The Trump administration is planning to drop recommendations that pregnant women, teenagers and children get COVID-19 vaccines as a matter of routine. The Wall Street Journal has the story.
The Department of Health and Human Services, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to remove the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for those groups around the same time it launches a new framework for approving vaccines, the people said.
The exact timing of the announcement wasn’t clear, the people said, though it was expected in the coming days.
The CDC currently recommends that everyone six months and older, including pregnant women, receive Covid vaccines. It wasn’t clear if the department is planning to remove the recommendation for Covid shots entirely for those groups, or just suggest that patients talk with their doctors about risks and benefits.
Spokespeople for HHS, CDC and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kennedy has long been a foe of the Covid vaccines and petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in 2021 to revoke their emergency-use authorisations. Trump appointees working closely with him have also been critics of the shots, especially those that use messenger-RNA technology or are authorised for use in children.
“Separate from my role as a regulator at the FDA, I am not encouraging or insisting young, healthy children to get a Covid shot unless there is new evidence that emerges that suggests there is a clear benefit,” FDA Commissioner Dr Marty Makary said Thursday.
Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech have Covid shots using messenger-RNA technology that have received emergency authorisations for use in children as young as six months, and full approvals for those 12 and older. Novavax’s shot, which uses an older protein technology, has authorisation for children 12 and up.
Moderna and Pfizer didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment. Novavax declined to comment.
As Secretary, Kennedy has the legal power to change the CDC’s vaccine recommendations. Politico earlier reported that Kennedy was weighing the move.
Well, it’s a start. Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile, leading cardiologist and prominent Covid vaccine critic Dr Aseem Malhotra has been appointed Chief Medical Advisor to MAHA – the Make America Healthy Again movement spearheaded by RFK Jr. The Mail has more.
A newly appointed health advisor to the Trump-aligned Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative has unveiled a bold plan to overhaul the nation’s health.
British cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, a long-time ally of MAHA leaders like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH head Dr Jay Bhattacharya, has joined the movement as Chief Medical Advisor.
As a cardiologist and former advisor to the UK government, Dr Malhotra helped campaign for taxes on sugary drinks, worked to lower the amount of Brits taking statins unnecessarily and worked with government leaders to remove ultraprocessed foods from hospitals and schools.
Speaking to DailyMail.com ahead of the official announcement, Dr Malhotra outlined his top three priorities — revising national dietary guidelines, cracking down on ultraprocessed foods and pushing for a moratorium on mRNA Covid vaccines.
“We absolutely can make America healthy again in this electoral term,” Dr Malhotra said. “I’m not here for political reasons. I’m here to reflect the evidence.”
The appointment also comes at a time of infighting within the MAHA movement and the Trump administration, as RFK Jr’s former allies have slammed his choices of health officials.
As Chief Medical Advisor of MAHA – a grassroots lobbying group – Dr Malhotra is not formally employed by the federal government, but he will serve as a leading voice of the movement, working closely with grassroots groups to advance its policy agenda.
Dr Malhotra will also relocate from his home in the UK to Washington, D.C., to stay closely engaged with the HHS, FDA and other key agencies.
Aseem announced the news on X – with another call to ban the Covid shots:
BREAKING:
‘New head of MAHA revealed as he lays bare radical plan to transform US health and… ban Covid shots’
It’s what you’ve been waiting for. There is OVERWHELMING evidence to call for a moratorium on the mRNA covid jabs and help the vaccine injured. Let it rip.
Congrats Aseem, and good luck with the campaign to suspend the vaccines.
On the other hand, the evidence base for the sugar tax and other sin taxes isn’t exactly strong (UK sugar consumption hasn’t fallen and obesity has continued to rise since the levies were introduced), and are all these funny tasting fake-sugar chemicals really better for us than the natural product? Maybe not a measure to export to the US…
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