Collective Evolution: Given the low risk to most newborns of Hepatitis B infection, the routine screening during pregnancy to identify at-risk newborns and the availability of HBIG treatment for exposed infants (that is 75 percent effective at preventing chronic infection), coupled with the lack of studies to determine the safety of vaccinating pregnant women and infants, what was the scientific medical rationale underlying the CDC’s decision in 1991 to recommend that all newborn babies be vaccinated?
The simple answer is that there wasn’t one. The ACIP’s recommendation was not based on science, but on the CDC’s desire to achieve its goal of eliminating transmission of HBV by achieving high vaccination rates. Indeed, the CDC was actually quite explicit about this at the time.
The stated reason why the CDC wanted to vaccinate all infants was not because all infants were at risk of infection, but simply because its strategy to vaccinate high-risk populations was failing.
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