The Rise of Common Sense and Scrutiny with the Childhood Vaccine Schedule

The latest recommendations from the CDC's ACIP is a win for parental choice and informed consent

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Changes to Hepatitis B Vaccination

On December 4th and 5th, the CDC’s Advisory on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met and tackled parental concerns that had never been taken seriously by the committee before. For one, why is there a blanket recommendation to give all newborns, regardless of the mother’s Hepatitis status, a Hepatitis B vaccine within the first hours of life?

There was fierce debate within the committee, as there should be, but skepticism over the Heb B vaccine’s necessity and safety ruled, with an 8-3 vote to shift away from universal vaccination to “individual based/shared clinical decision-making” for infants born to Heb B-negative mothers. This will allow parents to decide, with input from their provider.

It was further recommended that if the birth dose is not required, parents may want to wait at least 2 months and upwards of 12 years before the first dose is administered. In a post-vote interview, Professor Retsef Levi discussed the rationale behind the decision:

Prof. Levi let loose on the unquestioning medical establishment, saying:

The policy in the US is completely misaligned with many countries that… care about their children just as much as we do.”

“They are potentially not convinced by the very confident arguments that you and others are making… about the safety and the need and the benefits of having a birth dose for babies born to mothers tested negative for Hep B.”

“The same speakers… were very adamant that the mRNA vaccines are very safe for children and young people.”

“We heard recently some evidence that maybe that confidence was not necessarily correct.”

“Maybe we’ll be a little bit more humble and less confident… and not present the discussion as something that has to do with being evil or being irresponsible.”

“I don’t think that that’s the basis for a scientific discussion.”

Lastly, a discussion took place of further personalization of the 3-part Hepatitis B vaccine series by potentially considering measuring anti-HB antibody titers after the series has begun to assess protection before completing all three doses. Again, this would be a shared decision between provider and parent.

HHS and CDC Vow to Analyze the Entire Childhood Schedule

The terrific Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, whose dual citizenship of the U.S. and Denmark has given her insight and lived clinical experience practicing in both countries, is asking why the U.S. is an outlier in the total number of childhood vaccines on the schedule compared to Denmark, Sweden, Canada, and Japan — with much higher levels of obesity and mental health disorders, among other health conditions. Her presentation to the committee was fantastic and is now prompting the committee to evaluate the entire childhood schedule.

One of her arguments for reevaluating the entire childhood vaccine schedule centered on the cumulative exposure of U.S. children to aluminum-containing adjuvants in certain vaccines (including DTaP, Hepatitis B, pneumococcal, HPV, and others), beginning within hours of birth. The chart below illustrates that children in the United States receive higher cumulative amounts of aluminum salts under the recommended schedule compared with children in several peer countries. Aluminum is a documented neurotoxin at sufficiently high or prolonged levels of exposure.

Unbeknownst to many, there is a complete lack of research on the cumulative safety of the recommended childhood vaccine schedule — no study has ever been done looking at the combined effect of all vaccines. Per this groundbreaking study,

Nearly all existing research has focused on a narrow subset of individual vaccines or components—primarily MMR, thimerosal-containing, or aluminum-adjuvanted products—meaning that only a small fraction of total childhood vaccine exposure has ever been assessed for associations with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) or other NDDs (neurodevelopmental disorder).

Immediately following the ACIP meeting, President Trump released a Presidential Memoranda, ordering HHS and the CDC to review best practices from peer, developed countries regarding core childhood vaccine recommendations. “Study is warranted to ensure that Americans are receiving the best, scientifically-supported medical advice in the world.”

Yes, these are huge turning points for finally returning to evidence based medicine instead of decades-old dogma when evaluating vaccines. One word of caution — just because the recommendations from the CDC may be changing, established medicine is in a complete meltdown. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA), the Montana Nurses Associations (MNA), and many other medical organizations are opposing any changes to the vaccine schedule:

Be prepared for resistance if you choose a different schedule for your children. Ask a lot of questions, don’t be satisfied with vague answers, be your child’s best advocate. Search for a provider who will respect your decisions. As a reminder, we have a Provider Directory on our website with such providers.

Hallelujah to President Trump, Secretary Kennedy and the MAHA movement. The dam is breaking.