Years pass, and HIV infection rates barely budge. Stymied, the CDC teams with the American Academy of Pediatrics to endorse vaccinating all newborn babies against HIV, which should eventually protect the entire population. This strategy Congress funds. But when scattered reports of possible vaccine complications mount, suburbanites start asking why their children are being vaccinated against a disease they're unlikely to contract. Politicians launch investigations.
Some parents refuse to allow the shots.
The infant vaccine strategy is threatened, and there's still scant funding for high-risk adults. And HIV marches on. This scenario is precisely what is happening right now with a safe and effective vaccine against a different national killer. Nearly 20 years after licensure of a vaccine against the hepatitis B virus, that severe and potentially fatal liver pathogen still infects an estimated 300,000 Americans each year, killing about 5,000 annually. The story of the hepatitis B vaccine is a lesson in what not to do next time.