One of the most important ways America’s healthcare system has kept children safe is by ensuring every child receives all their recommended vaccines. For decades, that schedule has begun right at birth, beginning with the newborn dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. That vaccine protects children from an infection that can lurk in their bodies for years and cause serious health conditions as adults such as liver failure and even cancer. The newborn dose virtually eliminates the risk posed by that infection.
Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped that vaccine strategy, one of the most successful ever deployed. Worse still, as feared, that decision set the stage for an even bigger overhaul to the entire recommended vaccine schedule for children that our nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced this week. Make no mistake, that decision will put more children at higher risk of severe illness and disease.
The above is an excerpt of an op-ed originally published in U.S. News & World Report.
Media Resources & News
Visit our press room to find out who our key points of contact are, including supporting research, expertise, and multimedia assets needed for publication.