The White House has denied reports that the government could soon ban COVID-19 vaccines, noting that in the absence of an official announcement, “any discussion about HHS policy should be dismissed as baseless speculation.”
President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are reportedly considering a ban on COVID-19 vaccines “within months,” according to a Monday report from the Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast spoke to Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist and top adviser to the Make America Healthy Again Action, who said that many of the people closest to Kennedy have told the Secretary that they “cannot understand” why the U.S. continues to administer the vaccine. Several members of Trump’s family share this skepticism of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Malhotra.
The withdrawal of the coronavirus shots from the U.S. market could happen “in a number of stages,” according to Malhotra, which could include looking into vaccine safety data. “But given the increased talk of vaccine injuries in the past few weeks among the administration, it could also come with one clean decision.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, a spokesperson from the White House said the Trump administration continues to abide by “Gold Standard Science” and is “committed to radical transparency” regarding decisions affecting all Americans. “Unless announced by the Administration, however, any discussion about HHS policy should be dismissed as baseless speculation.”
Since assuming his post in February, Kennedy has changed HHS policy to fit his decades-long history of vaccine opposition. In May, the Secretary pushed to have routine COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children and healthy pregnant women removed from CDC guidelines. A week earlier, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, alongside Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research director Vinay Prasad, unwrapped a new risk-based framework for approving COVID-19 vaccines, focusing only on recipients who are at risk of the disease rather than attaining widespread vaccination.
In June, Kennedy emptied the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices before reforming the committee days later with members of his choosing, some with anti-vaccine views that align with his own.
Earlier this month, Kennedy scrapped more than 20 contracts under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which had been awarded to companies and organizations advancing mRNA vaccine research. “The data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he said at the time without offering evidence to support that statement.
Kennedy’s actions are drawing criticism and resistance from many quarters. Just last week, for example, the American Academy of Pediatrics continued to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for all children, regardless of risk profile, aged 6 to 23 months—a direct contradiction to the CDC’s guidelines.
Similarly, hundreds of current and former HHS employees published an open letter last week, arguing that Kennedy is “complicit” in the erosion of the public’s trust in health authorities. This growing mistrust, according to the letter, culminated in the shooting incident earlier this month at the CDC headquarters in which one police officer was killed.
