CDC recommends Hep B vaccine for pregnant women, removes safety warnings

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CDC recommends Hep B vaccine for pregnant women, removes safety warnings
Dec. 8, 2024
Sharyl Attkisson

The following information is from Children’s Health Defense.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its 2025 immunization schedule, recommending a new Hepatitis B (Hep B) vaccine for pregnant women. This decision comes with the removal of a prior warning about the lack of safety data for such vaccines, sparking questions about the risks of this recommendation.

The CDC added a new brand of Hepatitis B vaccine, Heplisav-B, to its schedule for pregnant women this year after removing previous safety warnings. While the vaccine label still notes a lack of adequate studies in pregnant individuals, safety claims are based on limited animal testing and a small post-licensure study involving 81 women. The change has raised concerns among providers about the adequacy of safety data.

Historically, vaccines were considered unsafe for pregnant women until 2009, when recommendations began to change, driven by broader public health campaigns. Before this shift, pregnant women were routinely excluded from vaccine trials, leaving gaps in safety data. Critics point out that these gaps still exist for many of the newer vaccines now being recommended.

In 2021, the CDC added the COVID-19 shot to the recommended vaccine schedule for pregnant women, a move met with international scrutiny. Some countries, including the UK and Japan, chose to approach this more cautiously, withholding similar recommendations. ...

As the CDC’s vaccine recommendations expand, now suggesting more than 200 doses over a lifetime, concerns grow about the lack of sufficient safety data for specific demographics, particularly pregnant women.  ...