RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Committee to Vote on Hepatitis B and Covid Shots

An influential federal committee that recommends vaccine policies for Americans is set to meet on Thursday and Friday to review important immunizations that have long been in use.

The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is expected to vote on the shots for Covid and hepatitis B — a highly infectious disease that damages the liver — as well as on a combination vaccine called M.M.R.V., which offers protection against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox).

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has frequently questioned the safety of these vaccines. On Wednesday, Susan Monarez, who was ousted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after less than a month as its director, told lawmakers that Mr. Kennedy planned to revise the childhood immunization schedule.

He “directed me to commit in advance to approving every A.C.I.P. recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence,” she said.

On Thursday, the committee is expected to limit the use of the hepatitis B vaccine, recommending that it be given only to newborns whose mothers are known to be infected with the virus. The panel may also rescind use of the M.M.R.V. vaccine. On Friday, it may vote to narrow the recommendations for who should receive the Covid vaccine.

The committee’s votes may not have as much influence as in the past. Insurance companies are required to cover all vaccines endorsed by the committee, although they may choose to cover more.

But on Tuesday, AHIP, the national trade association representing the health insurance industry, said health plans would continue to cover all immunizations that had been recommended as of Sept. 1, including updated formulations of the Covid and flu vaccines, at no cost for patients through 2026.

“The evidence-based approach to coverage of immunizations will remain consistent,” the association said in a statement.

Still, the committee’s votes this week may serve as a harbinger of wide-ranging changes to the childhood immunization schedule.

When the seven panelists met in June, they announced that they would scrutinize all the vaccinations recommended for children and adolescents. They also voted to rescind a longstanding recommendation for a small subset of flu shots that contain a preservative called thimerosal that many anti-vaccine groups have falsely said causes autism.

In an interview this month, Dr. Robert Malone, one of the panelists, said the mission of the committee was to revisit “the entire pediatric schedule, insisting on data for vaccine-vaccine interactions.” Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly said he believes that the number of shots children get now is unsafe. But experts have said the idea that today’s vaccines are overtaxing children’s immune systems is fundamentally flawed.

Dr. Malone has previously said on X that he considers the label “anti-vaxer” to be “high praise.”

The committee will also weigh in on the “appropriateness of immediate afterbirth vaccination with hepatitis B vaccines,” Dr. Malone added.

He was referring to the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, which is given to newborns within 24 hours of birth. The shot is credited by public health experts with nearly eliminating maternal transmission of the disease in the United States, slashing the incidence to fewer than 20 cases a year from about 20,000 a year before 1991.

Dr. Richard Besser, the chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the C.D.C., said that if the panel limited hepatitis B shots for babies, which seems likely, it might lead to a resurgence of the disease among children.

“Each meeting takes us closer to a time where vaccine-preventable diseases become a norm in our society,” he said of the panel.

Mr. Kennedy and his allies have argued that hepatitis B is transmitted only through sexual contact or sharing needles and, therefore, only babies of infected women should be immunized at birth.

But the highly contagious virus can also be spread in other ways, including by household objects that are used by an infected person, like toothbrushes, razors or combs, said Dr. James Campbell, the vice chair of the infectious disease committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“We’ve had, in the past, risk-based hepatitis B vaccination recommendations and they did not reduce the overall burden,” he said, referring to vaccinating only at birth when a mother is infected. “That’s why we have universal recommendation now.”

The vote on hepatitis B is scheduled for Thursday. The panelists will also vote on the M.M.R.V. shot, which has been available since 2005. Martin Kulldorff, the panel’s chair, presented data in June showing that the combination vaccine slightly increases the risk of seizures caused by a fever, which can occur with any childhood illness but do not cause lasting harm.

But not all children receive the M.M.R.V. combination vaccine. The C.D.C. already recommends administering the shots for M.M.R. and the chickenpox separately, especially the first dose, which is given to children under 2, because of the risk of seizures.

A separate vote on Covid vaccines is scheduled for Friday.