Predictable Propaganda from Big Pharma concerning the Hep B shot

20251208

The Washington Times, like most media, supports the big pharmaceutical companies. As such it opposes the ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) committee’s recommendation that the Hepatitis B shot for infants be removed from the schedule of recommended vaccinations.

Of course, “recommended” really means “mandatory,” because school systems throughout the USA require the “recommended’ vaccines for children to attend public schools.

As noted in links in my posts of the last couple of days, the arguments for continuing the shots are very weak. It is worth examining them. Here is the entire text of the Washington Times article, followed paragraph by paragraph with my comments, offset by purple stripes.

Graham

https://washingtontimes-dc.newsmemory.com/?token=cb70715dd016a9ec6c5e392917cade04_6936e93b_9d888c9&selDate=20251208

Kennedy panel votes to remove hepatitis B shots for newborns

Vaccine given within 24 hours of birth

By Mary McCue Bell THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Federal advisers voted to abandon the long-standing hepatitis B vaccines for newborns — a milestone in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s challenge to vaccines.

The hepatitis B vaccine — given to newborns within 24 hours of birth, known as the birth dose — is now recommended for infants starting at 2 months after birth.

The recommendation was approved despite objections from medical groups, doctors and lawmakers.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 8-3 for the recommendation, suggesting that if the mother tests negative for hepatitis B, the child’s first dose should be delayed to two months.

For the 0.5% who test positive, the Hep B vaccine makes good sense.

The Hep B test is highly accurate. The likelihood that an infected mother is not detected is estimated to be below 1%.

99.5% of mothers test negative. That’s 199 out of 200.

The panel said a doctor should be consulted about whether or when to begin administering the three-dose vaccine series.

This is a compromise position that leaves the vaccine on the childhood immunization schedule, just no longer mandatory. By my understanding, this maintains the manufacturer’s immuity from vaccine injury lawsuits.

There is no logical reason whatsoever to vaccinate the child at all if the mother tests negative. The two-month delay is nonsense, there only for the sake of this compromise.

The vaccine protects against the contagious, incurable, liverdamaging disease. In adults, hepatitis B is typically shared through sexual intercourse or sharing of needles for drug use, but it can be passed from mother to baby.

This is too strongly worded. My late daughter Naomi’s (she died of a vaccine, BTW – Covid) first husband caught HepB via drugs and sex. It is “incurable” the way AIDS or heart disease is incurable. He lives with it quite comfortably.

The Friday recommendation could bring about changes to the childhood vaccination schedule by delaying the immunization routinely given to newborns.

That is its intent.

The committee, handpicked by Mr. Kennedy, administered the recommendation after a two-day meeting. The panel was originally slated to vote on the vaccine in September before tabling it for Thursday, when it was delayed yet again.

It was chosen by Mr. Kennedy to be uncompromised by association with, and money from, the pharmaceutical companies. Previously, the entire ACIP committee was so compromised.

Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 members of the committee in July, instead tapping eight replacements, some of whom are vaccine skeptics.

This is true. All of the prior 17 were in the bag for big pharma.

In June, Mr. Kennedy claimed that the shot at birth is a “likely culprit” in autism.

This is also true. Mr. Kennedy advocates studies to investigate the question, studies which the CDC and big pharma have resisted for decades. Studies which might be conducted using the government’s own VAERS database, if they permitted independent researchers to access it.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which kills more than 1500 American babies under one year old per year, is not mentioned in the article. It does not happen as often in less vaccinated countries. The three Hep B shots are the earliest and most numerous of the shots.

“If you are a baby that was born to a mother that was tested negative for hep B, you need to realize, as a parent, that your risk of infection throughout your early stage of life and probably throughout most of your childhood is extremely low,” committee member Retsef Levi said during the Friday meeting.

This is true.

While the committee cannot make legally binding recommendations, its guidance is for the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how approved vaccines should be used. Directors mostly adopt the committee’s recommendations.

This is true.

Its decisions influence whether private insurance and government assistance programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, cover the vaccines. As long as the hepatitis B vaccine remains approved by the Food and Drug Administration, insurance will continue to cover the cost of the shot.

This is true. It means that the shots are free to the parents. The doctor and hospital administering the vaccine receive insurance money for doing so.

Many state vaccination policies are directly linked to the committee’s guidance, and states have the authority to mandate immunizations.

Almost all states. Florida is attempting to be the exception, and is experiencing harsh pushback from the pharmaceutical industry.

Families can also choose to vaccinate at birth, later in childhood or not at all.

This change will have “deadly consequences for our children,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director, on social media before the decision.

This is the kill shot. They do not cite any studies that Dr. Frieden has named. They certainly do not tell you that his present organization, Resolve to Save Lives, is a vaccine advocacy organization largely funded by the Gates Foundation and Bloomberg.

The hepatitis B vaccine is up to 90% effective at preventing infection from the mother, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. If babies receive the full three-dose vaccinations, 98% have immunity to the illness.

Effectiveness is somewhat beside the point, but it is worth noting that it is not measured directly, as in cases not witnessed, but in the strength of antibodies created. Moreover, the CDC takes’ the manufacturer’s word for effectiveness. Effectiveness of course wears off over time. But this is all irrelevant if the child will never be exposed.

In a survey through the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, a majority of participants indicated that they would be either very likely or somewhat likely to recommend a birth dose. Only 11% said they were not at all likely to recommend the vaccine to a newborn in their household.

The American Academy of Pediatrics receives large amounts of money from the pharmaceutical industry and has always strongly advocated vaccines. Their treatment of members who dissent, such as Paul Thomas, is harsh. They successfully got his medical license suspended by the State of Oregon.

Dr. Frieden is not the only medical professional concerned about delaying the birth dose.

“Delaying the first hepatitis B vaccine dose beyond the newborn period introduces risks that have lifelong detrimental consequences and no measurable health benefit,” specialists wrote in a Wednesday article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The JAMA is likewise considered by be vastly compromised. It depends heavily on advertising from big pharma.

Merck, a pharmaceutical company, said there is no evidence that delaying the vaccine provides any benefit.

This is true, but a red herring. If there is no benefit whatsoever to the shot, then delaying it makes no difference.

“We are deeply concerned by ACIP’s vote to modify the longstanding hepatitis B birth dose recommendation,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “This decision disregards decades of safety and effectiveness data that unequivocally support the hepatitis B birth dose; its removal risks reversing this progress and puts infants at unnecessary risk of chronic infection, liver cancer and even death.”

Merck manufactures the RECOMBIVAX HB® Hepatitis B Vaccine. They are hardly neutral!

These are indeed outcomes of Hepatitis B, but almost always when it appears in adults who practice careless drug and sexual habits. The incidence of Hepatitis B in children is low.

When it does occur, it appears to be passed from infected mothers via breast milk. Babies from healthy mother are simply not at risk.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has frequently voiced his worries about changing hepatitis B vaccine guidance.

See Pharma executives shower Bill Cassidy with campaign cash - STAT.

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” last month, the Louisiana Republican said this policy would be made by “people who don’t understand the epidemiology of hepatitis B.”

“The ACIP is totally discredited,” Mr. Cassidy said on social media Wednesday. “They are not protecting children.”

Totally compromised by big pharma, as above.

Aaron Siri, a vaccine injury lawyer who’s advised and represented Mr. Kennedy, presented during the meeting, prompting condemnation from Mr. Cassidy.

Mr. Kennedy has gone after vaccine recommendations before.

He recently announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the official CDC-recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women, citing a lack of clinical data. This change created potential barriers to access, as insurance coverage for these groups is no longer guaranteed.

True. See my review of Aaron Siri’s book, below

Graham