Pfizer and COVID-19-summary.html” title=”Moderna …-19 Vaccine Summary | … & Immunizations | CDC”>Moderna Shares Dip Following Trump’s Claims Linking COVID Shots to Child Deaths
September 12, 2025 – Shares of both Pfizer and Moderna experienced declines today following reports that former President Donald Trump publicly linked COVID-19 vaccines to deaths in children. Moderna’s stock slid more than 4%,while Pfizer also saw a decrease in value.
The reports coincide with policy shifts under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr., who has recently dropped COVID shot recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women and imposed new limits on the approval of new COVID-19 jabs.
Moderna responded to the reports with a statement asserting the safety of its vaccine is “rigorously monitored” by the company, the FDA, and regulators in over 90 countries. The company added that surveillance systems in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Europe have not identified “any new or undisclosed safety concerns in children or in pregnant women.”
Pfizer has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Despite the recent claims, numerous studies have consistently demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of mRNA vaccines, including those from Pfizer and Moderna, with serious side effects occurring in extremely rare cases. Researchers have noted a rare,elevated risk of myocarditis (inflamed heart muscle) in young men. However, no evidence currently supports claims that the vaccines cause other major safety risks, including pediatric deaths.Global surveillance data generally indicate that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination continue to outweigh the risks for pediatric populations.
The claims circulating appear to be based on data submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event reporting System (VAERS), a system that collects unverified reports of side effects from patients, doctors, and pharmacists.
The CDC emphasizes that only scientists and public health officials can determine, after thorough investigation, whether a vaccine caused or contributed to a reported side effect.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary recently told CNN the agency is conducting an “intense investigation” into potential links between COVID-19 shots and deaths in children, citing self-reported incidents in the VAERS database. He did not provide specific data linking pediatric deaths to the vaccine. The FDA plans to release a report in the coming weeks.
“We do know at the FDA, as we’ve been looking into the [vaccine safety] database of self reports, that there have been children who have died from the Covid vaccine,” Makary told CNN.
During a recent Senate hearing, Kennedy expressed support for a statement made by a newly appointed member of a key government vaccine panel, who asserted that mRNA vaccines pose a dangerous risk to individuals.
