The BBC should check its facts

Where are the US data?

Our reader Peter Selley reported a BBC piece called US panel votes to end recommending hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns

This is a report of the US Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP) decision to stop vaccinating all newborns of seronegative mothers against Hepatitis B (Hep B).

The vaccination is one of the dozens introduced by previous ACIPs and was introduced in 1991 when the then-new generation of recombinant Hep B was licensed.

The tone of the article was what you would expect now from the BBC, with plenty of hand ringing by “experts” (all commenting negatively on the decision) and oblique attacks on Secretary Kennedy.

Perhaps the central argument against the decision was as follows:

90,000 deaths, a nicely rounded number - seems a lot, especially for a slowly evolving infection such as Hep B. But old geezers being what they are, we clicked on the link provided, and this came up: