Name: Bill Cassidy: if a child is infected with hepatitis B at the child's birth or right after, they have a 95% chance of becoming a chronic carrier of hepatitis B. And they're more likely to share it, to spread it to other people. Now, the Secretary, who doesn't know anything about hepatitis, wants to eliminate the recommendation— it's not a mandate— for a birth dose of hepatitis B. Is that wise public policy?
Uploaded: 2026-09-16T14:00:00+00:00
Duration: 30 s
Description: if a child is infected with hepatitis B at the child's birth or right after, they have a 95% chance of becoming a chronic carrier of hepatitis B. And they're more likely to share it, to spread it to other people. Now, the Secretary, who doesn't know anything about hepatitis, wants to eliminate the recommendation— it's not a mandate— for a birth dose of hepatitis B. Is that wise public policy?

0:29

Bill Cassidy

54:09 - 54:39

“if a child is infected with hepatitis B at the child's birth or right after, they have a 95% chance of becoming a chronic carrier of hepatitis B. And they're more likely to share it, to spread it to other people. Now, the Secretary, who doesn't know anything about hepatitis, wants to eliminate the recommendation— it's not a mandate— for a birth dose of hepatitis B. Is that wise public policy?”

Speaker: Bill Cassidy
Timestamp: 54:09 – 54:39
Transcript: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (Murkowski): Hearings to examine the nominations of Gerard Klomp, of Utah, to be Deputy Secretary, Timothy Westlake, of Wisconsin, to be Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, and Nicole Saphier, of New Jersey, to be Medical Director in the Regular Corps of the Public Health Service, and to be Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Community: Alaska News
Captured at: September 16, 2026

From the transcript

—Communicator, and I believe that that is one of the things that I bring to this administration is my experience communicating with patients but also the American public is working with the administration. So you mentioned again very effectively about the need to prevent chronic disease, but if a child is infected with hepatitis B at the child's birth or right after, they have a 95% chance of becoming a chronic carrier of hepatitis B. And they're more likely to share it, to spread it to other people. Now, the Secretary, who doesn't know anything about hepatitis, wants to eliminate the recommendation— it's not a mandate— for a birth dose of hepatitis B. Is that wise public policy?

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