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CDC Vaccine Advisors Vote 11-1 to Delay Voting on Hepatitis B Vaccine Decision
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Key Takeaways
- CDC advisers delayed changes to the newborn Hepatitis B vaccine schedule, maintaining administration at birth due to its success in reducing infant infection rates.
- The committee recommended separate MMR and chickenpox vaccines for children, citing febrile seizure risks with the combined MMRV vaccine.
CDC vaccine advisers delay Hepatitis B schedule changes while recommending separate vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox amid safety concerns.
Vaccine advisors also voted to recommend against using combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccines for younger children.
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Vaccine advisers for the CDC officially came to a vote of 11-1 to delay the vote for changing the newborn Hepatitis B vaccine shot schedule. The results followed the committee’s thorough discussion regarding the Hepatitis B vaccine’s standard deliver schedule of administration shortly after birth.
According to a report from CNN, the committee planned to consider new recommendations allowing for newborns to be a month old before being administered the Hepatitis B vaccine. As of now, the standard of care gives newborns the shot at birth, with most administrations of the vaccine occurring before the baby leaves the hospital. Since 1991, CDC has recommended the birth dose of Hepatitis B, with infection rates in infants plummeting from 18,000 to 20 annually.1 Children that contract the Hepatitis B infection commonly develop long-term infections which cause damage to the liver and increases the risk of liver scarring, transplants, and even cancer.
What else did the committee vote on?
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted on September 18 to recommend against the use of combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccinees for young children. This decision does not stop parents from choosing to immunize their children through multiple vaccines, as the committee’s new recommendation is for children to receive multiple vaccines, with one guarding against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR Vaccine) and another separate vaccine for chickenpox.2The committee also voted against changing any vaccines provided for free to low-income children through the Vaccines for Children government program.
The committee’s decision on altering the MMR and chickenpox vaccines, resulted from the committee’s discussion and focus, on the associated risk of febrile seizures from the vaccine, with an estimated one in 3,000 children suffering from febrile seizures following the first administration of the MMR vaccine. But according to Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, giving children the MMR vaccine separately from the chickenpox vaccine carries “its own higher risks.”
In a statement to the Guardian, Meissner continued to say “It’s a very frightening experience, but I think people are very comfortable in saying that a febrile seizure is not associated with any sort of impaired performance or neurocognitive development or school problems. The disadvantage of giving two doses or, as was suggested, separating the two doses is that we know compliance falls. And the advantage of combination vaccines is that children and adults are more likely to complete the vaccine.”
According to a report from CNN, Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians and a non-voting ACIP liaison member, told the members he was concerned about the conflicting MMRV votes case on Thursday, creating different recommendations for people of lower socioeconomic levels.1 The committee casted another vote on Friday, with the results ending up with nine committee members voting in favor and three members abstaining.
Goldman touched on the second votes results, saying, “It actually revealed the truth that you do not have the data or evidence to challenge the current standing and that there is that there is no associated harm.”1
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement on Thursday, saying it will, “examine all insurance coverage implications following today’s ACIP recommendation, prior to a final decision on adoption by the Acting Director.”
Sources
- In chaotic start to meeting, CDC vaccine advisers delay hepatitis B vaccine vote, cast new MMRV vaccine vote. CNN. September 19, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/19/health/cdc-acip-hepatitis-mmrv-covid-vaccine
- CDC panel recommends multiple shots for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox instead of single vaccine. The Guardian. September 19, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/18/cdc-vaccine-policy
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