{"id":7465,"date":"2026-03-06T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/?p=7465"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:06:26","slug":"hbvax-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2026\/03\/hbvax-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hepatitis B Became a Political Football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">We&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2025\/12\/why-the-hepatitis-b-birth-dose-matters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">written<\/a> a <a href=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2025\/12\/hepatitis-experts-welcome-atagi-statement-on-hepatitis-b-birth-dose-vaccination\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lot<\/a> here <a href=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2025\/12\/abandoning-hep-b-vaccines-for-babies-is-bad-science-and-bad-medicine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recently <\/a>about the birth-dose vaccine program for hepatitis B. Under this system, which holds in Australia and many other developed countries, all medically stable newborns who meet a weight threshold receive their first dose of hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, federal medical authorities in the United States, motivated by hard-line anti-vaccine beliefs unsupported by evidence, and pushed by President Trump and Secretary of Health Kennedy, recently abandoned this idea in the name of &#8220;parental choice&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The illness and the damage in lives that will come from this change is hard to overstate. One <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2025.11.24.25340907v1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">model <\/a>calculates that merely delaying the first vaccine shot from birth to two months would lead to at least 1,400 extra infections, 300 extra cases of liver cancer, and 480 extra deaths every year in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69e4d62b01337&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69e4d62b01337\" class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"819\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-Kennedy2-1200x819.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7585\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-Kennedy2-1200x819.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-Kennedy2-600x409.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-Kennedy2-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-Kennedy2-768x524.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-Kennedy2.jpg 1473w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">James Morrison\/Hepatitis SA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s no surprise that this change has <a href=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2025\/09\/birth-dose-vaccination-crucial-to-prevention-of-chronic-hepatitis-b-in-children\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sparked <\/a>significant <a href=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2025\/02\/pathogens-dont-defer-to-presidents-or-politicians\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concern<\/a> among health experts both in Australia and worldwide. Remarkably, the story gets even worse from here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has <a href=\"https:\/\/insidemedicine.substack.com\/p\/scoop-the-leaked-protocol-of-the\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">come to light<\/a> that the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had funded a study on the &#8220;safety&#8221; of the hepatitis B vaccine (something already <a href=\"https:\/\/ashm.org.au\/initiatives\/birth-dose-hepatitis-b-vaccinations-safe-effective-and-necessary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proven<\/a> time and time again), a study which involves running an experiment on 14,000 babies in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>7,000 newborns would deliberately be put at risk &#8230; in an attempt to validate the current US administration&#8217;s apparent ideological hostility towards vaccines.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the guise of a regular vaccination program, this study would vaccinate half of the babies at birth, and delay the first vaccination of the other 7,000. In other words, 7,000 newborns would deliberately be put at risk\u2014newborns in a poor country far away from America\u2014in an attempt to validate the current US administration&#8217;s apparent ideological hostility towards vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This study would be run by a group, chosen without competitive tender, who have a track record of fudging their results and failing to publish their evidence. For example, out of 25 of their published studies, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cidrap.umn.edu\/childhood-vaccines\/cdc-awards-16-million-hepatitis-b-vaccine-study-controversial-danish-researchers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">22 fell apart<\/a> under independent examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exploiting Scarcity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Health Organization has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/13-02-2026-statement-on-the-planned-hepatitis-b-birth-dose-vaccine-trial-in-guinea-bissau\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">condemned <\/a>this proposed trial, noting that it is &#8220;inconsistent with established ethical and scientific principles&#8221;. They state that &#8220;the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine is known to have a proven safety record across decades of use and is effective in preventing 70\u201395% of cases of mother\u2011to\u2011child transmission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;A study which provides the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine, a proven lifesaving intervention, but withholds it from some study participants, exposes newborns to serious and potentially irreversible harm, including chronic infection, cirrhosis, and liver cancer&#8221;, and that &#8220;placebo or no\u2011treatment vaccine trials are only acceptable when no proven intervention exists or when such a design is indispensable to answer a critical question of efficacy or safety. Neither condition appears to be met based on publicly available descriptions of the study.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69e4d62b01b5b&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69e4d62b01b5b\" class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/broken-cdc-logo-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/broken-cdc-logo-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/broken-cdc-logo-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/broken-cdc-logo-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/broken-cdc-logo-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/broken-cdc-logo-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/broken-cdc-logo-scaled.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>They also make the point that &#8220;exploiting scarcity is not ethical:&nbsp;resource constraints cannot be used to justify withholding proven care in a research study involving people. Ethical obligations require minimizing risk and ensuring a prospect of benefit for participants. From what is publicly described, the protocol does not appear to ensure even a minimum level of harm reduction and benefit to the study participants (e.g. screening pregnant women and vaccinating newborns exposed to hepatitis B).&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Halted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In late January there were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-00220-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reports <\/a>that Guinea-Bissau&#8217;s government had finally taken note of pressure from the global health community and were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jan\/15\/hepatitis-b-vaccines-study-africa-cancel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">going to cancel<\/a> the experiment. However, officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services, which awarded funding for the controversial study, maintained that it would proceed as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cidrap.umn.edu\/hepatitis\/guinea-bissau-officials-stop-cdc-funded-hepatitis-b-vaccine-trial\">there are now reports<\/a> that Guinea-Bissau has officially binned the whole scheme. Guinea-Bissau&#8217;s foreign minister, Joao Bernardo Vieira,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/healthcare-pharmaceuticals\/guinea-bissau-stops-vaccine-study-funded-by-trump-administration-2026-02-18\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told Reuters<\/a>&nbsp;that the trial had been halted. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen, period,\u201d Vieira said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can only hope that this is true, and that no other group of children will be sacrificed to satisfy the unscientific prejudices of the current US administration. Furthermore, we hope that reason will prevail, and that the hepatitis B birth dose program will return to the US as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The illness and the damage in lives that will come from abandoning the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine is hard to overstate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34,36,308],"issue":[],"ppma_author":[57],"class_list":["post-7465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policies-research","tag-hepatitis-b","tag-hepatitis-elimination","tag-birth-dose-vaccination"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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