In a surprise move on Friday morning, a panel of vaccine advisors to the federal government backed off from a proposed change to the vaccine schedule that would have scrapped the current recommendation that all children receive the hepatitis B shot at birth.

It also reversed a vote it took yesterday on coverage for a shot known as the MMRV — measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (or varicella). Yesterday, the panel said the Vaccines for Children program could cover the combined shot if parents want it — Friday they voted that it shouldn't.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, had spent much of Thursday debating the rationale for giving newborns the hepatitis B vaccine at birth — but then the committee pushed off the vote until Friday. Instead, it proceeded with a s

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