SCHNEIDER SLAMS DANGEROUS CHANGE TO CHILD VACCINE SCHEDULE

LINCOLNSHIRE, IL – Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10), Chair of the New Democrat Coalition and a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, released the following statement in response to a vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B:

“To be clear, today’s stunning, uninformed, and misguided ACIP decision was driven by politics and conspiracy theories, not medical science. It puts our children at risk, and it will have dire consequences for years to come. For more than three decades, the hepatitis B vaccine given at birth has protected countless newborns from a dangerous, lifelong disease. That safeguard is now being dismantled.

“The responsibility for this lies squarely with pusillanimous Senate Republicans who allowed Donald Trump to install a conspiracy theorist, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Under his leadership, a once-respected committee that relied on science to guide immunization recommendations has now been stacked with dunderheaded anti-vaccine activists driven by ideology instead of science-backed evidence.

“Conspiracy-riddled ideology should be nowhere near vaccine guidance. Congress has a responsibility to act. We must advance legislation that restores scientific integrity to vaccine policymaking and prevents ideological interference in decisions that impact children’s health.”

###