Donald Trump’s health officials are planning to link Covid-19 vaccines to the deaths of 25 children.
The administration is to make the claim to a Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel next week, according to reports.
The committee is responsible for determining which vaccines are recommended to the public and which are administered free of charge.
Mr Trump raised doubts about the efficacy of Covid vaccines for the first time at the start of the month. “Many people think they are a miracle that saved millions of lives. Others disagree! With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Scientists have responded, insisting the vaccines have been extensively studied, including in children.
The administration’s finding that 25 children died after receiving the Covid jab is drawn from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a public database of self-reported side effects.
‘Proper investigation’
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary and a vaccine sceptic, has reshaped the CDC since joining Mr Trump’s cabinet. He dismissed the agency’s director, fired all 17 members of its vaccine advisory committee and replaced them with hand-picked allies.
The new panel will meet next week to consider whether to restrict Covid vaccinations to narrower groups and whether the jabs should remain free.
Mr Kennedy has already pared back federal guidance, with the CDC no longer recommending routine Covid vaccination for healthy children, teenagers or pregnant women.
While the agency still recommends Covid vaccines for everyone over 65, eligibility for younger adults has been narrowed to those with underlying medical conditions. Funding for vaccine research has also been cut.
Marty Makary, the food and drug administration commissioner, said: “There have been children who have died from the Covid vaccine. We’re doing a proper investigation.”
He promised a full report in the coming weeks.
Recommendations based on ‘gold standard science’
In June, CDC staff presented data to the same advisory group showing at least 25 children had died following Covid-associated hospitalisations since July 2023 – a figure they described as an “undercount”.
Of the 16 children old enough to have been vaccinated, none was up to date on their vaccines.
The department of health defended its monitoring system, noting that FDA and CDC staff “routinely analyse VAERS and other safety monitoring data, and those reviews are being shared publicly through the established ACIP process”.
“Any recommendations on updated Covid vaccines will be based on gold standard science and deliberated transparently at ACIP next week,” they added. Research by Stanford University and Italian researchers published in July found that Covid vaccines saved fewer lives than first thought.
The World Health Organisation claimed the jabs had prevented 14.4 million deaths globally. However, new research said the true number was closer to 2.5 million.
“They are leveraging this platform to share untruths about vaccines to scare people,” Mr Brewer said. “The US government is now in the business of vaccine misinformation.”