(STAT News) – Ahead of a CDC vaccine advisory committee meeting, assessing the evidence is paramount

On Dec. 4, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is expected to vote on whether to maintain the long-standing recommendation that all medically stable newborns who meet a weight threshold receive their first dose of hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth.

Before the ACIP renders its decision on the birth dose, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Vaccine Integrity Project, which my colleagues and I founded to safeguard vaccine use in the U.S. so that it remains grounded in the best available science, will conduct a comprehensive, transparent synthesis of the decades of data on it: its safety, its effectiveness, and its public health impact. We are doing this to ensure the scientific evidence is on the record, unfiltered and accessible to policymakers, clinicians, and the public alike. (Read More)