Hepatitis B vaccine target market changed due to new evidence, not profit

The claim: Post implies newborns don’t need hepatitis B vaccine

A July 27 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) attributes a quote about the hepatitis B vaccine to someone identified only as “Dr. Ryan.”

“Hep B vaccine was created for hookers & drug users, but when none of them would show up for their shots, companies that invested hundreds of millions in development were pissed and needed someone to give their vaccine to,” reads the quote. “So we handed them our babies – all of them.”

Many comments below the post echo the sentiment that newborns don’t need the vaccine.

“Glad I was hip to this as a parent,” reads one comment. “I was like ‘why does my one minute old child need an std shot?'”

The post was liked more than 5,000 times in less than three weeks. Similar versions of the claim were shared on Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: Missing context

The implied claim here is wrong. While guidance for the hepatitis B vaccine has changed, this change was made after it became clear there was a high rate of childhood infections. Hepatitis B is most commonly transmitted from mothers to babies during birth. The vaccination of newborns has caused the rate of acute hepatitis B infections in the U.S. to decline dramatically, according to health experts.

Change in vaccine recommendations due to hepatitis B rates, not profit

Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus that can either be short-term or chronic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those with chronic hepatitis B can develop serious health issues, such as liver disease and liver cancer.

Since the hepatitis B virus is transmitted through bodily fluids, such as blood or semen, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices initially recommended it for those considered high-risk, such as heterosexual people with multiple partners, intravenous drug users and health care workers.

But over time the committee noticed many members of those groups were not getting the vaccine because they either were unaware of the risks of the disease, didn’t know about the vaccine or weren’t able to afford the vaccination, according to the CDC. The committee also recognized the abundance of childhood infections, which impacted about 18,000 children each year, half of which caught it from their mothers during birth.

As a result, the committee switched to a more comprehensive recommendation of universal childhood vaccination.

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Edward F. Tate III, a spokesperson for the Hepatitis B Foundation, told USA TODAY in an email that the post’s claim that the change in the vaccine’s marketing was due to profit is false.

Dr. Chari A. Cohen, president of the foundation, told USA TODAY that acute hepatitis B infections declined by 82% in the U.S. between 1991, when the vaccine was first recommended for infants, and 2009.

“This is evidence that vaccinating babies prevents hepatitis B infection and is necessary if we are to eliminate a disease that causes 820,000 deaths each year worldwide,” Cohen said in an email.

Vaccinating newborns critical to fight hepatitis B infections

Cohen said hepatitis B is most frequently transmitted from mother to child through blood exchange during birth. The World Health Organization reports the same information.

“Infant vaccination with the hepatitis B vaccine, including the birth dose, is necessary to protect newborns, babies and children from a chronic lifelong infection that increases the risk of liver cancer as much as tobacco increases the risk of lung cancer,” Cohen said.

Tina Proveaux, a spokesperson for the Institute for Vaccine Safety, told USA TODAY in an email many mothers infected with hepatitis B are asymptomatic and not tested, which makes vaccination at birth necessary to reduce transmission of the virus.

Children are also more likely to go undiagnosed and be carriers of the virus, according to Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center.

In fact, Cohen said only 10% of the 300 million people chronically infected with the virus are diagnosed.

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If children don’t get it from their mothers, they can also pick it up in places like schools and daycare centers since the virus can survive on surfaces for up to seven days, according to Michigan Medicine.

USA TODAY was unable to locate the source of the quote featured in the post.

The user who shared the post told USA TODAY that though they don’t believe newborns need the vaccine, they never outright said so in their post.

They also directed USA TODAY to a study that evaluated the shifting perspective of the hepatitis B vaccine throughout the years.

But the study doesn’t claim children were a fallback market for the vaccine. Rather, it explains how the vaccine’s original marketing failed to lower infection rates and mobilize adults. It also states how the vaccine’s original marketing made critics view the virus as a sexually transmitted disease and, therefore, not something children needed to be vaccinated against.

This claim has also been debunked by Lead Stories.

Our fact-check sources:

• Edward F. Tate III, Aug. 17, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Chari A. Cohen, Aug. 17, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Hepatitis B Foundation, accessed Aug. 18, Hepatitis B Facts and Figures
• Tina Proveaux, Aug. 17, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• CDC, March 9, Viral Hepatitis
• CDC, June 28, 2002, Achievements in Public Health: Hepatitis B Vaccination – United States, 1982 – 2002
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, May 13, 2022, A Look at Each Vaccine: Hepatitis B Vaccine
• Michigan Medicine, Oct. 9, 2014, As your healthcare provider, I recommend the Hepatitis B vaccine…
• World Health Organization, July 18, Hepatitis B

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