Hepatitis Caucus Co-Chairs Velázquez and Johnson Call on RFK Jr. to Maintain Hepatitis Vaccine Recommendations
WASHINGTON- Today, Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) and Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA), co-chairs of the Congressional Hepatitis Caucus, sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to maintain longstanding federal recommendations for hepatitis A and B vaccinations.
The letter comes following Kennedy’s unprecedented decision to remove all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) earlier this month.
“For decades, ACIP has been an American pillar of public health, widely trusted by medical providers, insurers, individuals, and parents across the nation,” wrote the lawmakers. “Their recommendations, including the universal hepatitis B childhood vaccination recommendation, were crafted using sound, evidence-based research and science.”
Kennedy’s move to replace the entire panel with 8 new members including vaccine skeptics has sparked concern among lawmakers on both sides of aisle, and public health experts, including the American Medical Association, which questioned whether the new appointees have the expertise required to make science-driven vaccine recommendations.
In the letter, Velázquez and Johnson emphasize the life-saving impact of hepatitis vaccines. The hepatitis B vaccine is the first anti-cancer vaccine, preventing a chronic infection that is the leading cause of liver cancer. Since the CDC began recommending routine infant vaccination over 30 years ago, infections in babies have dropped by 95%. Before that, 18,000 children were infected annually. Without universal access to the birth dose, thousands of infants could once again become infected each year.
“Hepatitis B is a chronic disease that leads to liver cancer in 25% of untreated people,” wrote the lawmakers. “With liver cancer being the sixth leading cause of all cancer deaths in the U.S, this is not the time to move backwards by making it more difficult to access our key prevention tool. It is imperative that we maintain the current hepatitis B vaccine guidelines for babies and children to prevent lifelong chronic liver disease, ensure appropriate access, save money, and eliminate one of the leading causes of liver cancer.”
The lawmakers also raised concerns about potential changes to hepatitis A vaccine guidance, citing outbreaks in 37 states since 2016. While many recover from hepatitis A, people with chronic liver disease face serious risk.
“We fully support efforts to combat chronic disease and increase prevention in this country,” said the lawmakers. “The hepatitis A and B vaccines support these goals and has done more to prevent chronic disease and cancer than almost any other medical innovation in our lifetimes. Great strides have been made in the last several decades, and countless lives have been saved. To alter the government’s recommended vaccination schedule would not only move us backwards but will cause people to die needlessly.”
For a full copy of the letter, click here.
###