The MeidasTouch Podcast Meidas Health: AAP President Strongly Pushes Back on Hepatitis B Vaccine Changes
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Dec 8, 2025 Dr. Susan Cressley, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and expert in child public health policy, dives into the critical issues surrounding changes to the Hepatitis B vaccine schedule for infants. She discusses the risks of hepatitis B and outlines how the proposed test-and-immunize strategy could lead to increased infections. Dr. Cressley highlights the failures of past risk-based strategies and emphasizes the importance of universal vaccination to protect infants. She calls for public support against these policy changes to ensure children's health is prioritized.
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Long-Term Harm From Infant Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis B in infants often becomes chronic and can lead to liver failure or cancer later in life.
- Universal newborn vaccination prevents these severe long-term outcomes by stopping early infections.
Why Universal Vaccination Replaced Risk-Based Strategy
- Hepatitis B shifted from risk-based targeting to universal infant vaccination due to its high contagiousness and ubiquity.
- Experts now recommend a birth dose to ensure protection when risk screening fails.
Grandparent Transmitted Hepatitis B To Newborn
- Susan Cressley described a case where a grandparent unknowingly infected a newborn with hepatitis B.
- This example shows how asymptomatic adults can transmit the virus to vulnerable infants.