Governor Healey Denounces ACIP Vote on Hep B Vaccine: “This is about the health and safety of our children”

Governor Healey Denounces ACIP Vote on Hep B Vaccine: “This is about the health and safety of our children” 

BOSTON – Governor Maura Healey and Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein are denouncing today’s vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to abandon the longstanding recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.  

“This is about the health and safety of our children. The hepatitis B vaccine is safe, effective and lifesaving. It has been recommended for newborns since 1991 and has resulted in a 99 percent decrease in pediatric infection rates,” said Governor Healey. “This vote by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked advisers is dangerous and wrong. I want the people of Massachusetts to know that your state Department of Public Health – led by an actual doctor and guided by science and data – continues to recommend that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine. We are going to continue to work with other states to ensure that all of our residents can receive the vaccines they need and want to keep them and their children healthy.” 

“As an infectious disease physician, I cannot overstate how reckless this move is,” said Commissioner Goldstein. “Removing the newborn hepatitis B vaccine from the routine schedule is a decision driven by ideology – not science – and it ignores decades of irrefutable evidence that this dose saves lives. For more than three decades, the birth dose has been one of the safest, most effective, and most powerful tools we have to prevent lifelong infection, liver failure, and liver cancer. Turning away from a proven, lifesaving intervention puts infants at unnecessary risk and undermines the very foundation of evidence-based public health. Despite this misguided decision, the hepatitis B birth dose will remain available in Massachusetts, and the Department of Public Health continues to strongly recommend that every newborn receive a dose just after birth.” 

Because of legislation signed by Governor Healey, the DPH can set immunization schedules and requirements in Massachusetts, including for the Childhood Vaccine Program. Massachusetts continues to recommend that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine. 

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can lead to serious long-term health problems, including chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Because the virus can be passed from an infected mother to the baby during birth, newborns are at particular risk of developing lifelong infection.   

Administering the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose and completing the full hepatitis B vaccine series in the first 18 months of life protects infants and children during a vulnerable time of their lives. Delaying vaccination misses a crucial window of potential exposure, putting infants at risk. Clinicians should continue to offer hepatitis B vaccine to all newborns at birth and administer the full vaccination series in accordance with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations.