Parents delivering a baby in an American hospital this week will, for the first time in more than three decades, be asked to make a decision rather than receive a recommendation about the hepatitis B vaccine. The federal default is gone, and national data show newborn vaccination rates were already falling before it went away.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted shared clinical decision-making for the hepatitis B birth dose on Dec. 16, 2025, following an 8-to-3 vote by its vaccine advisory committee 11 days earlier. The change applies only to infants born to mothers who test negative for hepatitis B. For those whose mothers test positive or whose status is unknown, the birth dose plus immune globulin within 12 hours remains recommended with no change.
