Experts Alarmed As US CDC Reverses Hepatitis B Vaccine Policy; Sridhar Vembu Joins Debate

Zoho Corp founder Sridhar Vembu weighed in on the debate over US vaccine policy on Saturday, urging Indian parents to “do their research" on vaccinating young babies. The US Centre for Disease Control's vaccine advisory panel voted to alter the hepatitis B schedule for newborns this week.

In a post on X, Vembu said, “Given that the US CDC is now changing course, I urge Indian parents to do their research… The arrogant doctors who abuse me are not scientists. Arrogance is never good, particularly not in medicine.”

His comments came after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 8-3 to withdraw its long-standing recommendation for universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth — a position held since 1991.

The move, which experts say was not supported by new evidence, has stunned public health specialists and reversed more than three decades of US vaccination policy. America is now the first country to retreat from a birth-dose recommendation.

The decision has drawn sharp criticism from infectious-disease experts, who warned it could lead to more cases of hepatitis B — a highly contagious, incurable viral infection and a leading cause of liver cancer.

Doctors quoted by major US publications like CNN and Healthline said the vote was based on a misunderstanding of decades of safety and efficacy data, with Tulane University’s John Schieffelin noting it “undermines the community’s trust in the scientific process".

Perinatal transmission (the period surrounding birth, generally encompassing pregnancy and the first year after delivery postnatal) accounts for up to 50% of hepatitis B cases in the US, and roughly 90% of infected newborns develop chronic disease, with one in four dying prematurely from cirrhosis or liver cancer. The universal birth-dose programme has driven a 99% decline in infant, childhood and adolescent hepatitis B cases since 1991.

US Senator Bill Cassidy said before the birth dose was recommended, 20,000 newborns a year were infected with hepatitis B. "Now, it’s fewer than 20."

"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... Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again. This makes America sicker," he said.

The policy shift also reflects the broader ideological turn under US Health Secretary RFK Jr., who fired all 17 ACIP members earlier this year and appointed new members who have expressed doubts about childhood vaccination.

Experts say the change risks widening immunity gaps and reversing decades of public-health gains, a concern echoed across paediatrics and infectious-disease circles.