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In December 2025, the CDC shifted its recommendation from universal birth-dose hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination to “individual-based decision-making” for infants born to women who screen negative for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Two studies now help gauge the potential consequences.
One research group retrospectively analyzed HBV vaccine series completion through age 18 months in 1.1 million children from 2014 to 2023. A separate group used a modeling analysis of a 2021 U.S. birth cohort of 3.7 million pregnancies to estimate the downstream effects of declining birth-dose vaccination under the current maternal HBsAg screening rate (86%). The model also simulated scenarios in which birth-dose coverage for infants of unscreen…