A group of vaccine advisers today scrapped a long-standing recommendation that all U.S. children receive the hepatitis B shot at birth, a major policy win for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr that disease experts say will reverse decades of public health gains.

The committee recommended the birth dose only for infants of mothers who test positive for the virus or whose status is unknown, replacing the 1991 universal recommendation aimed at protecting all children from hepatitis B infections, which can lead to serious liver disease.

For the vast majority of cases — those in which mothers test negative — it said healthcare providers and parents should consult on if or when to begin the three-shot vaccine series and recommended the first dose no sooner than at two months of age.

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