FDA too Present Data Linking Covid Shots to Child Deaths at CDC Meeting
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to present data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alleging a connection between updated Covid-19 vaccinations and reported deaths in children, according to sources familiar with the upcoming meeting. The presentation comes amid increasing scrutiny of the vaccines’ safety profile and a shift in policy under Health and human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccine mandates.
The data presentation follows Kennedy Jr.’s recent overhaul of the Advisory Committee on immunization Practices (ACIP), the CDC panel that advises the agency on vaccine recommendations. He dismissed all existing members over the summer and replaced them with individuals,some of whom are known anti-vaccine activists. The American Academy of Pediatrics labeled the changes a “radical departure” from the committee’s mission of protecting children. Retsef Levi, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the new leader of ACIP’s Covid vaccine work group, has previously claimed that Covid vaccines cause serious harm and death; he is not a medical doctor.
Kennedy Jr.has already limited access to this year’s vaccine, announcing last month that the FDA approved updated Covid shots for the fall only for individuals 65 and older and those with underlying medical conditions. This limited approval has created confusion among patients and pharmacies, with some reporting difficulty obtaining the shots.
during a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, Kennedy Jr. referenced the Vaccine Adverse Event reporting System (VAERS), stating, “There were more reports to VAERS, which is the only surveillance system we have of injuries and deaths from that vaccine, than all vaccines put together in history,” referring to the Covid vaccine. Experts caution that VAERS reports alone cannot establish causation, as the system is open to anyone to submit information and does not inherently prove a link between vaccines and adverse events.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Dr. Marty Makary argued the FDA’s limited approval aligns the U.S. with countries like France and the U.K., which recommend Covid shots for older populations. Makary wrote, “The FDA can approve products only if we beleive there is ample certainty that the benefits outweigh the risks,” and questioned whether the benefits of a “seventh Covid shot” outweigh the risks for a “healthy 12-year-old girl who recently recovered from Covid.”
