Putting the majority of U.S. children at unnecessary risk of neurodevelopmental injury with incalculable costs to society.

[Note: This is the last installment of a three-part Hep B series examining the CDC's rationale for its universal infant hepatitis B vaccination recommendation. Part 1 explores the risk to infants of a Hepatitis B infection. (The vast majority of children in the US today are not at significant risk of hepatitis B infection.) Part 2reveals how the agency began recommending vaccination for pregnant women and infants despite a complete lack of randomized, placebo-controlled trials demonstrating that these practices are safe. Part 3 examines the CDC's 1991 policy shift to recommending that infants be 'universally' vaccinated, typically on the first day of their lives, thus placing millions of children at unnecessary risk of neurodevelopmental harm from the vaccine.

Given the low risk to most newborns of Hepatitis B infection, the routine screening during pregnancy to identify at-risk newborns and the availability of HBIG treatment for exposed infants (that is 75 percent effective at preventing chronic infection), coupled with the lack of studies to determine the safety of vaccinating pregnant women and infants, what was the scientific medical rationale underlying the CDC's decision in 1991 to recommend that all newborn babies be vaccinated?

The simple answer is that there wasn't one. The ACIP's recommendation was not based on science, but on the CDC's desire to achieve its goal of eliminating transmission of HBV by achieving high vaccination rates. Indeed, the CDC was actually quite explicit about this at the time.