A CDC vaccine panel will vote Friday on whether to stop recommending the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. CBS News medical contributor Dr. Céline Gounder joins "The Takeout" to discuss.

Washington

A CDC panel convened to discuss potential changes to hepatitis B vaccine guidance for young children, with the meeting characterized by confusion and debate over the quality of evidence. The current recommendation, in place since 1991, advises vaccination within 24 hours of birth and is credited with a significant reduction in hepatitis B infections.

Panel members, including experts and public officials, raised concerns about the decision-making process and possible political and financial influences. Some experts warned that increased burdens on pharmaceutical companies could lead to reduced vaccine availability in the U.S. market.

Chaos at CDC panel meeting on hepatitis B vaccine guidelines

Welcome back to The Takeout. A CDC vaccine panel has wrapped up its first day of meetings and they were kind of chaotic and had some dimension of confusion while they went on today. The topic was changing the guidance for hepatitis B vaccine. It will vote tomorrow on whether to stop the recommendation for that vaccine in regards to children, very young children. All children are currently advised to receive the vaccine within 24 hours of birth. But Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handpicked panel appears poised to recommend delaying that first dose. I want to bring in Dr. Selene Gounder. Dr. Gounder, it's always good to have you with us. There was a lot of confusion and chaos at this first day of the panel's recommendations that are going to come tomorrow. What are your takeaways? Well, there was a lot of confusion, even within that handpicked panel, a lot of debate about the quality of the evidence, how strong the evidence is. And there is normally a process for how these kinds of decisions are made. What we call an evidence to review framework. And that was not being followed. And part of the reason you have that process is to avoid the kind of chaos and confusion that we were seeing today. Dr. Gounder, according to my notes, this recommendation first occurred in 1991 and it is being credited with a 99 percent reduction in hepatitis B infections and that there is another larger body of evidence about the efficacy of this. So what is it that this panel is weighing and why? Well, you have a lot of people who are concerned, who question, why do I need to get my newborn vaccinated for hepatitis B? Because they have a misconception that the only ways that a baby can get infected are through injection drug use, through sex. Some are aware that a pregnant mother can transmit to her baby, but there are other ways in which hepatitis B, a virus far more infectious than HIV or hepatitis C, can be transmitted. And in fact, one of the people I spoke to today, she spoke during the ACIP meeting, Dr. Sue Wong, she herself got hepatitis B from her grandparents who were caring for her when she was an infant. And when you're an infant, your immune system hasn't developed yet. You have really no immunity to much of anything except for what you might have gotten from your mother during pregnancy. And so that is a highly vulnerable period of time if that child is exposed to other caregivers in the household who are carriers of hepatitis B. This is the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The terminology is ACIP. Bill Cassidy, Republican Senator from Louisiana, went on social media today and talked about a gentleman named Aaron Seary, a trial attorney. He said he's going to present before this ACIP panel. And he said, as a result, because he believes he's an advocate, he's already made up his mind, ACIP has become totally discredited, Senator Cassidy said. They are not protecting children. Who is this person? Well, Aaron Seary is a trial lawyer who has sued vaccine companies over vaccine safety questions, as has Secretary Kennedy, by the way. And there's a lot of concern that these decisions are being made on a political basis, on a financial basis to benefit the lawyers who are suing these kinds of companies. And many of the policies that are being recommended currently may also bankrupt the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which was really geared to prevent frivolous lawsuits, but offer some sort of financial compensation to families who had a poor outcome that may or may not have been vaccine related. Dr. Gounder, there's a broader context here, and I'd like you to evaluate something that the former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said this morning on CNBC. Let's play that. They're systematically trying to dismantle components of the vaccine approval process and make sure vaccines won't be available. I think it's pretty clear right now, and I think they're honest about that, quite frankly. I don't think they're trying to hide that at this point. Agree or disagree? I agree. In fact, I spoke with another former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf last night, and he said precisely the same thing. I've been hearing from numerous others who are highly concerned that the pharmaceutical manufacturers will pull out of the U.S. market. These are very low margin, not highly profitable pharmaceuticals. And with the increased liability, with all of the increased burdens that are being asked of them now in terms of repeating huge clinical trials, millions of people, which are really, quite frankly, not feasible, there are concerns that they're just going to say, you know what, we're done, we're pulling out. Dr. Selene Gounder, with the facts and the context, as always, thank you so very much.

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Breakdown