Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s hand-picked vaccine committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to change a longstanding recommendation that every baby get vaccinated against hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth.

It's unclear if the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will significantly delay or eliminate that so-called birth dose of the shot entirely. The group tabled a vote on the vaccine in September because some members called for a more robust discussion first.

But either change could have wide-ranging consequences: Some public health experts say that having fewer newborns vaccinated against the virus could risk an increase in chronic infections among children.

Hepatitis B, which can be passed from moth

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