-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked vaccine committee voted to do away with the long-standing, universal recommendation that all babies receive a hepatitis B shot at birth, issuing weaker guidance for certain infants.

-The group, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, recommended that parents use individual decision-making in consultation with a health-care provider to determine when or if to give the hepatitis B birth dose to a baby whose mother tested negative for the virus.

-Some committee members and public health experts said a change could have wide-ranging consequences, such as an increase in chronic infections of the incurable virus among children.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked vaccine committee voted on Friday to do away with the long-standing, universal recommendation that all babies receive a hepatitis B shot at birth, issuing weaker guidance for certain infants.

The group, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, recommended that parents use individual decision-making in consultation with a health-care provider to determine when or if to give the hepatitis B birth dose to a baby whose mother tested negative for the virus. For babies who don’t receive the birth dose, the committee recommended that they wait to receive a first vaccine until they are at least 2 months old.

The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has to sign off on that new recommendation. The CDC currently recommends that every baby get vaccinated against hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth, regardless of their mother’s testing status.

The move overturns that guidance, which has been credited with driving down infections in children by 99% since it was first introduced three decades ago and is widely considered to be a public health success story. Some committee members and public health experts warn that the change could have wide-ranging consequences, such as an increase in infections among kids.

The vote only affects the timing of the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine series. The second would still be given one to two months after birth, with a third dose between 6 and 18 months of age.