United States | News & Politics

Comments by President Trump, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some panelists suggest the committee is likely to delay hepatitis B shots and discuss revising the use of other vaccines.

Never mind that the reason we give hepatitis B vaccines at a very young age is preventing parent-to-child transmission has prevented a lot of cancer

He could’ve gotten the virus when he was born. Or maybe from his brother, or his caregivers, or his friends. Nobody knows. That’s why vaccinating everyone is so important, regardless of people’s perceived risks.

The hepatitis B vaccine — and the current recommendation to give it at birth — is likely why years later, as a doctor, I cannot recall caring for a patient with liver cancer caused by this virus. It was the world’s first anticancer vaccine. To think that members of my father’s generation may be the last to die from this devastating infection is to grasp how truly remarkable medical progress is.