Retzef Levy, an operations management expert and ACIP member who expressed strong anti-vaccine views, said, “I think the intent behind this [recommendation change is] Parents should think carefully about whether they want to take the risk of giving their child a second vaccine, and many of them may decide that they want to wait two months, maybe years, and perhaps until adulthood.
In the discussion before the vote, Meissner described the motivation as “baseless suspicions”.
With the second vote, the panel made a new recommendation that parents and health care providers should consider testing the child’s antibody levels after each dose of the three-dose hepatitis B series. The recommendation suggests that if a child’s antibody levels reach a certain threshold, they can skip completing the series.
CDC subject matter experts, medical organizations, and committee members reported that there are no data to support this recommendation. Vaccine efficacy data is based on the entire three-dose series, and antibody levels are not high enough to predict the same level of lifelong protection.
“This vote is kind of making things up,” Meissner said in frustration. “I mean, it’s like Never Never Land.”
There were no data or discussion on the administrative burden or clinical feasibility of testing an infant’s antibody levels after each dose.
The panel approved the antibody testing recommendation by a 6-4 vote with one abstention.
Medical experts immediately condemned today’s vote. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, a board member of the American Medical Association, said the vote was “reckless and undermines decades of public confidence in a proven, life-saving vaccine.”
“Today’s action is not based on scientific evidence, ignores data supporting the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccine, and creates confusion for parents about how to protect their newborns,” Fryhofer said in a statement.
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