Trump health officials are set to announce a link between 25 child deaths and Covid-19 shots, according to a new report.
Vaccines, specifically Covid-19 vaccines, have been a focal point of Trump’s health agenda, which is being led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic.
Trump’s team plans to present its newest claim during a meeting next week of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The claim appears to originate from information submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, per the outlet. Anyone can submit a report to the system, and the CDC notes a report “does not mean that a vaccine caused an adverse event.”
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department, told The Post, “FDA and CDC staff routinely analyze VAERS and other safety monitoring data, and those reviews are being shared publicly through the established ACIP process.”
“Any recommendations on updated Covid-19 vaccines will be based on gold standard science and deliberated transparently at ACIP next week.”
The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which Kennedy has mostly filled with people who have been critical of coronavirus vaccination policy, is reportedly considering new recommendations for the Covid-19 shot.
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the latest Covid-19 vaccines for seniors and younger people with at least one high-risk health condition.
Kennedy has faced backlash for his vaccine policies, notably at a heated Senate hearing earlier this month.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, grilled Kennedy over the new limits on Covid-19 shots.
“If you don’t recommend, then the consequence of that in many states is that you can’t walk into a pharmacy and get one. It means insurance companies don’t have to cover the $200 or so cost,” she said.
Days before the hearing, dueling op-eds from Kennedy and former CDC directors painted polar opposite pictures of what the CDC now looks like under Kennedy’s leadership.
Kennedy wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he is restoring “public trust,” and ex-CDC leadership said he was “endangering every American’s health” in The New York Times.
Late last month, CDC director Susan Monarez was ousted after she refused to support rescinding certain approvals for Covid-19 shots without consulting her advisers, per The Washington Post.
