical companies, because Congress has given them liability protections, don't test the vaccines and that federal regulators are overlooking any evidence of harm.

What does it say to you that we have someone like that testifying before what is supposed to be our preeminent vaccine panel?

Dr. Paul Offit:

Well, it tells you that we no longer have that vaccine panel being preeminent. I think they are not to be trusted. I think the CDC is not to be trusted. I think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has now basically elevated anti-vaccine activism into public policy.

And for the most part, I think the good news is, the medical community, the scientific community now ignores the ACIP, ignores the CDC. The American Academy of Pediatrics put out today a very clear directive that we are recommending this birth dose for everybody. And here's why, ignoring what this group is doing.

And, hopefully, everybody will ignore them because they're worth ignoring.

William Brangham:

Dr. Paul Offit, thank you so much for being here.

Dr. Paul Offit:

Thank you.