In this episode of A Moment in Health, Dr. Ashish Jha explains how 99% of new hepatitis B infections can be prevented with a universal newborn vaccine and critiques the recent ACIP decision to step away from that recommendation. He reviews a new New England Journal of Medicine study showing that one dose of the HPV vaccine is non-inferior to the traditional two-dose schedule, reducing barriers to protection. Dr. Jha is joined by Cate Ryan, Brown Class of 2021 and current Harvard public health student, who reflects on how reporting on science during the pandemic shaped her path in public health and how issues like housing stability continue to drive her work today.

Dr. Jha discusses:

• Universal Hepatitis В Vaccination at Birth — CIDRAP
• Noninferiority of One HPV Vaccine Dose to Two Doses — New England Journal of Medicine

Cate Ryan is an MPH candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, focusing on the intersection of health and housing. She graduated from Brown in 2021 with a cell and molecular biology major and was the former senior science and research editor for the Brown Daily Herald, as well as the producer of the COVID Pod with Dr. Ashish Jha.

Dr. Ashish K. Jha is the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

Music by Katherine Beggs, additional music by Lulu West and Maya Polsky