You
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. and anti-vaccine
activist.
State Department of Health Services Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ryan Westergaard joins
us with more.
Dr. Thanks very much for being here.
Yes.
Good evening.
How are you?
I'm well.
So again, your guidance on Hep B vaccines for newborns?
A guidance from 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 30 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 24 hours of life.
This is 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 that, 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 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 is allowed 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 will result in cancer
and cirrhosis and problems that we have the ability to prevent.
How contagious is Hep B for newborns or others?
Hep B is a blood-borne virus, so it's not contagious through casual contact
or through the air or surfaces in the way that we think about cold, 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 birthing process,
but it can also occur after birth through contact with open cuts in sores
and in routine healthcare.
In healthcare settings, most employers will recommend or require
that people have evidence of vaccines or hepatitis B because of things like needle sticks.
So 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 contact in a 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 commission
or health in Wisconsin, or the commissioner of insurance in Wisconsin
is that it should continue to be expected to be covered.
Nothing should change as a result of the vote from the ACIP.
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 advisers are guiding one thing
and the state is coming back in and saying, no, maintain our current guidance?
It's a really challenging situation.
The headlines are sending mixed messages,
but our recommendation as a health department
and what we've learned through dealing with a lot of communication
and miscommunication during COVID is that the biggest,
the best source of information, the most trusted source of information
for most people 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 site says,
understand that people will have questions,
encourage people to ask those questions of their clinician
with whom they have 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 the safest approach
and the most effective approach to preventing this particular virus.
We leave it there. Dr. Ryan, Lester, God, 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.
Yeah. Bye-bye. Bye.