Why do some people think that the hepatitis B vaccine was never meant for babies?
The usual suspects…
Was the Hep B Vaccine Originally Meant for Babies?
In this case, we have RFK, Jr making a claim that the hepatitis B vaccine was never meant for babies.
Instead, he says, it was only developed for high-risk adults.
So why do we give it to babies?
“Merck, when it developed it developed the drug was told by the FDA and CDC that we want you to develop this for the most vulnerable populations. And the populations, when they didn’t buy it, Merck went back to the agencies and said, you told us to develop this vaccine and nobody is buying it and CDC said, no worry, we will just recommend it for children and we will force every one to buy it. And that’s how it got on the schedule.”
RFK, Jr
Of course, RFK, Jr provides no evidence to back up his story conspiracy theory.
A conspiracy theory that is easily refuted.
How?
Well, let’s look at the timeline for the approval of the hepatitis B vaccine and the CDC recommendations for who should be vaccinated.
We will start with Heptavax-B, the very first hepatitis B vaccine that was approved by the FDA in 1981.
“Infants Born to HBsAg-Positive Mothers--Pregnant women who are HBsAg positive should be informed about the risk of transmission to their infants. Infants born to these women should receive HBIG (5,11). Infants whose mothers are chronic carriers will be continuously exposed to HBV throughout their childhood; therefore these infants should receive vaccine. The optimum timing for vaccination in conjunction with HBIG administration has not been established. Pending additional information, it is recommended that vaccination begin at 3 months of age or shortly thereafter. Studies to determine the immunogenicity and efficacy of vaccine at birth, with or without HBIG, are currently under way.”
Recommendation of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP) Inactivated Hepatitis B Virus Vaccine
Of note, high-risk infants were among the first group for whom vaccination was specified in the first hepatitis B vaccine ACIP recommendations.
What else?
There had been clinical trials on hepatitis B vaccines in children since the 1970s and in newborns around the time the first hepatitis B vaccine was licensed.
So clearly, hepatitis B vaccines were meant for children, and they were meant for babies.
“In October 1979, in anticipation of expanding the efficacy trials to newborns, I became the first person working in Asia to receive the HBV vaccine. Soon small-scale immunogenicity studies were begun in adults in Taiwan where the first institutional review board in Asia had been established under National Institutes of Health guidelines. Studies in Taiwan had established that about 95% of infants were infected at birth by their mothers and became long-term HBV carriers and that this vertical transmission could be prevented by hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) administered at birth. There was an eagerness to determine whether the HBV vaccine would prevent vertical transmission in infants.”
Development of Hepatitis B Vaccine
And clearly, RFK, Jr is once again proven to be wrong.