Hello and welcome to the Osterholm Update, a podcast on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases with Dr. Michael Osterholm.

Dr. Osterholm is an internationally recognized medical detective and director of the Center for Infectious

Disease Research and Policy, or CIDRAP, at the University of Minnesota.

In this podcast, Dr. O. Strom draws on nearly 50 years of experience investigating infectious

disease outbreaks to provide straight talk on the latest infectious disease and public health

threats.

I'm Chris Dahl, reporter for CidRApp News, and I'm your host for these conversations.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a special episode of the Osterome Update podcast.

We're recording this December 8th episode of the podcast to discuss what Dr. Ostrome told the New York Times

was, quote, a defining moment for our country. What Dr. Ostrome was referring to was last

Friday's decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to end a longstanding

recommendation that all U.S. children received the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

In an 8 to 3 vote, the panel voted that only infants born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B

or whose status is unknown should receive a birth dose of the vaccine,

while women who test negative should consult with their doctor and decide if they want their newborn

to receive a birth dose or delay the first shot for two months.

The decision by the panel, which has been handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and reflects his views on vaccines, was made despite the fact that

the universal birth dose has nearly eliminated hepatitis B cases in

U.S. infants since it was implemented in 1991, and that no new safety data was presented at the meeting

to indicate a change was necessary. This has a great potential to cause harm, and I simply hope that the

committee will accept its responsibility when this harm is caused. One of the dissenting panel members said,

...