Top health officials within the Trump administration plan to give a presentation next week linking COVID-19 vaccines to child deaths – based on unverified reports – to a panel that helps shape vaccine recommendations, several insiders revealed Friday, and, as one former health official said, in an attempt to “scare people.”
According to four “people familiar with the situation” who spoke with the Washington Post in a report published Friday, the aforementioned presentation will include information from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a government database that collects user-submitted reports on potential side effects of vaccines, with submissions having no verification or vetting process to validate claims.
That presentation is set to be given to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an influential panel of advisors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is scheduled to discuss – and possibly recommend – new guidance on COVID-19 vaccines during its upcoming meetings on Sept. 18 and 19.
That unverified claims of alleged vaccine side effects would play any role in the CDC’s vaccine guidance, or be presented at all to the panel of advisors, was merely a “scare” tactic to sow further distrust of vaccines, argued Noel Brewer, a former CDC adviser who was terminated by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert. F. Kennedy, who himself has long been a vaccine skeptic.
“They are leveraging this platform to share untruths about vaccines to scare people,” Brewer said, speaking with the Washington Post. “The U.S. government is now in the business of vaccine misinformation.”
RFK Jr. has faced renewed scrutiny over his positions on vaccines in recent weeks, particularly during an explosive hearing where he was grilled by several Democratic lawmakers for his past views on vaccines. He has previously linked vaccine use to increased rates of autism in children, a claim thoroughly debunked by the scientific community.
The Washington Post described the reaction to the impending presentation as “alarming” to career scientists, all of whom spoke with the outlet on the condition of anonymity.
