SENATORS LOONEY, DUFF, ANWAR RESPOND TO HEPATITIS B VACCINE RECOMMENDATION CHANGE BY FEDERAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Today, Senate President Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven), Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) and State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee, responded with concern and alarm to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to end universal recommendations for newborn vaccination against hepatitis B.

The advisory committee, which saw its membership replaced earlier this year by Health and Human Services Secretary and known vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., voted to change a 34-year-old standard for all newborns to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, which can cause lifelong chronic injury and complications that can lead to death among those infected as infants. The new policy only recommends newborn vaccination if a mother tests positive for hepatitis B or does not test for the virus, ignoring that newborns and infants can be exposed to viruses in many other ways than maternal contact.

“I am deeply troubled by this morning’s CDC advisory panel vote to abandon universal hepatitis B vaccination for newborns,” said Senate President Martin Looney. “This decision reverses decades of proven public health policy that has prevented millions of infections and saved countless lives. We will work to ensure that our state’s immunization policies continue to protect our most vulnerable infants from a preventable, potentially deadly disease. Secretary Kennedy and President Trump are turning the CDC into a platform for conspiracy theories and placing American lives at risk.”

“The CDC panel’s decision this morning to roll back newborn hepatitis B vaccine recommendations is a reckless departure from evidence-based medicine,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff. “The hepatitis B vaccine has reduced infections in children by 99 percent since the early 1990s, and there is no legitimate scientific reason to change course now. Connecticut’s healthcare providers and families deserve clear, science-based guidance that prioritizes children’s health and safety. Connecticut will not follow Trump and Kennedy down this dangerous path of vaccine denial.”

“Since universal newborn vaccination against hepatitis B was first recommended in 1991, rates of infection among children and teens have plummeted. That’s evidence of lives saved, illness avoided and the overwhelming success of this universal standard,” said Senator Anwar. “According to the American Public Health Association, this policy has prevented more than half a million infections and 90,000 deaths in the last 30 years. Ending a standard with such obvious benefits is outlandish and disturbing, and when even members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices itself are questioning their peers, it makes any future decisions from that body difficult, if not impossible, to trust.”

SENATOR ANWAR RAISES HEALTH ALARM AS TRUMP EPA PROMOTES PFAS-LADEN INSECTICIDES

Today, State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), raised the alarm for public health as the Environmental Protection Agency, under the current Trump Administration, continues to consider and potentially support pesticides for crops that would contain PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.”

As exposure to these chemicals has been tied to serious health problems including cancer and birth defects, Sen. Anwar, Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee, has extreme concerns over the approval of insecticides that would directly increase human contact to them.

Under the current Trump administration, the EPA has proposed at least five pesticides’ use that contain PFAS, in opposition to claims made in the 2024 Trump presidential campaign that use of pesticides containing pollutive chemicals would be reined in.

PFAS represents a group of chemicals that are known to not break down when released in an environment, previously used to support materials being resistant to water, stains and grease. They have been linked to serious health conditions when humans come into direct contact with them, including cancer, birth defects and kidney damage.

“Why is the federal government pushing for unsafe materials that were banned in states like our own and that can harm public health to be used on the crops we eat? Lobbyists for pesticide companies are now in leadership positions at the EPA,” said Sen. Anwar. “Yet again, short-sighted emphasis on profit over people runs rampant, with our communities most likely to suffer the consequences. The people of our nation deserve better, and I will remain vocal about these proposals until they are defeated – or, should they go through, take steps to protect food and water supplies here in our state.”

The potential use of PFAS in new pesticides comes despite numerous states, including Connecticut, passing laws to limit or ban their use. In Connecticut, starting in 2028, manufacturers will be required to mark items containing PFAS and many items containing the chemicals will be banned.

The Guardian noted that four of the five pesticides under consideration have ingredients that break down into a PFAS compound, but the EPA’s definition of PFAS omits those compounds. The EPA continues to claim that some of these compounds are not PFAS and “do not pose any risks of concern when used as labeled.”