Moral of the Story

Most of us grew up learning life lessons through stories. Slow and steady wins the race—thank you, Tortoise and Hare. Honesty is the best policy—straight from Mercury and the Woodman. Or the Ant reminding the Grasshopper to think about tomorrow, not just today. Fables stick with us because they’re simple, memorable, and make a point.

Sometimes, those fables play out in real life—like the past two days of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meetings. Let’s start with a classic.

Henny Penny, Chicken Little
The character has different names—Henny Penny, Chicken Little—and the details shift depending on who tells it. But the plot is familiar.

A chicken is hit on the head by an acorn. She panics, convinced the sky is falling, and rushes to warn the king. Along the way, other birds join her, equally frightened. On their urgent journey, they meet Foxy Loxy, who offers to guide them to the castle. They follow—straight into his den—never to be seen again.

A simple story. A powerful lesson.

If at First You Do Not Succeed
This week, ACIP voted to roll back the universal hepatitis B birth-dose recommendation. Since 1991, infants in the U.S. have routinely received the first dose at birth—a strategy credited with sharply reducing childhood infections and liver disease.

A similar proposal to delay the birth dose for infants of hepatitis-negative mothers stalled in September. But when the committee revisited it this week, it passed—8 to 3. Under the new policy, only infants born to mothers who test positive or whose status is unknown will receive the vaccine at birth. For mothers who test negative, the first dose is now delayed until at least two months, despite no evidence supporting a delay.

ACIP also voted 6–4 (with one abstention) to recommend antibody testing after each vaccine dose to guide additional shots, even though this type of approach has not been studied. Several ACIP members and several medical organizations, including the AAP and AMA, objected, warning that changes could increase infant risk.

It felt a bit like real-life Chicken Little. Here’s why.

Chicken Little Moral 1 — Don’t form conclusions without evidence

Chicken Little panicked over one acorn. ACIP went further—changing the hepatitis B birth-dose schedule despite no new evidence of harm and decades of data showing benefit.

Supporters of the proposed change argued that infants of hepatitis-negative mothers are low risk, overlooking that babies can still be exposed through contact with someone who has hepatitis B—at home, in daycare, or on surfaces where the virus can survive for up to a week. An estimated 2.4 million Americans carry the virus, half without knowing it.

Chicken Little Moral 2 — Don’t spread fear without cause

Concerns about vaccine safety were raised, but they were not supported by evidence. And decades of research show the birth dose to be both safe and effective. “We know vaccines are safe,” said ACIP member Dr. Cody Meissner. “We will see more infections.” His closing words were striking: “Do no harm is a moral imperative.”

Chicken Little Moral 3 — Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

The ACIP debate leaned heavily on anecdotes and speculation, not science. No research supporting a change to the hepatitis B vaccine schedule was presented. Meanwhile, the evidence is clear: infants who contract hepatitis B face a 90% chance of lifelong infection, and one in four dies early from liver disease or cancer.

Final Fable
In Aesop’s fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf, the shepherd sounded the alarm again and again without cause, until no one believed him. And when real danger arrived, his warnings went unheard. As Aesop wrote, “There is no believing a liar, even when he tells the truth.”

Public health can’t afford to become that boy. When personal beliefs outweigh evidence, when fear is treated like fact, and when longstanding protections are weakened without solid grounds, trust erodes—and trust, once lost, is notoriously hard to regain.

Fables teach us lessons so we don’t have to learn them the hard way. Let’s take the hint—and not end up like Chicken Little

Happy reading,
Suzanne Daniels, Ph.D.

Enjoy the weekend!

Best,
Suzanne
Suzanne Daniels, Ph.D.
AEPC President
P.O. Box 1416
Birmingham, MI 48012
Office: (248) 792-2187
Email: [email protected]