The CDC's vaccine advisory panel meets Thursday and Friday to discuss recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine and the schedule of childhood shots.

As RFK Jr.'s new vaccine panel ponders changing the hepatitis B vaccination schedule, some doctors recall past patients, including children, who died painful deaths before there was a vaccine.

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.