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RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel postpones vote on whether to delay babies’ first hepatitis B shot
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked vaccine panel on Friday postponed a vote on whether to delay the first dose of the hepatitis B shot from birth to at least one month for most babies born in the U.S.
The decision means that the committee’s current recommendation – that all infants receive a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth – will stay in place until the group meets again at a later date. It’s unclear when the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will convene again to discuss the hepatitis B shot.
ACIP was considering whether to delay the first dose of the vaccine until at least one month of age for babies of women who test negative for hepatitis B. That would change a safe and highly effective birth dose recommendation that was introduced in 1991 and is credited with virtually eliminating the disease in young kids.
Some advisors defended the birth dose recommendation during the meeting, saying that delaying it could introduce potential risks to babies, including more infections. But others, particularly those who are known vaccine critics, cast doubt on the safety of administering the vaccine to babies so soon.
Dr. Robert Malone, who gained notoriety for promoting Covid misinformation, brought the motion to postpone the vote.
“I believe that there’s enough ambiguity here and enough remaining discussion about safety, effectiveness and timing that I believe that a vote today would be premature,” Malone said.
All 12 members supported the motion. Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, said, “I don’t think there’s any question whatsoever that the benefit [of the birth dose] far outweighs any adverse side effects.”
The postponed vote only affects the timing of the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine series. The second would still be given one-to-two months after birth, with a third dose between six and 18 months of age.
Also on Friday, the group voted to recommend hepatitis B testing for all pregnant women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose most recent director was ousted by the Trump administration, has to sign off on the committee’s new and future recommendations.
The panel’s closely watched two-day meeting in Atlanta comes after Kennedy gutted the committee and appointed 12 new members, including some well-known vaccine critics. ACIP sets recommendations on who should receive certain shots and which vaccines insurers must cover at no cost, raising concerns among health experts that Kennedy’s reshaped panel could curb access to safe and effective immunizations.
The hepatitis B shot has been a life-saving public health intervention against the disease, which can lead to severe health problems, including liver cancer and failure, and death. Acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens dropped by 99% between 1990 and 2019, some studies said. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that the so-called birth dose is critical to reduce chronic hepatitis B later in life.
On Thursday, advisors and other scientific experts clashed over the safety of the birth dose.
“I believe that this vaccine is absolutely critical for babies that are treated,” said member Retsef Levi, who has been vocal about his opposition to RNA vaccines. “But this notion that we sit here with very lousy evidence and argue there is no problem whatsoever [with administering the shot at birth] is not building trust, and it’s not scientific and it’s not what the public here should expect from us.”
But Meissner said that changing the recommendation will “increase the risk of harm based on no evidence of benefit.” He said there will be fewer children who get the full hepatitis B vaccine series, adding that administering the shot at birth in the hospital ensures that babies at least receive their first dose.
“As people have asked, why would we pick one month? Why two? There’s no evidence that it’s safer at a later time,” Meissner said. “It’s an extremely safe vaccine, a very pure vaccine. So I think we will be creating new doubts in the minds of the public that are not justified.”
Ahead of the vote, the American Medical Association strongly urged the panel to keep the birth dose recommendation in place. Other experts outside of the panel also expressed concern about changing the guidance.
“I have not seen any data that says that there is benefit to the infant of waiting a month but there are a number of potential harms to the incident of waiting a month,” said Dr. Adam Langer, a CDC epidemiologist who gave a presentation on the hepatitis B birth dose, ahead of the vote.
During his presentation, Langer said, “the sooner that the hepatitis B vaccine is provided after birth, the greater its effectiveness in preventing perinatal transmission.” That refers to when an infant becomes infected from its mother during birth.
Merck, which manufactures one of the vaccines used starting at birth, pushed back on the proposed recommendation ahead of the panel’s official vote on Thursday.
“The reconsideration of the newborn Hepatitis B vaccination on the established schedule poses a grave risk to the health of children and to the public, which could lead to a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases,” Dr. Richard Haupt, Merck’s head of global medical and scientific affairs for vaccines and infectious diseases, said during the meeting.
GSK manufactures another hepatitis B shot starting at birth.
Food bills are set to soar as much as 10 per cent this year as a direct consequence of the Iran war, a key industry body has warned.
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which represents 12,000 food and drink manufacturers, has hiked its inflation forecast for the year from 3.2 per cent to between nine and 10 per cent.
