Eben Brown on the CDC's vote to restrict infant Hepatitis B vaccinations

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Fox correspondent Evan Brown, to join us on CDC
in a decision there could be banking. They had advisors
rather delay to vote on restricting infant hepatitized B vaccinations
last week, So did they have the eventual vote. Evan,
welcome in, thanks for being here.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, good morning. Yes, they voted on Friday, and
it was the six to four vote to recommend to
change the way or the frequency the frequencation for the
timing of that first hepatitis B vaccine. For the past
thirty years, hhs IS recommended that every newborn on the
first day of life get the hepatitis B vaccine, the

(00:37):
first dose of it. The consideration now is that if
the mother does not test negative for HEPBE, meaning she
tests positive or the test is inconclusive, then yes, give
that first dose to the child on the first day
of life. If the mother is negative, don't do it,
but get that first dose by the time the child

(00:58):
is two months of age. And the reason being behind this,
the logic of the people who voted this way was
to say that a child is at very very low
risk of contributing B. They could get it from the mother,
but there really isn't another way for them to get
at because hepatitis B is transmitted through what we used

(01:18):
to call unclean living in more delicate times, and your
child at that the first first day of life is
not engaged in such activities. So the question is do
we need to do it and do we have data
to suggest that it's perfectly safe to give the child
this on the first day of life? There is are
there any other side effects of this? And the answer is, well,
we really don't know, so maybe we don't need to

(01:39):
do it. We have reason to believe the child has
he be or could have contracted it from the mother.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, there's a lot of vaccines out there that are
you know, controversial and you know whether or not they
contribute to autism and people on the spectrum, and you know,
RFK junior is bringing a spotlight to all of this,
and it seems that, you know, we do need to
look at this and look at the studies. And actually,
after we went through COVID, I can certainly understand why

(02:07):
most people are gun shy about the vaccines. So, you know,
hepatitis B is not the only vaccine that's in question.
Now that RFK junior has been put in place here.
So Evan, your thoughts on where we end up with
this hepatitis bee? Have they made a final decision?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
No? No so, And a lot of problem is, you know,
one bad headline comes out Friday afternoon and then everyone
is ringing hands and screaming. A number of doctors who
spend way too much time on TV news programs have
been screaming that tens of thousands of babies will now die.
I really don't think that's going to be the case.
But here's the thing. This is an advisory committee. It

(02:42):
doesn't have power to change anything. It makes a recommendation
to the CDC director who consults counterparts at FDA who
have their own vaccine advisory board made up of different people.
And then there's other people to consider as well that
they talk about at HHS, and then there's the Secretary himself.
So you know, we're a ways off from actually changing this,
but the big change would be that first and no one,

(03:05):
by the way, is saying never get the age of
the epatitis B vaccine. No one is saying don't give
it to your teenagers if they need it. You know,
none of that has changed, and well, really nothing has
changed yet, but the big changes whether or not it's
beneficial to give that vaccine to a newborn on the
first day of life, and does it make more sense

(03:25):
to wait two months?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
All right, very good, Evan Brown. Thank you for the update.
I sure to appreciate you