NEW YORK (AP) — A federal vaccine advisory committee voted Friday to end a longstanding recommendation that all U.S. babies get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born. For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth. The shots are widely considered to be a public health success for preventing thousands of illnesses.

However, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s committee voted to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive or whose infection status is unknown. For other babies, it will be up to the parents and their doctors to decide if a birth dose is appropriate.

Parents who don’t get the birth dose are advised to start vaccinations against hepatitis B no sooner than 2 months of age. Some committee members argued that most babies are at low risk for infection and expressed concerns that past studies investigating potential vaccine harms were limited and may not have adequately detected long-term effects. In anticipation of the vote, many medical and doctors' groups voiced alarm, asserting that the concerns were speculative and that the decision could lead to a rise in infections.

The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jim O’Neill, is expected to decide later whether to accept the committee’s recommendation.}