The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel meets Thursday for the first of two days of discussions about childhood vaccine schedules and recommendations. The panel will focus on the hepatitis B vaccine and vote on whether to continue recommending it be given to all children at birth or delay the first dose.

The hepatitis B vaccine has been universally recommended for newborns in the U.S. since 1991. Since then, research shows hepatitis B infections among infants and children have dropped 99%.

Hepatitis B is an incurable infection that can lead to liver disease, cancer and early death.

The shot has become a target of vaccine skeptics, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who falsely claimed on a podcast in June that

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