The health community is in an uproar following a Friday vote by a federal vaccine committee ending a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B.
The Centers for Disease Control committee was handpicked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who generally opposes vaccines.
“This is a defining moment for public health in this country. It is for the first time that we can no longer count on our federal agencies to provide us scientifically sound information,” Michael Osterholm, a public health expert at the University of Minnesota, said after the announcement.
“Whatever we hear from this group has to be discounted.”
Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for the New York Times, joined WTOP’s Ralph Fox on Saturday to go deeper into the decision.
Read and listen to the interview below.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.