[Editorial] 2025: an annus horribilis for health in the USA

00:00 - 20 Dec 2025

The US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices vote on Dec 5 to no longer recommend the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose, which had ensured that babies exposed to hepatitis B would not later develop hepatitis B-associated liver damage and liver cancer, caps the most disastrous year for US public health policy. Federal funding cuts had occurred under Joe Biden and mistrust in the nation's health leaders has been waning over time, but the goal of the Trump administration now seems to be to tear down the world's premiere scientific infrastructure.