Wisconsin health officials are
breaking from federal guidance on
hepatitis B vaccinations
for newborns and saying babies
should get the shot within 24
hours of birth.
A federal panel of vaccine advisors
last week voted against recommending
all newborns receive it unless
their mothers test positive.
Those advisors were chosen by
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., an anti vaccine
activist.
State Department of Health Services
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ryan
Westergaard, joins us with more.
And Doctor, thanks very much for
being here.
Yes. Good evening. How are you?
I'm I'm well.
So again, your guidance on HEP
B vaccines for newborns?
A guidance from the Wisconsin
Department of Health Services is
unchanged actually.
And it's the same guidance that
has been the standard of care
in the United States for the past
thirty years and continues to
be endorsed by the American Academy
of Pediatrics.
And that is that all children should
get vaccinated with three doses
of the hepatitis B vaccine.
And the first dose should be given
in the first twenty four hours of
life. This is a a standard that
has been going on for a very long
time and has been very successful in
reducing the prevalence of
hepatitis B in Americans.
So why did Wisconsin
break with the new federal vaccine
guidance?
Well, we're not breaking with
federal guidance as much as we are
reaffirming the
standard of care that has been
supported by solid evidence
for several decades.
The new recommendations
that the advisory
committee on immunization practice
voted for, and I think it's worth
noting that it's not a it doesn't
have the force of a CDC policy
until the CDC director
endorses it and publishes it.
That hasn't happened yet.
So really it was the committee, the,
as you mentioned, the newly formed
committee that voted
to recommend something
different than what has been the
standard of care for many years.
And what they what they voted to
recommend was to take these
decisions on a case-by-case basis,
that people can get the vaccine
at the so-called birth
dose, but they didn't support
or didn't recommend the standard
practice, which is that it's the
default recommendation for everyone.
And it's that universal, that
routine aspect of vaccination
at birth, which has allowed the to
the public health benefit of driving
hepatitis B to very low levels.
And we're very concerned that if
that were to change, that we
would lose ground, that there would
be more hepatitis B among
infants, and that's very dangerous
because hepatitis B can cause
lifelong chronic liver disease
and result in cancer and cirrhosis
and problems that we have the
ability to prevent.
How contagious is HEP
for newborns or others?
Hepi is a bloodborne virus.
So it's not contagious through
casual contact or through the air
or surfaces in the way that we think
about colds, flu, and COVID.
It's really blood to blood.
So during the birth process
is globally and traditionally
one of the ways that babies get
infected. It's because there's
transfer of blood during the during
the birthing process, but
can also occur after
after birth through contact
with open cuts and sores
and in routine
health care. In healthcare settings,
most employers will recommend
or or require that people have
evidence of vaccines for hepatitis
B because of things like needle
sticks. So it's it's very
contagious if you do have an
exposure like this, either through
child the childbirth process or a
needle stick injury in healthcare,
but not casual con contact in
day to day life.
Will insurance cover the shots for
newborns in Wisconsin?
Continue to cover it?
Yes, it has been covered by
insurance for many years
and our discussions from the health
department with the Officer of
Commissioner of Health in Wisconsin
or the Commissioner of Insurance in
Wisconsin is that it should continue
to be expected to be to be covered.
Nothing should change as a result of
the vote from the ACIP.
The our hope and what we're trying
to affirm through the memo and
through the communications that we
as a health department are putting
out is that the standard practice
shouldn't change because the science
hasn't changed. There's been no new
evidence that has come out as a
result of this recent committee
meeting that would change
our conclusion that this is a
strong evidence
supported practice that
will prevent infections going
forward.
How are patients and families to
kind of make sense of childhood
or even COVID vaccine schedules
when the federal advisors are
guiding one thing and and the state
is coming back in and saying, No,
maintain our current guidance?
It's a really challenging it's a
really challenging situation.
The the headlines
are sending mixed messages.
But our our rec recommendation
as as a health department,
and what we've learned through
dealing with a a lot of
communication and miscommunication
during COVID is that the biggest
the the best source of information,
the most trusted source of
information for most people in in
the United States when they ask them
is their personal clinician.
So our hope is
that we can put the
best available science out there,
communicate clearly on what we think
the diet the the science says,
understand that people will have
questions, encourage people to ask
those questions of their clinician
for whom they with whom they have a
re a relationship.
And when the science is available
and those conversations happen,
we're confident that
people can make the right decision.
And in this case, the evidence is
pretty clear that hepatitis
B vaccination for all
children is is
the safest approach and the most
effective approach to preventing
this particular virus.
We leave it there, Doctor Ryan
Westergaard.
Thanks very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
Okay, yeah, thanks for doing a story
on this topic.
You're welcome.
Yep, bye bye.
Bye.