An influential federal health panel newly stacked with vaccine skeptics voted Friday to do away with a decades-long recommendation that all infants be vaccinated against hepatitis B at birth.

The move is a part of a broader effort by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary and long-time vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to overhaul the nation’s immunization policies. Kennedy handpicked the panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The change is not expected to influence insurance coverage for hepatitis B vaccines, and it will not alter the message from public health officials in Vermont.

The state health department reiterated earlier this week that all newborns should be immunized against the highly contagious viral infection, which can cause fatal cirrhosi

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