Three major vaccine recommendations are up for reconsideration—and experts say they’re likely to change under the Trump administration.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which is responsible for creating national vaccination guidelines for children and adults, is scheduled to meet in Atlanta on Sept. 18 and 19.

The panel will likely vote on whether to uphold or alter guidance for four vaccines: hepatitis B, COVID-19, MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella), and varicella (the virus that can cause chickenpox and shingles), according to the most recent CDC agenda. These viruses can have serious health implications for pregnant people, fetuses, and newborn babies.

Rewire News Group spoke with two doctors about what could happen when the vaccine panel meets, and how potential changes to vaccine recommendations could affect the health of millions of reproductive-age people in the U.S.

Discussion of the hepatitis B vaccine is slated to focus on the newborn dose of the drug, which is given to infants shortly after birth. Hepatitis B is transmitted through blood and sexual fluids, and can spread from a pregnant person to their infant both in utero and during childbirth. If untreated, the inflammation caused by chronic hepatitis B infection can lead to scarring of the liver that causes the organ to fail.

The CDC currently recommends a first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, a second dose between one and two months of age, and a final dose between 6-18 months of age. Inoculation right after birth “maximizes the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing newborn infection,” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

People infected at birth with chronic hepatitis B who never received treatment face up to a 25 percent lifetime risk of developing liver cancer, according to the Hepatitis B Foundation. Those infected with hepatitis B face up to a 4 percent annual risk of liver cancer, depending on whether they have cirrhosis.

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