During the 2022 cost of living crisis, food inflation rose at a rate of 10.9 per cent, figures from the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) show, while the following year was even worse at 14.6 per cent.
Since then, it had dropped back to 2.7 per cent (2024) and 4.2 per cent (2025), but while this year had originally been forecast to deliver food inflation of 3.2 per cent, the latest assessment is that it will instead see a huge rise in the second half of 2026.
The FDF said the current situation is “unprecedented and hard to predict”, but it’s “clear that food inflation is going to rise in the months ahead”.
How much that adds to the average bill depends on the size and frequency of a consumer’s usual grocery habits, but on average, bills could rise by around £588, according to some estimates.
Consumer rights and review site Which? frequently assesses UK supermarkets for cost, and at the start of 2026, an average basket of 89 shopping products cost £161.56 at Aldi and up to £217.02 at Waitrose.
Assuming food inflation lands at the mid-point of the FDF forecast, 9.5 per cent, and that all products and supermarkets applied that uplift equally, that would move the costs of those shops up to £176.91 and £237.64 respectively.
Research from confused.com suggested the average UK household spent £119 each week on food shopping, which is £6,188 each year; a 9.5 per cent uplift to that equates to an extra £588 annually, or a total of just over £130 per week and £6,775 annually.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is due to meet with some supermarket chiefs on Wednesday, including Sainsbury’s and Tesco, over discussions to assess the upcoming impact of price rises on the cost of living. The Treasury has described it as a “fact-finding” conversation.
Last month, Asda boss Allan Leighton called on Labour to do more to help businesses after creating “a lot of constraints” for them.
For food manufacturers, there is both a concern now and another yet to come in terms of energy cost rises.
Diesel – used in farm machinery – is up by 80 per cent since the start of the war, while fertiliser costs could increase further, as well as supply being constrained. The FDF also points to lost sales due to cancelled shipments to the Middle East, with UK firms regularly exporting cheese, cereals, chocolate and more to the region.
Dr Liliana Danila, chief economist at The Food and Drink Federation, said: “The food and drink sector is already feeling the force of this geopolitical shock. As one of the UK’s energy-intensive industries, manufacturers are facing mounting energy bills, rising transport and packaging costs and disruption across key supply chains.
“These pressures are hitting simultaneously and are a significant challenge for businesses to absorb.
“The current situation is unprecedented and hard to predict; however, given the scale and speed of these cost increases, and despite companies’ best efforts not to pass price increases on, it’s clear that food inflation is going to rise in the months ahead.”
The FDF says its upgraded inflation figures were based on “assumptions that the Strait of Hormuz opens to cargo traffic within the next two to three weeks”, as has been suggested by Donald Trump this week, and that most commodities, including oil, gas and fertiliser production, return to normal within a year.
In the past few months, the FDF has repeatedly called for the government to offer support to businesses in the sector from rising energy bills in the same way as it does to those in some other manufacturing areas.
GST collections: India’s net Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections increased to Rs 1.78 lakh crore in March 2026, marking a rise of 8.2% compared to the previous month, according to official figures released on Wednesday.Gross GST revenue for March stood at Rs 2 lakh crore, which is an 8.8% increase over the same month last year.Abhishek Jain, Indirect Tax Head & Partner, KPMG says, “GST collections continue to show steady 9% annual growth, supported by strong import activity this month and consistent compliance. While export refunds have eased this month but remain healthy overall for the year”Refunds during the month totalled Rs 0.22 lakh crore, up 13.8% on a year-on-year basis, which resulted in net GST collections of Rs 1.78 lakh crore.Domestic GST revenue reached Rs 1.46 lakh crore, registering a growth of 5.9%, while revenue from imports was recorded at Rs 0.54 lakh crore, rising sharply by 17.8% during the period.Post-settlement GST figures across states presented a varied trend. While industrially advanced states recorded strong growth, several others reported a decline.Maharashtra contributed the highest amount to the overall collections at Rs 0.13 lakh crore on a pre-settlement basis, followed by Karnataka and Gujarat.Among states showing an increase in post-settlement SGST collections were Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, among others.On the other hand, states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, among others, registered a decline in post-settlement SGST revenues.
A wave of bullishness swept the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday, pushing the 100 Index up by more than 5,000 points to reach 153,700.
The surge reflects increased investor confidence and strong trading activity across major sectors.
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Food prices to rise by almost 10% due to Iran war, warns key industry body
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