President Donald Trump claimed that hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease as he advocated delaying the vaccine, which is currently given at birth, during a Monday, Sept. 22, press conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other federal officials.

“Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby, that’s almost just born, hepatitis B. I would say, wait till the baby is 12 years old and formed and take hepatitis B,” Trump said at the press conference.

He added, “I think if you do those things it’s going to be a whole different — it’s going to be a revolution, in a positive sense, in the country.”

Hepatitis B is a virus that causes liver inflammation, and can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. While it can be transmitted by sexual contact, people are infected in other ways.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) explains that the “spread of hepatitis B virus has been difficult to control in the U.S. because the disease can be transmitted by casual contact and because so many chronically infected people don’t know they are infected.”

CHOP notes that between three-quarters of a million to two million people in the U.S. are estimated to be “chronically infected with hepatitis B virus.”

The virus can live up to seven days on surfaces, and is so heavily concentrated in blood that the smallest amount of contact with the blood of someone with hepatitis B can cause an infection: Sharing washcloths, razors or toothbrushes, CHOP says, can transmit hepatitis B, as can contact sports or medical equipment.

CHOP explains that approximately half of young children with hepatitis B are infected from their mother at birth, while others get it from family members.

“For these reasons, all young children are recommended to receive the hepatitis B vaccine,” the hospital says. “The best time to receive the first dose is right after birth. This will ensure that the child will be protected as quickly as possible since many people don’t know that they are infected with the virus.”

That recommendation comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which says, “The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends hepatitis B (HepB) vaccination among all infants at birth.”

The CDC notes that the vaccine is “highly effective in preventing infection,” with studies showing that “immunity persists for at least 30 years among healthy people who initiate HepB vaccination at less than 6 months of age.”

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As CHOP explains, young children often don’t show symptoms of a hepatitis B infection, so it’s difficult to know if they’ve been infected. The hospital also notes that people have a higher risk of developing liver cancer or cirrhosis if infected as children.

Trump said his various statements on vaccines were “based on what I feel,” as he said at the press conference, “I’m making these statements from me … I’m not making them from them, these doctors.”

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