The best way to prevent hepatitis B infection is vaccination. The vaccines are highly effective at preventing infection in infants and for long-term protection into adulthood.

The CDC's vaccine advisory committee is set to meet Thursday and Friday to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule, adjuvants and contaminants, and the hepatitis B shot.

The federal vaccine panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is likely to decide on Thursday that the shots should be delayed for infants whose mothers test negative for the virus.

A federal vaccine advisory committee is meeting in Atlanta to discuss whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) began its December 4 and 5, 2025, meeting today, launching two full days of presentations, public comment and planned votes that could reshape how infants and children receive hepatitis B (HepB) vaccines and other routine immunizations.

The virus is found in blood, saliva, semen and other bodily fluids, even tears, and it can live on surfaces for up to seven days. A child with a wound who comes into contact with that surface — even days later — could become infected, says Anita Patel, a pediatrician and pediatric critical care physician in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and Republican health care leader in Congress, on Wednesday offered his harshest criticism yet of the Health and Human Services Department under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory panel considers the childhood vaccine schedule.