FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File Photo

(Corrects headline to all newborns)

NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - A group of vaccine advisers to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday voted to remove the broad recommendation that all newborns in the U.S. receive a hepatitis B vaccine, in one of the most sweeping changes to vaccine policy under Kennedy's leadership so far. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on which public health recommendations to adopt.

Here are some reactions to the decision:

SENATE HELP COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN BILL CASSIDY, REPUBLICAN OF LOUISIANA, ON X: "As a liver doctor who has treated patients with hepatitis B for decades, this change to the vaccine schedule is a mistake. The hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective. The birth dose is a recommendation, NOT a mandate. Before the birth dose was recommended, 20,000 newborns a year were infected with hepatitis B. Now, it’s fewer than 20. Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again. This makes America sicker. Acting CDC Director O’Neill should not sign these new recommendations and instead retain the current, evidence-based approach."

DORIT REISS, A VACCINE LAW EXPERT AT UC LAW SAN FRANCISCO: "The committee did not have good data, has no one with hepatitis B expertise among its members, and the actual experts recommended against this. Overturning a decision by actual experts with no change in data is inappropriate, and this will put babies at risk. The vote language has been changed multiple times and not announced in advance. The misleading information presented would confuse people. At least they left it as shared clinical decision making, so insurance will still cover it."

DR. CODY MEISSNER, COMMITTEE MEMBER AND PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS AT DARTMOUTH: "We have heard 'do no harm' is a moral imperative. We are doing harm by changing this wording. And I vote no."

JOSEPH HIBBELN, COMMITTEE MEMBER AND FORMER CHIEF OF SECTION ON NUTRITIONAL NEUROSCIENCES AT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: "We have still not had any information or science presented or discussed with regard to this issue of before or after two months of age. This is unconscionable. How can we go forward when this is a specific issue that was supposed to be identified?"

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST AT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER AND FORMER ACIP MEMBER: The vote “is a sadly unfortunate thing. It’s turning back the clock to pre-1991. It will lead to confusion. None of the professional organizations have supported this change. I think you’ll see the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other major societies continue to recommend the vaccine at birth.”

“I’ve been associated with ACIP since 1982, and I cannot recall any other vote that would have put children at a higher risk for infection rather than lowering their risk. This committee seems to tolerate the idea that some children will be at higher risk now.”

DR. FLOR MUNOZ, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST AT TEXAS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL: Shared decision-making by parents and doctors “is already existing practice. There is no reason why this has to be a new policy, or that there would be a change in how physicians and parents make decisions on vaccines. All vaccines in the schedule are recommended vaccines. None is mandated.”

NOEL BREWER, FORMER ACIP MEMBER AND PROFESSOR IN PUBLIC HEALTH AT UNC: "ACIP continues to take away parents' choices and make it harder to protect their children through vaccination. The vote to eliminate universal hepatitis B vaccination will increase harm to children, increasing their risk of cancer and being a lifelong carrier of a deadly pathogen."

"We’ve gone from smart health policy by doctors who love and care for children to chaotic utterances by your nutty uncle."

(Reporting by Reuters health team staf)